I honestly had no idea that Joan Jett did NOT write her first, and probably biggest hit: I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll, until this weekend. It was originally written by a UK glam rock band called Arrows, specifically Alan Merrill, a fellow New Yorker like Joan who had moved to the UK in the 70′s to find musical success. He found that success with the band Arrows who were a fairly popular band across the UK. But when Merrill was asked by the band’s producer to write an anthemic simple crowd pleasing arena hit, he came up with a song called Shake Me. The producer didn’t like that one, although it was later recorded by Rick Derringer, who’s band Alan had recently joined.
According to Merrill, their producer Mickie Most said “that I was on the right lines, so I went away and came up with the chorus for ‘I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll,’. The Stones had just released ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll,’ which sounded a bit apologetic to me. I wanted to say it loud and clear. I wrote the riff, the guitar break and the verses that night. I played it for Mickie on an acoustic guitar and he told me that was exactly what he meant.”
Weirdly enough for Arrows, the song never took off across the pond. Maybe you can tell why in their first recording of the song:
Originally Most said the song should be a B-side to another of their songs. But Most’s wife thought it was too good for a B-side, and so they re-recorded it into the more current version we’re used to from Joan.
Still the song failed to reach an audience in the UK. However, when the band played it on their weekly UK TV show, Joan Jett, who was on tour in 1976 with The Runaways, saw the song and fell in love with it. She covered it a few times later in the 70′s but it was her re-vamped and cranked up version in 1981 that took the world by storm, and that is the version we all know and love today.
And for those who knew back in the day, her video for the hit featured a jukebox playing one of her other big hits, Bad Reputation, before the real song kicks in.