"I Love Rock 'n' Roll"
2004 re-issue
Single by Arrows
B-side	"Broken Down Heart"
Released	July 1975
Recorded	1975
Genre	Hard rock
Length	2:48
Label	RAK
Songwriter(s)	Alan Merrill Jake Hooker
Producer(s)	Mickie Most
Arrows singles chronology
"Hard Hearted" (1975) "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" (1975) "Once Upon a Time" (1976)
Audio video
"I Love Rock 'n' Roll" on YouTube

"I Love Rock 'n' Roll" is a rock song written by Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker and first recorded by the Arrows, a British rock band, in 1975. A 1981 cover version by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, released as the first single from her album of the same name, became Jett's highest-charting hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming the No. 3 song for 1982.^[1] The single was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, representing two million units shipped to stores. Jett's version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016.^[2]

Arrows original version

The song was originally recorded and released by the Arrows in 1975 on Rak Records, with Merrill on lead vocals and guitar and Mickie Most producing. Merrill wrote both the music and lyrics, whilst living in London at Nell Gwynn House in Chelsea. He gave a co-writer credit to Hooker as part of settling a debt.^[3] In an interview with Songfacts, Merrill said he wrote the song as "a knee-jerk response to the Rolling Stones' 'It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)'."^[4][5] This version was first released as a B-side, but was soon re-recorded and flipped to A-side status on a subsequent pressing of the record. Arrows performed the song in 1975 on the Muriel Young-produced show 45, after which Young offered Arrows a weekly UK television series, Arrows, which was broadcast on ITV starting in March 1976.^[6]

Joan Jett version

"I Love Rock 'n Roll"
US and Australian picture sleeve
Single by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
from the album I Love Rock 'n Roll
B-side	"You Don't Know What You've Got" or "Love is Pain"
Released	January 1982
Recorded	1981
Studio	Kingdom Sound (Long Island)
Genre	Hard rock[7][8]
Length	2:55 (LP version) 2:45 (U.S. single edit)
Label	Boardwalk
Songwriter(s)	Alan Merrill Jake Hooker
Producer(s)	Ritchie Cordell Kenny Laguna
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts singles chronology
"Bad Reputation" (1981) "I Love Rock 'n Roll" (1982) "Crimson and Clover" (1982)
Music video
"I Love Rock 'n Roll" on YouTube
Audio sample
file help

Joan Jett saw the Arrows perform "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" on their weekly UK television series Arrows^[4] while she was touring England with the Runaways in 1976.^[6] The Runaways' producer and manager Kim Fowley had the band learn the song in the summer of 1977, during the brief period when Vicki Blue had replaced Jackie Fox as bass player and Cherie Currie was still the group's vocalist.^[9]

Jett first recorded the song in 1979 with two of the Sex Pistols, Steve Jones and Paul Cook. This first version was released on vinyl in 1979 on Vertigo records as a B-side to "You Don't Own Me". In 1981, Jett re-recorded the song, this time with her band, the Blackhearts. This single was released in late 1981 in Australia and New Zealand by Liberation Records, and by Boardwalk Entertainment in Canada. This recording became a US Billboard Hot 100 number-one single for seven weeks, being the only one for the band.^[10]

Record World said it "has anthem qualities and heroic lead guitar riffs."^[11]

Music video

The music video for "I Love Rock 'n Roll" produced by Barry Ralbag, received heavy play by the fledgling MTV network. It featured Jett and the Blackhearts traveling to a small, dingy bar and then exciting the drunken crowd by performing the song and yelling out its chorus. A snippet of Jett's 1981 hit "Bad Reputation" can be heard at the beginning of the video. The video was originally in colour, but it was converted to black and white because Jett hated the look of her red leather jumpsuit.^[12]

In 1993 Joan Jett & the Blackhearts made another music video for the song as part of the Wayne's World 2 soundtrack. The video consisted of scenes from the movie, with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, mixed with footage of Jett and her band in a faux concert filmed at Irving Plaza in New York City. The song was again released as a single by Warner/Reprise with "Activity Grrrl" as the B-side.^[13]

Popularity

Jett's version has received many rankings, including:

