Like the old saying goes, Good things come to those who wait. And, boy, has it been a long wait for the Ramones. A really long wait.

Thirty-eight years after the self-titled debut from the Ramones was released in 1976, it has finally gone gold, selling 500,000 copies. The only other gold album the band has achieved in the U.S. is the 1988 compilation ‘Ramones Mania.’

While this may come as a shock to many fans, the Ramones never really sold a ton of records. They made their money from nonstop touring, playing a reported 2,263 gigs throughout the band’s lifespan. In fact, before '90s groups like Green Day and the Offspring, punk bands in general never sold a ton of records. (It took 10 years for the Sex Pistols' debut, ‘Never Mind the Bullocks,’ to go gold in the States.)

When the Ramones finally called it a day in 1996, there was speculation the band was bitter that it couldn’t achieve the mainstream success of the newer groups. But there’s no question the band made its mark, gold albums or not.

Included among the Ramones' achievements are their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and Spin hailing them as the second-greatest band of all time right behind the Beatles. Not to mention, as Consequence of Sound points out, 'Blitzkrieg Bop,' the song that kicks off that influential debut, has almost 10 million plays on Spotify.

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