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Joan Jett Information
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'Joan Jett' (born Joan Marie Larkin on September 22, 1958 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American rock and roll guitarist, singer, and actress best known for her hit "I Love Rock N Roll," which was #1 on the Billboard charts from March 20th to May 8th, 1982.
Career and Biography
Joan Jett was born in Philadelphia. She later moved to Hollywood, California, where, when still in her teens, she first gained attention as the guitarist, main songwriter and back-up singer in the pioneering all-women band The Runaways, known for pre-punk hard rock and the classic song "Cherry Bomb." Once lead singer Cherie Currie left the band, Joan assumed the duties of lead vocalist. Although the band was misconstrued in the U.S. as a novelty act, they were more popular in Japan.
After the Runaways disbanded in 1979, Jett produced an album for
Los Angeles punk rock band, The Germs, then embarked on a solo career. Although she approached many labels, not one would sign her due to the stigma that accompanied her former band The Runaways, and so she and manager and co-writer Kenny Laguna created their own independent record label, Blackheart Records to release recordings by her new band distributed by Boardwalk Records, 'Joan Jett and the Blackhearts'.
With the Blackhearts, she had several singles in the top ten, including the #1 "I Love Rock 'N Roll" cover, originally by The Arrows, as well as covers of Tommy James' "Crimson and Clover" and Gary Glitter's "Do You Wanna Touch Me". "Bad Reputation", whose accompanying video narrates the story of the rejection of Joan by major labels and the creation of her own record label, was also a hit. During this time, Jett toured relentlessly. One of the highlights of her live performance is the cover of the AC/DC song "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap". Unfortunately Boardwalk Records went under after the death of its founder Neil Bogart, and Jett and Laguna never made the money they were owed from the massive hit "I Love Rock'n Roll".
After making the two classic albums on Blackheart Boardwalk, Jett and Laguna signed to MCA Records and her career took a nosedive - with two clunkers leading to her being dropped and being forced to sign to a pressing and distribution deal with a CBS records affiliate. She recorded two more clunkers and her career was on the skids. Finally Jett and Laguna were told by CBS that they would lose their record deal if they didn't bring in some outside hands to help guide them through their next album, "Up Your Alley". Faced with the prospect of losing their livelihoods, they turned to hitmaking machine songwriter/producer Desmond Child, and street rock producer/songwriter Ric Browde. Both of these men brought unusual focus and drive to this record and rescued Joan's career from the gutter. Laguna and Jett thought after the success of this album that they could return to doing things on their own (and they refused to pay either her band or her producers their royalties) - but they were mistaken - and after shedding Child and Browde they didn't produce much else memorable.
Film and television appearances, personal life
Joan Jett's first appearance on film is in the 1981 live concert film Urgh!, subtitled A Music War, performing with her band The Blackhearts. Her first acting role came in 1987, co-starring with Gena Rowlands and Michael J. Fox in the Paul Schrader film Light of Day. She has also appeared in some independent films, including Du-beat-E-O which was originally entitled We're All Crazy Now and was to have been about The Runaways. Production difficulties necessitated changes and the film was rewritten to focus around Jett and released in 1984.
In 1997, Joan appeared in the independent film, Boogie Boy, directed by Craig Hamann and most recently has appeared in the Broadway production of The Rocky Horror Show in the role of "Columbia".
During the 1990s, she appeared on the Ellen show, performing the title song. She also appeared on the television show Highlander and covered the theme song to The Mary Tyler Moore Show of the 1970s. Her song "Bad Reputation" was used as the theme song for the cult TV show Freaks and Geeks.
Later music career
Joan returned to producing for the band Circus Lupus in 1992 and again, in 1994, for Bikini Kill. This recording was the New Radio EP for which Jett also played and sang back-up vocals. It was during the 1990s that the Riot Grrrl movement arose, of which Bikini Kill was a representative band, and many of these women credited Joan as a role model and inspiration. Another Riot Grrrl band, Bratmobile, covered the song "Cherry Bomb" as a tribute to her. At this time Joan co-wrote several songs with Kathleen Hannah of Bikini Kill, foremost among them, "Activity Girl".
Near the end of the 1990s she worked with members of The Gits, whose lead singer and lyricist, Mia Zapata had been murdered. The results of their collaboration together was a live LP, Evil Stig, whose earnings were used in an effort to find Mia's murderer and bring him to justice. To this end, the band and Jett appeared on the television show America's Most Wanted, appealing to the public for information. The case was finally solved in 2004, when Zapata's murderer was finally brought to trial and convicted.
Current projects
Joan Jett's primary focus remains on recording and touring. Rumours of a Runaways reunion have sparked new interest in her old band and the members are known to be friends. Joan has recently released material by Cherie Curie on her own label, Blackheart Records.
Albums
* 'Bad Reputation' (1981) #51 US
* 'I Love Rock 'N Roll' (1981) #2 US, #25 UK
* 'Album' (1983) #20 US
* 'Glorious Results Of A Misspent Youth' (1984) #67 US
* 'Good Music' (1986) #105 US
* 'Up Your Alley' (1988) #19 US
* 'The Hit List' (1990) #36 US
Singles
* "I Love Rock 'N Roll" (1982) #1 US - 7 weeks, #4 UK
* "Crimson And Clover" (1982) #7 US, #60 UK
* "Do You Wanna Touch Me" (1982) #20 US
* "Fake Friends" (1983) #35 US
* "Everyday People" (1983) #37 US
* "Good Music" (1986) #83 US
* "Light Of Day" (1987) #33 US
* "I Hate Myself For Loving You" (1988) #8 US
* "Little Liar" (1988) #19 US
* "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" (1990) #36 US
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