This was the first punk song to hit the pop charts. The name "Sheena" came from Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, who was kind of a female Tarzan character. It was a popular comic book and TV series in the '40s and '50s.
Joey Ramone: "'Sheena Is A Punk Rocker' first came out as a single. I played it for (Sire Records President) Seymour Stein. He flipped out and said 'We gotta record that song now.' It was like back in the '50s; you'd rush into the studio because you thought you had a hit, then put it right out. To me 'Sheena' was the first surf/punk rock/teenage rebellion song. I combined Sheena, Queen of the Jungle with the primalness of punk rock. Then Sheena is brought into the modern day: 'But she just couldn't stay/she had to break away/well New York City really has it all.' It was funny because all the girls in New York seemed to change their name to Sheena after that. Everybody was a Sheena."
This runs 2:45, which is fairly long for a Ramones song.
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