Joan Jett: Bad Reputation (45th anniversary) [CAROLINE / EMI]

Why you'll love it

This 45th anniversary edition comes on 180g vinyl in a new jacket built around a rare photo from the era. The title song sits at No. 249 on Rolling Stone's 500 greatest songs, and VH1 ranked it the 29th best hard rock song of all time.

This edition

• 45th anniversary edition
• 180g vinyl
• Alternate cover art

About the album

Twenty-three record labels turned this album down. Joan Jett and her new producer and partner Kenny Laguna shrugged and put it out themselves on their own Blackheart label. The title song later became a music video re-enacting all those rejections, with Laguna playing one of the executives. Laguna had first been hired to help Jett write songs for a film about her old band, The Runaways, and the two never stopped working together.

The ex-Runaway plays lead and rhythm guitar throughout, with Laguna on piano and backing vocals, and the record is a tidy, punchy blast of glam and punk. "Bad Reputation" is two and a half minutes of pure attitude, "Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)" is a stomping singalong, "You Don't Own Me" toughens up Lesley Gore, and "Shout" and "Wooly Bully" turn the house party all the way up.

The title song has since opened 10 Things I Hate About You, soundtracked Freaks and Geeks and walked Ronda Rousey to the ring, and Taylor Swift used it to open her Reputation Stadium Tour shows. Somewhere, 23 A&R departments are still working out how to word the apology.

Also at Kops: more Joan Jett on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Blackheart, a reissue of the 1981 album.