10 Rock Songs You Didn't Know Were Covers

A lot of people tend to forget just how radio-friendly the Ramones were in the early days. While you would have the occasional song about sniffing glue and the look of some street urchin, the actual construction of the songs owed a lot more to the doo wop groups of the '50s rather than the hard-edged sounds of acts like Led Zeppelin. I mean, is was only a matter of time before they dipped their toes into cover material, right?

Before Phil Spector took the group under his wing for the record End of the Century, The Ramones actually got their first real taste of '50s pop on the song California Sun from Leave Home. When looking at it today, the original version of this tune is still a bright and shiny piece of old-time rock and roll, which worked like gangbusters when these punk legends put some muscle back into it.

Kicking up the tempo by a few notches, Joey Ramone has loads of attitude when spitting these lyrics, as Johnny mimics the horn line of the original note for note on his guitar. While the Ramones were not known for their guitar solos or anything, this is still a great pop song that conjures up images of getting away to the West Coast without a care in the world. Even though this was a different look at the time, this is the Clash by way of the Archies and ends up going over incredibly well.