This outfit quickly evolved into a quintet, signed with Mercury Records and released an eponymous debut album, after which Jett and her colleagues had toured the US and headlined shows with support acts that included Cheap Trick, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, the Ramones and Van Halen. A native of Philadelphia who had relocated with her family to Los Angeles at the age of 12, the former Joan Marie Larkin had co‑founded the all‑girl power pop trio the Runaways in late 1975. In the autumn of 1981, 23‑year‑old Joan Jett was already something of a rock & roll veteran. Joan Jett on stage at the Hammersmith Apollo, 1982.
And in the 2010 biopic The Runaways, the song apparently tumbles from the ceiling of her bedroom and into the head of Kristen Stewart, who portrays Jett with great visual accuracy.Joan Jett's heartfelt reworking of the Arrows' 'I Love Rock & Roll' became an international hit and turned her career around. A popular YouTube clip shows her failing to correct an interviewer who assumes she did. Merrill was frustrated that Jett (who declined to be interviewed for this story) seemed to foster a perception that she wrote the song. Since then she has played a large part in my life and I in hers, whether she admits it or not.” I always fancied her, and we developed a loose friendship. “I told her she was an honorary Arrow because she looked like one of us. We discussed the strong possibility that it would become a hit,” “I Love Rock ‘N’ Rollwas climbing the charts and Joan gave me a hug.
Their paths crossed again on tour in Florida. He was a member of Rick Derringer’s band when Jett’s second version of the song (the Jones/Cook take wasn’t released till 1993) took off. In a spooky twist of fate, Jett’s first attempt to record the song using a band that featured former Sex Pistols members Steve Jones and Paul Cook took place in the same London studio as Merrill worked with producer James Guthrie ( Pink Floyd) on an album for his next project, Runner. She told me about sending a roadie out to buy the single when she was touring the UK with The Runaways.” “I was playing with Meat Loaf in around 1978 and lived on the same street as her office. With The Arrows’ recordings having completely dried up, the group folded acrimoniously in 1977, despite Bill Wyman trying in vain to secure them a deal with Atlantic Records.Īlan Merrill met Joan Jett several times. “All we needed was a Top Of The Pops, but we didn’t get one BBC radio airplay and no television whatsoever.”īut for Joan Jett’s intervention, that would have been that. A legal dispute between their management and RAK only worsened publicity matters. “Mickey was winding down his career as a producer, and the single was woefully underpromoted,” explained Merrill, feeling that it deserved top-three status at the very least.
JOAN JETT I LOVE ROCK N ROLL TV
The ploy brought The Arrows their TV show when Granada’s Muriel Young heard it but, amazingly, the song still didn’t take off. Six weeks after it flopped, the producer’s wife Christina proposed re-cutting the song at Abbey Road studios and flipping it over. In February 1975, Most used I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll as a B-side to Broken Down Heart, a song by an outside writer of Smokie/Racey fame called Roger Ferris. (Image credit: Michael Putland/Getty Images) The Arrows in 1973: L-R: drummer Paul Varley, guitarist Jake Hooker and singer/bassist Alan Merrill.
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