“Blitzkrieg Bop” was released as the Ramones' debut single in April 1976, and appeared as the opening track on their debut album, Ramones, also released that month.

“Blitzkrieg” was the name of a German World War II tactic, and means “lightning war.” The song was mainly written by drummer Tommy Ramone, while bassist Dee Dee Ramone came up with the title (the song was originally called “Animal Hop”).

Interestingly, Tommy Ramone’s connection with Nazi Germany was deeper than mere casual interest. Born Tamás Erdélyi in 1949 in Budapest, Hungary, he was the son of Jewish photographers who had survived the Holocaust by being hidden by friends, although many of his other relatives were murdered by the Nazis.

Dee Dee was also connected with Germany. He lived in Berlin for most of his childhood before moving to NYC at the age of 15 with his German mother to escape his alcoholic, US soldier father. As he told VICE, his fascination with Nazi relics he would find along the French-German border was an early source of friction in his family:

I’d always been fascinated by Nazi symbols—from finding them in the rubble in Germany. They were so glamorous. They were just so pretty. My parents were very upset by that.

One time my father said something fucking ridiculous. I had found a Luftwaffe sword that was beautiful, and I knew I could keep it or sell it for a fortune, like 80 marks. When I brought that home, my father got uptight and said something really sick, he said, “Can you imagine all our guys that died because of that?”

I thought, This guy is a real asshole. As if he really cared. I didn’t figure my father for any passions like that, about anything. And from that day on, he just became a total joke to me—and I stopped fearing him.