Ramones for free in Holland & Brazil

In 1980 WEA in the Netherlands had a drive to promote a couple of new releases, among them the Ramones Phil Spector-produced album End of the century. When you bought the albums you got a promotion-EP for free with samples of 20 songs from eight different bands. The two Ramones songs are Rock'n'roll High School and Baby I love you.The New New Rock-EP has a fold out sleeve with information about the bands in dutch.
The albums in the campaign had a sticker that told the buyer: Ask for free promotional single – New New Rock – Limited edition, as you can see on the Pretenders first LP

Songs: Rock'n'roll High School/Baby I love you + 18 other outtakes from different bands
Number: WEA NR-80
Year: 1980
Country: Holland

By the same time WEA released a similar EP in Brazil called New Wave – O rock dos anos 80. This one has eight tracks, one of them is Ramones Baby I love you. The brazilian version also has a fold out sleeve but with information in portuguese.
These records are not the most essential in a Ramones collection but, as long as I know, it's the only time the Ramones have been on a single pressed in Brazil.

Songs: Rock'n'roll High School + 7 other outtakes from different bands
Number: WEA PRO 11.025
Year: 1980
Country: Brazil

Record of the week – Glad to see you go

"You gotta go go go go goodbye 
Glad to see you go go go go goodbye 
Goodbye!"
The opening track on Leave Home is Dee Dee's song about his then-girlfriend Connie. There are a lot of crazy stories about Dee Dee and Connie and finally the madness ended up in a classic Ramones track, Glad to see you go. It was released as a single in one country only – Italy.
And as if that wasn't good enough the single also has the song Babysitter as an extra track on the A-side, unreleased on any LP in Italy by the time.
Unlike all other countries outside the Uk and U.S. in the pre-Warner era (1976-1977) the Italian releases came out on the Sire label instead of Philips. I guess it has to do with the fact that RCA was the distributor in Italy instead of Phonogram.
The sleeve-designer did his or her best to put Ramones in the middle of the British punk-explosion with a big razor blade on the cover. I don't think the band had anything to do with that...
Never the less, a great picture sleeve, two great songs and the first italian Ramones single.

Songs: Glad to see you go/Babysitter//California Sun/I don't wanna walk around with you (live)
Number: Sire SAA 734
Year: 1977
Country: Italy
Notes: Stock version with yellow labels and a white label promo-version

Leave Home – the first pressings

It's not easy to sort out all the different pressings of the LP's. This is an attempt to list the first pressings of Leave Home, an album that came out in far more countries than the first LP. On top of that there is the Carbona not glue-controversy, when the record company replaced the song to avoid a lawsuit. Although the song did come out in most countries. The oddest release is perhaps the spanish, where the record company chosed to remove Now I wanna be a good boy, instead of Carbona note glue, and replace it with Sheena is a punk rocker! 

First pressings of Leave Home:

Country: US  
Sire SA 7528         
Year: 1977      
Notes: With Carbona and inner sleeve with lyrics. Rereleased as SR 6031 with Sheena the same year.

___________________________________

Country: UK  
Sire 9103 254  
Year: 1977  
Notes: With Carbona and inner sleeve with lyrics. Phonogram distribution. Rereleased with the same record number and distribution but with Babysitter the same year without mention the song on the cover. Released a third time after that with Warner distribution, Babysitter listed on label and cover and the year 1976 printed on the label!

___________________________________

Country: Holland     

Philips 6370 809  
Year: 1977  
Notes: With Carbona. Phonogram distribution.

___________________________________

Country: Spain        
Philips 6370 812  
Year: 1977  
Notes: With Carbona & Sheena, no Good boy. Phonogram distribution. Rereleased in 1980 as Sire 60.463 with Sheena.

___________________________________

Country: Germany  
Philips 6370 809  
Year: 1977  
Notes: Carbona + sticker on cover. Lyrics sheet. Rereleased as Sire 26 436 XOT with Sheena some year later.

___________________________________

Country: Canada  
Sire/GRT 9147-7528 
Year: 1977 
Notes: With Carbona and inner with lyrics. Rereleased 77 or 78 as Sire QSR-6031 with Sheena.

