Joan Jett

Joan Jett (born Joan Marie Larkin September 22, 1958) is an American rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and actress.

She is best known for her work with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts including their hit cover "I Love Rock N' Roll", which was #1 on the Billboard charts from March 20 to May 1, 1982, as well as for their other popular recordings including "Crimson and Clover", "I Hate Myself for Loving You", "Do You Want to Touch Me", "Light of Day", "Love Is All Around", "Bad Reputation" and "Little Liar."

Jett has a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Her musical and song-writing approach is heavily influenced by the hard-edged, hard beat-driven rhythms common to many rock bands of her native Philadelphia, often featuring lyrics surrounding themes of lost love, criticisms of insincerity, the struggles and resolution of the American working class, and the quest for authenticity.

The Runaways

Joan Jett is one of the founding members of The Runaways along with drummer Sandy West. Micki Steele (who was later replaced), Jackie Fox, Lita Ford, and Cherie Currie completed the line-up. While Currie initially fronted the band, Jett also shared some lead vocals, played rhythm guitar and wrote or co-wrote a lot of the band's material along with Ford, West and Currie. The band recorded five LPs, with Live In Japan becoming one of the biggest-selling imports in U.S. and U.K. history. The band toured around the world and some of their opening acts included Cheap Trick, Van Halen and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. They found huge success abroad, especially in Japan.

While The Runaways were popular in Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada and South America, they could not garner the same success in the U.S. After Currie and Fox left the band (to be replaced by bassist Vicki Blue and later, Laurie McAllister), the band released two more albums: Waitin' for the Night and And Now... The Runaways. Altogether they produced five albums from 1975 until they disbanded in spring of 1979.

Soon after, Jett produced The Germs' first and only album (GI).

Solo

In the spring of 1979, Jett was in England pursuing a solo career. While there, she cut three songs with ex-Sex Pistols Paul Cook and Steve Jones (one of which was an early version of a cover song called "I Love Rock N' Roll," originally written and performed by The Arrows). Later that year, she moved to Long Beach, New York and ultimately, Los Angeles, where she reluctantly began fulfilling an obligation of the Runaways to complete a film loosely based on the band's career called We're All Crazee Now!, with three actresses standing in for her departed band members. While working on the project in 1979, Jett met songwriter and producer Kenny Laguna, who came in to help Jett with writing some tracks for the film. They became friends and decided to work together. The plug was pulled on the project halfway through shooting, but in 1984, after Jett had become a major star, producers were looking for a way to make use of the footage from the incomplete film. Bits of the original footage of Jett were used in a completely new project never commercially released, an underground movie called DuBeat-Eo, produced by Alan Sacks.

Jett and Laguna entered The Who’s Ramport Studios with the latter at the helm. Jett's self-titled solo debut was released in Europe on May 17, 1980. In the United States, the album was rejected by 23 major labels. Jett and Laguna released it independently on their new Blackheart Records label, which they started with Laguna's daughter's college savings. Laguna remembers, "We couldn't think of anything else to do, but print up records ourselves, and that's how Blackheart Records started. It was more or less Joan's idea to do it ourselves." Jett inadvertently became the first female performer to start her own record label.

Albums


1980 Joan Jett
1981 Bad Reputation
I Love Rock 'n Roll
1983 Album
1984 Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth
1986 Good Music
1988 Up Your Alley
1990 The Hit List
1991 Notorious
1992 I Love Rock 'n Roll 92
1994 Pure and Simple
1995 Evil Stig (with The Gits)
1979
2004 Naked
2006 Sinner

Compilations

1993 Do You Wanna Touch Me?
Flashback
1996 Great Hits
1997 Fit to Be Tied
1999 Fetish
2003 Jett Rock

Singles

1981
"Bad Reputation"

1982 "I Love Rock 'n Roll"
"Crimson and Clover"
"Do You Wanna Touch Me"
"Nag"
"Victim of Circumstances"
"Everyday People"

1983 "Fake Friends"
"The French Song"

1984 "I Need Someone"
"I Love You Love"
"Cherry Bomb"

1986 "Good Music"
"Roadrunner"

1987 "Light of Day"

1988 "I Hate Myself for Loving You"
"Little Liar"

1990 "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"
"Love Hurts"
"Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"

1991 "Backlash"
"Don't Surrender"
"Treadin' Water"

1994 "I Love Rock 'n Roll"
"Spinster"
"As I Am"
"Eye to Eye"

1995 "Bob (Cousin O.)"
1996 "Love Is All Around"
1999 "Fetish"
2002 "The Word"
2006 "A.C.D.C."
"Change the World"
2007 "Androgynous"