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HOUSTON CHRONICLE |  |
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Joan
Jett dishes on her biggest hit By KEN HOFFMAN COPYRIGHT 2009 HOUSTON CHRONICLE May 4, 2009, 4:22PM I always have fun hearing the stories behind great rock ’n’ roll songs. So when I heard that Joan Jett and the Blackhearts were performing at Sam Houston Race Park last Saturday night, I went early and rattled her ears with questions. … “Tell me everything about I Love Rock ’n’ Roll.” I Love Rock ’n’ Roll spent seven weeks as No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in 1982. The 45 single (history lesson to follow) sold more than 2 million copies. The video played endlessly on a new cable TV channel called MTV. It’s No. 56 on Billboard’s Top Songs of All Time. … of All Time. I Love Rock ’ n’ Roll got Jett’s solo career rolling, and more than a quarter-century later, it’s still the song her fans scream for in concert. Today’s kids love rock ’n’ roll, too, because Jett’s greatest hit is included in the Guitar Hero video game. “A lot of people think I wrote that song, but it’s a cover. I heard it, actually, in England in 1975 when I was in the Runaways, my first band. We were an all-girl band on tour. I believe I first heard it on a TV show,” Jett said. I Love Rock ’n’ Roll was recorded by the Arrows and was written by band members Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker. There is a video of the Arrows performing I Love Rock ’ n’ Roll on www.youtube.com. One reason the song wasn’t a hit for the Arrows — it was released as the B-side of one of their singles.“People don’t know what a B-side is anymore,” she said. “When we used to make 45 rpm singles, there were two sides, the A-side and the B-side. For you kids out there, the B-side was the flip side, the other side, the song that wasn’t meant for radio.” Jett, now 50, is in remarkable physical shape. Her hair is Joan Jett black. During her concert at the Showgrounds at Sam Houston Race Park, she was soaked with sweat and no body parts were loose and hanging. Nothing jiggled. She looked and moved like a total rock star. Her “best friend and songwriting partner” Kenny Laguna produced the song. Twenty-three record companies rejected Jett’s demo of the song. Eventually she signed with a small label called Boardwalk Records. Jett had her first solo single. But she was selling records out of the trunk of her car after concerts. “I thought it was a smash when I recorded it. But it did very little at first. It was what you’d call a groundswell song. Fans started requesting the song. This was back in the day when radio took requests and jocks actually listened. So I have to thank the fans for it becoming a hit, too.” Jett bought the radio rights to I Love Rock ’n’ Roll for $2,500. Her investment paid off in millions. Jett made a video for I Love Rock ’n’ Roll. The black-and-white video was perfect for MTV, defiant and loud, and it played around the clock. After her concert Saturday night at the Showgrounds at Sam Houston Race Park, fans were still singing about rock ’ n’ roll long after she left the stage. It’s hard to get out of your head. She remembers the first time she heard I Love Rock ’n’ Roll on the radio. “It’s something that is so amazing, there’s no describing it. I still get a kick when something of ours comes on the radio. I turn it up loud — it’s great. I feel blessed that I am part of something that so many people love.” Her second hit single was the old Tommy James hit, Crimson and Clover. “I always loved Tommy James and the Shondells, and we’d fool around with Crimson and Clover during rehearsal. One day, Kenny said, ‘If you like the song so much, why don’t you do it?’ He sort of knew the song, since he was in the group.” |
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