Next year marks the 50th anniversary of a legendary punk rock band’s debut album.

Rock and roll fans who witnessed the ’70s can tell you all about how special 1977 was for album releases. Among them: Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours , Pink Floyd’s Animals, Queen’s News of the World, the Ramones’ Rocket to Russia , David Bowie’s Heroes and Kiss’s Love Gun .

Of course, those groups and singers had already become household names. But for a young English rock band, 1977 was also the year of their breakthrough.

One year after forming in 1976, the Clash recorded and released their self-titled debut album in the United Kingdom. The American version was released two years later and featured 15 tracks.

The U.S. version of The Clash was headlined by three hit songs: “Clash City Rockers,” “(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais” and “Complete Control.”

In their list of “ The 100 Greatest Punk Albums of All Time “, Rolling Stone ranked The Clash at No.…