Song of the day for March 20, 2024
I love Rock ‘N Roll by Joan Jett is today’s featured song.
On this day in 1982, Joan Jett And The Blackhearts topped the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll,” a cover of a 1975 single by the UK band The Arrows. It spent seven weeks at No. 1 and reached No. 4 in the UK.
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. This recording became a US Billboard Hot 100 number-one single for seven weeks, being the only one for the band. Record World said it “has anthem qualities and heroic lead guitar riffs.”