Something to Believe In (Ramones song)

"Something to Believe In" is a song that was originally released as a single called the "Sire Single Version", and then re-recorded as a song on the Ramones album Animal Boy released in May 1986. There are also live video versions of the song. It was written by Dee Dee Ramone and Jean Beauvoir. The "Sire Single Version" was re-released as track 14 of the second disk of the Ramones Anthology.^[1] The song was re-released in 2005 by Rhino/Warner Bros, on the album Weird Tales of the Ramones.^[2]

The song is more gentle sounding than most Ramones songs, particularly the cover by The Pretenders, which was produced by Johnny Ramone and is sung at an extremely slow tempo for a Ramones song.

Ramones Aid

"Something to Believe In" was also the background track for a music video called "Ramones Aid" which was frequently played on MTV. In the video, the Ramones are depicted in a group of people who give money to charity. This video parodies Hands Across America, by featuring T-shirts with the logo "Hands Across Your Face" and showing various hands holding each other in various settings (including a skeleton hand and a hook). A large number of people appear in Ramones Aid, including Animotion, Afrika Bambaataa, Circle Jerks, John Doe and Exene Cervenka of X, The B-52's, Berlin, Fishbone, Ron Mael and Russell Mael of Sparks, Ted Nugent, Spinal Tap, Weird Al Yankovic, Penn and Teller, and The Untouchables.^[3] The video included lookalikes from the 1985 USA for Africa video titled "We Are the World" (Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, and Cyndi Lauper). When juxtaposed with images in parody of other aid videos, the songs hook line, "I just want something to believe in", is frequently interpreted as making fun of true believers whose identity is derived from embracing a cause.

Awards

"Something to Believe In" was nominated for the New York City Music Award, for best video clip, and was only surpassed by Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer".^[4] The album the song was on took New York City Music Awards best album, the other single track on the album took best single.

Pretenders version

The final version which was one of the last production accomplishments of Johnny Ramone, and was done shortly before his death, was a cover version by The Pretenders. It was included on the album We're a Happy Family: A Tribute to Ramones.^[5]

References