Joan Jett and the Blackhearts: I Love Rock 'n Roll (sky blue vinyl) [CAROLINE / EMI]

Why you'll love it

This 45th anniversary edition comes on sky blue vinyl with a bonus live "You Don't Know What You've Got." The title song spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Crimson and Clover" went top 10.

This edition

• 45th anniversary edition
• Sky blue vinyl
• Bonus live track

About the album

After 23 labels passed on Joan Jett's first solo album, she and producer Kenny Laguna started Blackheart Records themselves and she put an ad in the LA Weekly looking for "three good men." Bassist Gary Ryan, guitarist Eric Ambel and drummer Danny O'Brien answered, and the Blackhearts were born. By the time this album came together, Ricky Byrd and Lee Crystal were in, and the band was tight from months on the road.

The title song was an Arrows B-side Jett had loved since her Runaways days, and with Laguna and Ritchie Cordell producing she turned it into a stomping, handclapping anthem. "Crimson and Clover" gives Tommy James a leather jacket, "(I'm Gonna) Run Away" and "Bits and Pieces" hit hard, "Victim of Circumstance" rocks out, and "Little Drummer Boy" sneaks a holiday tune into the party. "Love Is Pain," "Nag" and "You're Too Possessive" fill out a record with no slack in it.

In 2015 that classic lineup of Jett, Laguna, Ryan, Byrd and Crystal went into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The title song still gets every room on its feet within four bars. We've stopped asking it to sit down.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Blackheart / Boardwalk, a reissue of the 1981 album.