- Written by Alan Merrill & Jake Hooker , members of the English rock group called The Arrows in 1975
- The band consisted of Alan Merrill (bass / lead vocals), Jake Hooker (guitar), and Paul Varley (drums)
- The Arrows were the first group to record the song, although it did not reach the top 40 charts
- A book was written about The Arrows by Bill Harry, the man commonly considered as responsible for introducing The Beatles to the world
- Interestingly enough, the band only released one complete album during their four years together, and "I Love Rock & Roll" was NOT on that album, having been released as a single
- In England The Arrows had their own comic strip and two fourteen week television series, in spite of the fact that they had no hit songs on the charts!
- In 1982 the song was covered by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
- Joan Jett (born Joan Marie Larkin, 9/ 22/58 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) joined her first band when she was only 15 years old
- Jett's version if I Love Rock 'n Roll was a #1 smash hit for 7 weeks in 1982, and became a Rock & Roll anthem
- It was the first and biggest hit of Jett's career
- Interestingly enough, Joan Jett had actually recorded the song back in 1979 with two of the members of The Sex Pistols, guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook
- The Jett / Sex Pistols version of the song appears on
Joan Jett's "Flashback"
album
- A remake of the song was done in 2001 by Britney Spears, where it was included on the soundtrack to the movie "Crossroads".
- Britney was quoted as believing the song had been done by Pat Benatar. Whether she was being obtuse or sarcastic is open for debate
- The Britney cover version made some of the European charts but was a bomb in the US
- The song has also been covered by many other bands and artists, including Friction, Joe Christmas, Hayseed Dixie, Nitocris, and Ghoti Hook
- In 1983 the Joan Jett version if I Love Rock & Roll was used in the smash hit movie "Flashdance", but it was not included on the wildly popular soundtrack album as the song was not written for the movie.
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A sample of this song as performed by Oracle is available by clicking on either of the links below. The RealAudio file will stream to your computer rather quickly assuming you have the RealAudio player installed. The MP3 file must download completely first, but is of a higher audio quality. |
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| Streaming RealAudio | Download MP3 |
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The Arrows Greatest Hits - These are the guys that did it first. A "must have" for any collector. 21 rockin' tracks, including the original recording of "I Love Rock & Roll" |
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I Love Rock & Roll by Joan Jett This is the definitive version, it also contains the #7 hit "Crimson & Clover, as well as covers of Louie Louie, Summertime Blues, and Little Drummer Boy |