Joan Jett and the Blackhearts released I Love Rock 'n Roll on November 18, 1981, through Boardwalk Records. Jett’s second studio album and her first with the Blackhearts put her own writing beside songs she’d wanted to record for years. Its title track had already been turned down by the Runaways.
Jett told Guitar World in 2015 that she first heard Arrows’ “I Love Rock 'n Roll” while touring England with the Runaways. She heard hit potential immediately, but her bandmates had already recorded “Rock and Roll” and didn’t want another song with those words in its title on the same album. Jett held onto the idea. The Blackhearts eventually gave her the setting to make it the centerpiece of an album.
The band itself was changing as recording progressed. Early sessions at Soundworks in New York featured guitarist Eric Ambel. After Ricky Byrd replaced him, much of the material was recorded again at Kingdom Sound in Syosset, Long Island, with producers Kenny Laguna and Ritchie Cordell. “Crimson and Clover” and “Little Drummer Boy” survived from the earlier sessions. The finished record therefore captured both guitarists, even as Byrd’s arrival helped reshape the album.
Engineer Glen Kolotkin wanted the title track to sound as though a crowd had joined the band. In a 2000 Mix interview, he described recording the basic track live, then adding guitar overdubs, layers of voices and handclaps. “We wanted the vocal overdubs to be almost like an audience,” he said. Building those parts up gave the chorus its scale without replacing the band performance underneath.
That priority carried into the mix. Dissatisfied with several versions made using console automation, Kolotkin quickly created another with the automation switched off. Laguna and Cordell let the band choose among the mixes, and the Blackhearts picked that version. Kolotkin favored its rougher balance and echo, even where Jett’s voice wasn’t perfectly separated from everything around it. The performance’s excitement mattered more to him than keeping every part neatly in place.
The title track can overshadow how much of Jett’s writing filled the record. “Love Is Pain” was her composition, while “Victim of Circumstance” and “(I'm Gonna) Run Away” were collaborations with Laguna. She also returned to “You're Too Possessive” from the Runaways. Covers such as “Crimson and Clover” and “Bits and Pieces” sat alongside those songs, giving the album room for both her songwriting and the older records she loved.
The original LP also had a seasonal ending. Early copies closed with “Little Drummer Boy,” which “Oh Woe Is Me” replaced on most pressings after the holidays. The replacement was another Jett composition and also appeared as the B-side of the “Crimson and Clover” single. Which pressing a listener owned changed how the album finished.
The title track’s 1982 single release spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200. “Crimson and Clover” followed it into the singles chart’s Top 10, giving the album a second major radio hit.
