Joan Jett & The Blackhearts – I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll
About The Song
“I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” is a rock song written by Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker and first recorded by the Arrows, a British rock band, in 1975.
Joan Jett saw the Arrows perform “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” on their weekly UK television series Arrows while she was touring England with the Runaways in 1976. The Runaways’ producer and manager Kim Fowley had the band learn the song in the summer of 1977, during the brief period when Vicki Blue had replaced Jackie Fox as bass player and Cherie Currie was still the group’s vocalist.
Jett first recorded the song in 1979 with two of the Sex Pistols, Steve Jones and Paul Cook. This first version was released on vinyl in 1979 on Vertigo records as a B-side to “You Don’t Own Me”. In 1981, Jett re-recorded the song, this time with her band, the Blackhearts. This single was released in late 1981 in Australia and New Zealand by Liberation Records, and by Boardwalk Entertainment in Canada.
A 1981 cover version by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, released as the first single from her album of the same name, became Jett’s highest-charting hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming the No. 3 song for 1982. The single was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, representing two million units shipped to stores. Jett’s version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016.