{"id":25974,"date":"2023-09-17T05:30:32","date_gmt":"2023-09-17T09:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=25974"},"modified":"2026-05-11T14:57:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T18:57:44","slug":"five-top-hits-from-joan-jett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/17\/five-top-hits-from-joan-jett\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Top Hits from Joan Jett"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Joan Jett &amp; the Blackhearts are a rock institution. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, the group has sold millions of records and landed eight albums on <em>Billboard<\/em>\u2019s Top 200 charts. The band led by singer-guitarist Joan Jett released their third LP, <em>Album<\/em>, 40 years ago this year.<\/p>\n<p>Jett pens some of her own material (usually with co-writers like Kenny Laguna), but has built much of her career upon (shall we say) celebrating rock\u2019s history: many of the band\u2019s biggest hit songs have been covers of tunes made popular by other artists. Here\u2019s a rundown of the five top smash hit singles from Joan Jett &amp; the Blackhearts.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cDo You Wanna Touch Me\u201d<\/strong><br \/>\nWhile the pop star born Paul Gadd has (for very good reasons) largely been written out of pop culture history, there\u2019s no denying that his popularity was substantial in the early \u201870s. Glitter\u2019s first ten singles all soared to the Top Ten on the UK charts, making him one of the era\u2019s biggest stars and paving the way for the glam success of other acts to follow in his wake. His third single, \u201cDo You Wanna Touch Me\u201d featured a flip with a title that seemed to provide an answer (\u201cI Would If I Could But I Can\u2019t\u201d). Jett covered the a-side on her 1981 debut solo album <em>Bad Reputation<\/em>; the single reached #20 on the U.S. charts.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DSqp-W1pWoU\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cLittle Liar\u201d<\/strong><br \/>\nBefore collaborating with Joan Jett, songwriter Desmond Child had long since established himself as a pop force with his own group, Desmond Child &amp; Rouge; that group scored a minor hit single with 1975\u2019s \u201cOur Love is Insane.\u201d A highly in-demand composer, Child has lent his talents to a wide array of pop acts, writing or co-writing for Cher, Kiss, Ricky Martin, Meat Loaf, Roxette and many others. Taken from Joan Jett &amp; the Blackhearts\u2019 1988 LP <em>Up Your Alley<\/em>, his 1988 power ballad co-write with Jett made it to #19 on the U.S. singles charts.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9DcREbM6Z0U\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cI Hate Myself for Loving You\u201d<\/strong><br \/>\nJoan Jett &amp; the Blackhearts\u2019 sixth album <em>Up Your Alley<\/em> scored the group not one but two hit singles; the record was also notable for is lack of reliance upon cover songs. A reading of the Stooges\u2019 classic \u201cI Wanna Be Your Dog\u201d would be the record\u2019s only non-original. The rest of the tunes were written by Jett and a variety of outside co-composers. \u201cI Hate Myself for Loving You\u201d is one of three Child-cowrites on Up Your Alley; the song \u2013 which features a riff uncannily similar to The Kinks\u2019 1979 hit \u201c(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman\u201d \u2013 soared to the #8 spot and earned a Grammy (Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bpNw7jYkbVc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cCrimson and Clover\u201d<\/strong><br \/>\nTommy James and the Shondells were successful right out of the gate with their 1966 debut single, \u201cHanky Panky.\u201d As they went along, the group from Niles, Michigan scored again and again with hit singles; each release seemed to signal musical growth and increased maturity. The classic \u201cCrimson and Clover\u201d was a pop-psych masterpiece, soaring to the top spot on the singles chart in 1968. Fourteen years later, Joan Jett nearly repeated that feat with her faithful cover of the song, making it to the #7 spot. The track was a highlight of 1982\u2019s<em> I Love Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll<\/em> LP.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cXFra7gjElw\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cI Love Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll\u201d<\/strong><br \/>\nThe biggest hit single from Joan Jett &amp; the Blackhearts was also their first to crack the Top 40. Released in 1982 as the title track of the first album credited to the band, \u201cI Love Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll\u201d was first recorded by UK band The Arrows. That band hosted a weekly television show in England; it was while on a tour with her band The Runaways in 1976 that Jett first heard the song. She first recorded it in 1979, but that version failed to chart. With a new recording featuring the Blackhearts. Jett hit the big time; the song climbed to the #1 spot on singles charts in the U.S., Australia, Austria, Canada, New Zealand and Sweden, top-tenning in four other countries. Almost overnight, Joan Jett had become a worldwide superstar.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wMsazR6Tnf8\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joan Jett &amp; the Blackhearts are a rock institution. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, the group has sold millions of records and landed eight [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25975,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5231],"class_list":["post-25974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-joan-jett","cat-27-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25974"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31488,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25974\/revisions\/31488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}