Photo: Joan Jett album | By Amit Sharma, Music Radar | The song was written and recorded by British glam rockers Arrows in 1975 – but it was the Joan Jett version released as a single seven years later that turned I Love Rock ’N’ Roll into the world-conquering hit it’s known as today.
It served as the opening title track from Jett’s second studio full-length, which ended up being the most commercially successful album of her career.
As fate would have it, Jett was touring the UK in 1976 as guitarist/vocalist in all-girl band The Runaways when she saw Arrows performing the song on their weekly television show.
This led to the Runaways learning how to play the song the following year, though ultimately they didn’t release it as they had already covered a track with a similar name – The Velvet Underground’s Rock & Roll.
For Jett, I Love Rock ’N’ Roll became a mission statement.
She told Rolling Stone: “I think people have to understand that rock ’n’ roll is not just rock ’n’ roll. It’s more than that. It can be a message sender. It is something that is powerful and strong. And it is something that can be used to fight, people have injustices, and you can declare them and fight for it.”
She continued: “I think rock ’n’ roll is a brash sort of medium, so you’re allowed to say what you want and what you mean.”
These words are deeply insightful into the mind of someone who acted as a trailblazer for female musicians in the music industry.
Instead of playing up to the gender stereotypes being normalised at that time, she chose to express herself unconditionally – raw and uncut – in the process redefining the very definition of what it means to be feminine and helping carve out space for women in male-dominated circles.
She has been referred to as the Godmother Of Punk, the original Riot Grrrl and the Queen Of Noise – the latter being a reference to The Runaways’ second album Queens Of Noise.
“There’s nothing more threatening than a girl with a guitar,” she famously stated back in 1999.
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Read more on this daredevil lady here:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/music/there-s-nothing-more-threatening-than-a-girl-with-a-guitar/ar-AA2aPhHG?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=6a8c4a3eb68b491aadfcf43e3c77bd93&ei=487
Photo: Joan Jett album – out 8/28/26 | From Joan Jett & The Black Hearts Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1597935421694887&set=pb.100044353333081.-2207520000&type=3
