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November 18, 1981: "I Love Rock 'n Roll" by JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS Was Released
from: mylifetime.com
By SARI ROSENBERG | Photo: Waring Abbott/Getty Images
On November 18, 1981, JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS' album "I Love Rock 'N Roll" was released. Thanks to the smash success of the title song, the album sold over 10 million copies. The title song, "I Love Rock 'n' Roll," was on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for seven weeks in a row and Billboard ranked "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" number 56 on their Greatest Songs of All Time list. Thirty-six years later, JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS are still rocking out at stadiums around the globe, playing with bands like The Who and the Foo Fighters. Jett, also known as the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll and the Godmother of Punk, has been a feminist icon ever since she became one of the first women to don tight leather pants, heavy mascara and shred on her electric guitar.
Jett was born Joan Larkin on September 22, 1958. She got her first guitar when she was 14, but quit guitar lessons when her teacher wanted her to play folk music. Her family's move from Rockville, MD to Los Angeles, CA was instrumental in getting Jett into the LA glam rock/punk music scene. She became the founding member of the all-girl rock band, The RUNAWAYS, alongside drummer Sandy West. Jackie Fox, Lita Ford and Cherie Currie rounded out the band's classic lineup. The RUNAWAYS were an opening act for some of the hottest seventies rock bands, including Cheap Trick, The Ramones, Van Halen, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Although The RUNAWAYS were a global sensation, especially popular in Japan, they failed to achieve that same level of success in the United States.
After The RUNAWAYS broke up in 1979, Jett set out on her solo career. After putting out her first solo album, Jett formed JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS. Jett first heard the song "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" while watching The Arrows perform it on TV in 1976, and had been playing it for years in her live performances before she put it on the band's first album. The song, about a girl picking up a guy "by the record machine," became a female empowerment anthem. It further solidified Jett as a feminist role model. She once said, "At a very young age, I decided I was not going to follow women's rules."
After their first studio album as a band, they had other hit songs including "Light of Day" (the title song for the film in which Jett starred alongside Michael J. Fox in 1987) and "I Hate Myself For Loving You" (1988). Additionally, Jett was an executive producer for the film "The RUNAWAYS" (2010) starring Kristen Stewart as Jett, and in 2015, Jett & the BLACKHEARTS were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. |
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