Joan Jett & the Blackhearts – I Love Rock’n’Roll

Rejected By Every Record Label, Then Seven Weeks At Number One

Joan Jett & the Blackhearts released “I Love Rock’n’Roll” as a single on January 20, 1982, and within six weeks the former Runaway was sitting atop the Billboard Hot 100. The song stayed at number one for seven weeks, becoming the third most successful song of 1982. But here’s the twist: every major record label in the industry had rejected her. Just months earlier, Jett and manager Kenny Laguna were selling copies of her debut album out of the trunk of their car.

The song dominated the US charts for seven weeks and reached number four in the UK, while hitting number one in Canada. It wasn’t just a hit—it was cultural vindication. The song was platinum-certified by September 1982 for selling over two million copies in the United States alone. The album of the same name climbed to number two on the Billboard 200. Suddenly, the woman every label said wasn’t commercial enough was everywhere—on radio, on the fledgling MTV, and proving that female-fronted hard rock could sell millions.

Jett first saw the song performed by British glam rock band The Arrows on their UK television series in 1976 while touring England with the Runaways. Written by Arrows frontman Alan Merrill and guitarist Jake Hooker, the song was their response to the Rolling Stones’ “It’s Only Rock & Roll,” which they viewed as Mick Jagger’s apology to the jet-set crowd. Merrill had conceived it as a song within a song—the chorus playing from a jukebox while two teenagers flirt in a disco. The Arrows’ version flopped, but Jett filed it away mentally. After the Runaways disbanded in 1979, she recorded a first version with Sex Pistols Steve Jones and Paul Cook, but it went nowhere.

The album was recorded during summer 1981 at Kingdom Sound in Long Island and Soundworks in New York, produced by Kenny Laguna and legendary songwriter Ritchie Cordell. But the real drama happened when associate producer Glen Kolotkin was left alone in the studio. Kolotkin had the band run through the song and, sensing a smash hit, pressed record—they nailed it in one take. By the time Laguna and Cordell returned, the track was nearly finished. The production team created stacks of vocals and thunderous handclaps that made it sound almost like a Roy Thomas Baker production. Guitarist Ricky Byrd had just replaced original Blackheart Eric Ambel, joining vocalist/guitarist Jett, bassist Gary Ryan, and drummer Lee Crystal.

The song appeared on the album I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll, released in November 1981—Jett’s second solo album and first with the Blackhearts. Oddly, the album initially gained attention not for the title track but for a hard-rocking version of “Little Drummer Boy”. That novelty opened the door for radio to embrace the title track. Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart had signed Jett to his new Boardwalk Records label after witnessing demand for her independently distributed debut. The album would go on to sell over 10 million copies worldwide.

The song’s influence extends far beyond the early ’80s. Britney Spears covered it in 2002, taking it back into the top 10. LadBaby created a sausage roll-themed parody that hit number one in the UK in 2019. In 2024, 42 years after its release, it debuted on the Billboard Hard Rock Streaming Songs chart at number 23. Rolling Stone ranked it on multiple iterations of their “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list, and Q magazine placed it at number 85 on their “100 Greatest Guitar Tracks Ever.”

AllMusic’s Steve Huey called the song a “cornerstone single in the brave new world opened up for female rock musicians,” noting how Jett’s version gave the tune a punky edge while keeping its hard rock core. The song redefined what a woman in rock could be—tough, uncompromising, and unapologetically loud. As Jett herself later reflected on those dark days of rejection, “Now that we’re huge with the second album, people like Clive Davis are saying ‘How did we miss this!’ But he rejected it himself.” Sweet revenge, served loud.