Ramel grew up in the posh neighbourhood Östermalm in Stockholm. His father was a lawyer and his mother a homemaker. When they died in a traffic accident in 1938 he stayed with an aunt who saw his potential and he debuted in the Aftonbladet young talent show "Vi som vill opp" in 1939. He made his first record in 1942 and his first chart hit came in 1944 with "Johanssons boogie-woogie-vals". He started to work with various radio shows at Sveriges Radio during the late 1940s and in 1951 his hit single "Titta det snöar" sold 25,000 copies.

Together with Felix Alvo he started the cabaret show Knäppupp (eg. 'unbutton', 'relax'). With Martin Ljung, Brita Borg and Gunwer Bergkvist he toured around Sweden with a tent show every summer for many years, in the wintertime they put up a show at the Idéon theater in Stockholm. From 1952 to 1968 he wrote 14 cabarets and one musical. Ramel also had time to make movies, his Ratataa eller The Staffan Stolle Story (1956) was elected best Swedish movie of the year.

In 1966 he and Beppe Wolgers wrote 'Ta av dej skorna', which became a chart topper for 20 weeks. He appeared in cabarets with Wenche Myhre and together they sang 'Jag diggar dej!' in 1974. He also wrote TV shows Semlons gröna dalar (1977) and Affären Ramel (1985). In 1989 he wrote and starred in cabaret 'Tingel Tangel på Tyrol' together with Hans Alfredson.

Ramel has written several books since 1945, eg. Min galna hage (1957), Lingonben (1979), Min ordkynniga penna (1987) and the biography Följ mej bortåt vägen (1992). He is a talented sketch artist and has his own fan club: Jonathan Blake Fun Club.