___________________________________

Country: Italy  
Sire SA 7528    
Year: 1977 (?)   
Notes: With Carbona in both a white label promo version and a the yellow label stock version. Rereleased in 1980 in the Best Buy-series (logo printed on the sleeve).

___________________________________

Country: Portugal   
Sire SR 6031NP  
Year: 1978 (?) 
Notes: "Repacked-marked" with Sheena. 

___________________________________

Country: New Zealand 
Philips 6370 809 
Year: 1977 
Notes: With Carbona, Phonogram distribution. The backside of the cover is white, not blue!

___________________________________

Country: Australia   
Philips 6370 809 
Year: 1977 
Notes: With Carbona. Rereleased on Sire with Sheena and inner with lyrics around 78.

___________________________________

Country: Japan 
Philips RJ-7208  
Year: 1977 
Notes: With Carbona. Inner sheet with lyrics and Obi. WLP and stock version.

___________________________________

Country: Ireland 
Philips 9103 254  
Year: 1977 
Notes: with Babysitter and inner sleeve with lyrics.

___________________________________

Country: Norway  
Philips 6370 809 
Year: 1977 
Notes: For the Scandinavian market. With Carbona. 

___________________________________

Country: Mexico 
Philips LPR 15148 
Year: 1977 (?) 
Notes: With Carbona and Spanish titles on the back of the sleeve.

___________________________________

Country: France       

Philips 9286 743  

Year: 1977  

Notes: With Carbona. Phonogram distribution.

Record of the week – Les lycée des cancres!

When the movie soundtrack to Rock'n'roll High School was released in France the record company didn't use the original movie-poster drawing on the cover as the rest of the world did.
Both the LP and the single have a different artwork on the cover, unique to France.
Here they are! First the single.

Songs: Rock'n'roll High School/Danny says
Number: Sire 2 C008-64253

Year: 1980

Album: Le Lycée des cancres
Number: Sire 2 C068-62922

Year: 1980

Ramones made it in Portugal

In 1977 Jose Manuel Fortunato bought a pressing plant in Portugal for $ 100.000. It only had two manual presses and four employees. Three years later, Fortunato had 30 employees and new machines. A major reason for the success was the Ramones.
The company, Companhia de Musica Nova, started with printing and distributing records in Portugal from U.S. and brittish labels such as Sire and Stiff.
"We were were having great success with the international repertoire. When one of the leaders of the company heard the Ramones for the first time he said" No way! ", But after a little while the Ramones were selling really well, not just on the street but also to wholesalers", said António Sérgio, who was responsible for the licensee releases, to a Portuguese journalist in 1995.
Many records was sold outside Portugal, in Sweden in the mid 80's it was possible to find lots of cheap Rocket to Russia and Road to ruin pressed in Portugal in the large supermarkets.
Nova released all the Ramones albums until Pleasant Dreams 1981. I have not been able to find out when the first album was released in Portugal, but my guess is 1978. The company began in 1977 and in 1979 they released the LP Música Moderna with the Portuguese post-punk band Corpo Diplomático which was possible because of the success of selling Ramones records. The Portuguese version has the same number as the second U.S. press, so it's unlikely that the record was released before 1978.
Along with the End of the Century Nova released two singles, Baby I love you and Do you remember rock'n'roll radio. They are the only Ramones-singles pressed in Portugal.

This is the the records pressed in Portugal:
Albums:
Ramones                    Sire Nova SR 6020 NP  1978?     
Leave Home               Sire Nova SR 6031 NP  1978?    With a fold out lyrics sheet
Rocket to Russia        Sire Nova SR 6042 NP  1978?    With a fold out lyrics sheet
Road to Ruin             Sire Nova SR 6063 NP  1978
It's alive                     Sire Nova SRK2 6074    1779
End of the Century   Sire Nova SR 6077 NP  1980
Pleasant Dreams      Sire Nova SRK 3571      1981

Singles:
Songs: Baby I love you/High Risk Insurance
Number: Sire Nova SRE 49182 NP

Year: 1980

Country: Portugal

Note: Released together with the local radio station Rock em Stock.

Songs: Do you remember Rock'n'roll Radio?/I want you around

Number: Sire Nova SIR 4037 NP

Year: 1980

Country: Portugal