Joan Jett Fansite

“I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” is a 1982 single by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. But though her version of the song is the best known, Jett herself didn’t create “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll”.

The first version of the song was recorded by the Arrows in 1975. First released as a B-side, it was quickly rerecorded as an A-side record when the song’s popularity was discovered. This version did relatively poorly regardless, however, as the band’s label did almost nothing to promote them.

Jett first decided to cover “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” in 1979 alongside two members of the Sex Pistols. But this version was far from a hit, and Jett only hit pay dirt with the 1982 second cover with her own band. It managed to sit at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks in a row and saw her album, I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll, propelled to the number two album in the United States.

This song has since been ranked as number 484 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.