Happy 40th Anniversary to Joan Jett’s second studio album (and first studio album with The Blackhearts) I Love Rock ‘N Roll, originally released November 18, 1981.
I can guarantee that anyone who hears the first three seconds of the song “I Love Rock ‘N Roll” can identify it immediately without hearing the rest of the song. Not only is it the signature song of Joan Jett's catalog, but one of the definitive songs of the 1980s. Jett's album that bears the same name catapulted her into an entirely different stratosphere than she had previously been accustomed to.
Prior to her solo career, she, along with drummer Sandy West and bassist Micki Steele, were founding members of the Runaways. Steele departed in 1975 and eventually joined the Bangles. After several lineup changes over a few years, Jett and guitarist Lita Ford disbanded the group in 1979.
Jett embarked upon a solo career that same year, recording three songs with Sex Pistols Paul Cook and Steve Jones. Included amongst the three songs was a version of "I Love Rock ‘N Roll," a song she saw being performed by the Arrows on their TV show in England. She was so taken by the song, that she would include it in her setlist in shows before it became a hit.
Jett teamed with producer Kenny Laguna and eventually recorded her self-titled debut album Joan Jett (1980), which did not include “I Love Rock ‘N Roll.” Casablanca Records chief Neil Bogart picked up the distribution rights to the album, which was being sold independently by Jett and Laguna at her concerts out of the back of his Cadillac. Bogart liked the album and re-released it with the new title Bad Reputation. He wanted Jett to begin working on the second album immediately and in turn, she wanted to record the album with her new band, the Blackhearts. The result was a 10-track, glam-rock inspired album of covers and originals written by Jett and Laguna.
In March of 1982, Jett told Toby Goldstein of Musician Magazine, “I love the whole style of early '70s glitter music ... That whole style of music has very upfront drums, so it's danceable. The stories in the songs aren't really too hard to understand. Who wants to think for a million years what a song's about? I can't enjoy music if I have to sit there and figure it out. I like it to be simple. Nice little songs that people can understand and identify with.”
That's what made “I Love Rock ‘N Roll” such a popular song; everybody could sing along to it. The success of the album left practically every single label head with egg on their faces. Jett said in the same interview, “Now that we're huge with the second album, people like Clive Davis are saying 'How did we miss this!' But he rejected it himself, you know. We were rejected by every company you could name.”
I Love Rock ‘N Roll may have sold records on the strength of the title track, but it turned out to be a solid album featuring cuts like “Crimson and Clover” (the album's only ballad), “(I'm Gonna) Run Away,” and “Love Is Pain.” With the exception of “Crimson and Clover,” the album moves along at a somewhat frenetic pace, which was somewhat of a window into what was going on in the band. Jett explained in 1982 to Creem magazine, “During the weekdays we'd be in the studio and during the weekends we'd travel around the New York area, the Northeast, doing gigs...So we were doing both without really stopping. Which was good I thought, it really kept us together, it kept us sharp.”
It's hard to fathom that Jett was only two years removed from being with the Runaways when I Love Rock ‘N Roll was released. Jett's first album was a very solid effort and is a must listen, but I Love Rock ‘N Roll is when she became an icon.
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