I love rock 'n' roll

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I love rock 'n' roll
Arrows
publication 1975
Genre (s) Rock music
Author (s) Jake Hooker, Alan Merrill
Cover versions
1981 Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
1995 Guildo Horn
2001 Britney Spears

I Love Rock 'n' Roll is a rock song that was written by Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker in 1975 and published by their band Arrows . The piece was best known for the most successful version of Joan Jett & the Blackhearts from 1981.

Version of the Arrows

Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker, members of the rock band Arrows, wrote the song in 1975 in response to It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It) ('It's just rock' n 'roll, but I like it.') album of the same name by the Rolling Stones . Hooker believed that the title wasn't meant to be derogatory, but with the line I Love Rock 'n' Roll he wanted to represent his view of this genre. Believing they had written a hit, Hooker and Merrill presented the song to their producer, Mickie Most of RAK Records . However, he was not convinced by the song and had the band record it during a lunch break. Due to the poor quality of this first recording, the track only made it to the B-side of the single Broken Down Heart . Convinced of the song's potential, the Arrows recorded a second version at the Granada Television Studio. After the first single flopped, RAK was persuaded to swap the A and B sides and in 1975 released a second single with I Love Rock 'n' Roll as the A side. Because of the failure of the previous single and the lack of advertising, this single also flopped.

Cover version of Joan Jett & the Blackhearts

The first attempt to record a cover version of the song, Joan Jett made with the band The Runaways. She had got Hooker's permission, but couldn't convince the other band members to record it. After the runaways broke up, contacts with Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols took place . With them she recorded her first version of I Love Rock 'N' Roll , which was released exclusively in the Netherlands in 1979 as the b-side of the single You Don't Own Me by Vertigo Records . After Jett returned to the United States in 1980 and formed a backing band called The Blackhearts, she recorded the song again. In 1981 the album of the same name was released, and the song was released as a single. It sold over a million times, achieved platinum status and stayed at number 1 on the American Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks from March 20, 1982 .

The 1981 version was listed at number 89 on Rolling Stone 's list of "100 Greatest Guitar Songs" . The magazine explains the reasons: “ With the first primal power chord, Jett obliterated her image as a teenage girl-group novelty in the Runaways. The squealing riffs matched her new leather-clad tough-girl image and made her case as one of the fiercest female guitarists of all time. " ( " Already with the first primeval power chord, Jett erased her teenage and girl group image with the Runaways radically. The screeching riffs fit her new image as a tough leather girl and justified her role as one of the hottest guitarists of all time. " )

More cover versions

  • In 1995 Guildo Horn released a German cover version entitled Ich find Schlager toll ; the single reached number 96 in the German charts.
  • Britney Spears released a cover version on her album Britney in 2001 ; the song was released as a single in mid-2002 except in the United States . The version by Spears reached the top ten in several countries, for example 7th in Germany and 13th in the United Kingdom with 51,000 records sold. In Australia , their version was awarded gold for 35,000 copies sold. Spears also sang this song in the movie Not a Girl .
  • In Flashdance - the musical , the song is used as a show number. The character of Tess sings the piece together with the ensemble.
  • The American rapper Eminem sampled the song in 2017 in the chorus of his song Remind Me from the studio album Revival .
  • British blogger LadBaby sang a cover version called I Love Sausage Rolls , which was the UK's number one Christmas hit in 2019.

literature

  • Fred Bronson: I Love Rock 'n' Roll . In: The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. Updated and Expanded 5th Edition . Billboard Books, New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-8230-7677-2 , pp. 553 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ 89 "I Love Rock N Roll" Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (1981) ( Memento of May 30, 2008 on the Internet Archive ), on rollingstone.com
  2. ↑ Guildo Horn & the orthopedic stockings - I think hits are great , on hitparade.ch
  3. ↑ Britney Spears - I Love Rock 'n' Roll (UK) ( Memento from May 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) UKBritney.tv . Retrieved May 22, 2007
  4. ↑ Australia Certification
  5. ↑ LadBaby score second Official Christmas Number 1 with I Love Sausage Rolls . 20th December 2019.