• No. 85 in Q magazine's March 2005 "100 Greatest Guitar Tracks Ever!" list.^[14]
• No. 491 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" (2010) and No. 484 (2004).^[15]
• No. 56 in Billboard's "Greatest Songs of All Time".^[16]

Personnel

• Joan Jett – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
• Ricky Byrd – lead guitar, backing vocals
• Gary Ryan – bass, backing vocals
• Lee Crystal – drums, backing vocals

Charts

Certifications

Britney Spears version

"I Love Rock 'n' Roll"
Single by Britney Spears
from the album Britney
Released	27 May 2002 (2002-05-27)
Recorded	2001
Studio	The Record Plant (Los Angeles) Hit Factory Criteria (Miami)
Genre	Pop rock
Length	3:06
Label	Jive
Songwriter(s)	Jake Hooker Alan Merrill
Producer(s)	Rodney Jerkins
Britney Spears singles chronology
"I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" (2002) "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" (2002) "Boys" (2002)
Music video
"I Love Rock 'n' Roll" on YouTube

Background, release and composition

"I Love Rock 'n' Roll" is the fourth European single from American pop singer Britney Spears' third studio album, Britney (2001), released on 27 May 2002. The song was used in her 2002 film Crossroads, in which Spears' character Lucy performs it in a karaoke bar. Spears said of the song, "They asked me to sing karaoke in the movie Crossroads and I've actually sung 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll' in a lot of clubs that I've been to."^[59] Spears has publicly stated that the original song is one of her favorites. She listened to the original Arrows Mickie Most-produced version just before she recorded the song, according to Jive A&R representative Steve Lunt. The scratches performed on this version were performed by Corey Chase at The Hit Factory Criteria studios in Miami. When promoting the single's release, Spears mistakenly attributed the hit version of the song to Pat Benatar instead of Joan Jett.^[60]

Critical reception

Spears' cover was met with mostly favorable reviews. NME's Ted Kessler wrote that she "still works best when making a good pop cheese and dance sandwich: there's the ace Rodney Jerkins-produced version of Joan Jett's 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll', which does exactly what it says on the tin."^[61] Rolling Stone's Barry Walters wrote that "producer Rodney Jerkins' hip-hop blaspheming of Joan Jett's "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" doesn't go as far as it should (is a Limp Bizkit remix in its future?), but it certainly beats what her earlier studio architects did to those Sonny and Cher ("The Beat Goes On" on ...Baby One More Time) and Stones ("(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" on Oops!... I Did It Again) songs."^[62] Another positive reception came from PopMatters' editor Nikki Tranter, who enjoyed that the song is "different from the average run-of-the-mill pop offering," and praised that "she does strange justice to the tune, vamping up her vocals and turning out something, that while silly and camp, is actually a fun listen."^[63] In contrast, David Browne wrote for Entertainment Weekly that "her remake is neither imaginative (it simply xeroxes Joan Jett's arrangement) nor all that believable."^[64]

Chart performance

"I Love Rock 'n' Roll" charted moderately upon release, reaching the top 20 in most regions. The song was moderately successful in the UK, where it peaked at number 13 (which, at the time, was Spears' lowest peak for a single released there, until "If U Seek Amy" only managed to reach number 20 in 2009. It was certified gold in Australia.

Promotion

Directed by Chris Applebaum, the music video for "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" shows Spears with her own band, a stack of speakers and flashing lights. The video begins in black and white and switches to and from colour throughout. It was shot at The Inn, a bar in Long Beach, New York. The video was ranked at number two on the 100 Best Videos of 2002 list during MTV Latin America's countdown. A director's cut version of the video was later leaked, containing previously unseen scenes.

The song was performed live during Spears' Dream Within a Dream Tour (2001–02). In 2016, it was added to the revamped set list of her Las Vegas residency show, Britney: Piece of Me (2016–17), marking the first time Spears performed the song in 14 years. During the performance, Spears rode a mechanical electric guitar, which simulated a mechanical bull, as it rotated on stage. The same prop electric guitar had been used during her Femme Fatale Tour (2011) for a segment in which she covered the song "Burning Up" by Madonna. At the 2016 Billboard Music Awards, the song was performed as part of a medley.

Track listings

Charts