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Laguna Lights Jett's Afterburners
from: atlanticcityweekly.com
by David J. Spatz
To the casual rock 'n' roll fan, the name KENNY LAGUNA probably won't ring a bell. But to music insiders, Laguna's name carries some formidable weight.
The performer-turned-producer was still a teenager when he produced hits in the 1960s for Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers, Tommy James and the Shondells, Darlene Love, Jay (Black) and the Americans and the Ohio Express.
The bubblegum sound changed Laguna's career. Then along came JOAN JETT, who changed his life, and he hers.
"The first time I heard [Jett] she was 17 and she reminded me so much of Darlene Love," Laguna says of his 1976 introduction to Jett, who was already performing with her original group, the RUNAWAYS.
Like Love, whose voice became one of producer Phil Spector's musical meal tickets, Jett's raw energy and talent was almost impossible to categorize.
"Darlene didn't sound black, didn't sound white, didn't sound young, didn't sound old," Laguna recalls recently during a phone call that briefly interrupted his vacation in the Florida Keys. "And I heard a lot of those similar traits in Joan. It was just something I couldn't put my finger on, but I knew I could have a lot of hits with her. She had this universal rock 'n roll sound."
Laguna began working with Jett as a producer, songwriter, musician and business partner. He helped her form the BLACKHEARTS and co-founded BLACKHEART RECORDS, the first record label ever led by a woman. But nothing prepared him for the runaway success of "I Love Rock 'n Roll," the hit he produced for Jett in 1981, which quickly became an anthem for one generation and is now reaching a second.
Although Laguna doesn't think it's Jett's best tune, he doesn't deny it's her most iconic and the one that defined her career as the godmother of punk rock. It continues to sell "thousands of copies" a week, the producer says, and it's easily the biggest hit of his producing career. No other song even comes close.
Yet Jett almost passed on the song, Laguna remembers.
Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart wanted renowned music producer Roy Thomas Baker to produce the number for Jett, which was originally written and recorded in 1975 by The Arrows but never really caught on. But that would have meant waiting four days for Baker to become available. Bogart and Jett didn't have the patience to wait, so it became a now-or-never proposition.
Laguna took the song and turned it into gold for Jett, and in the process helped establish her as the godmother of punk rock.
"The funny thing is that even though it's her biggest hit, I personally don't think it's her best," says Laguna, who'll be on stage with Jett and the BLACKHEARTS Saturday, Dec. 12, during their one-night-stand at Harrah's Resort. "But I can't give you an answer why the song became so big. There are just some intangibles and we can't explain why some songs become hits and others don't."
Laguna had experience to draw from when "I Love Rock 'n Roll" rocketed up the charts. In 1968, he produced, played keyboards and sang on Tommy James and the Shondell's surprise hit "Mony Mony." The song was originally supposed to be the "B" side of another single. And the sound was so raw the record label executives told Laguna it sounded like it was recorded in a garbage can. Yet the tune, which got its name from the MONY - Mutual of New York - building in Manhattan, went to No. 3 on the American pop charts.
"We laughed about the song when we recorded it," Laguna says, still chuckling at the 40-year-old memory. "And if you told me then it was a song that was gonna end up being played at like every ball game, I'd have said you were crazy."
Besides "I Love Rock 'n Roll," Laguna believes Jett has three other songs in her discography that define her as an artist: "Bad Reputation," "I Hate Myself for Loving You" and "Do You Wanna Touch Me."
"She's had other hits, but these particular songs just somehow have new meaning every few years," he says. "To me, that's the difference in what makes her career just magical."
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