Joan Jett & the Blackhearts released their cover of ‘I Love Rock ’n’ Roll’ in January 1982, and it became so definitive — seven weeks at No. 1, over two million copies sold — that it erased the original from public memory. Jett had first seen The Arrows perform the song on British TV in 1976 while touring with The Runaways, and she carried it with her for years before recording it. Her version is genuinely hers and genuinely great; the only error is chronological, the assumption that a 1982 No. 1 must be where the song began.
Who recorded it
Songs credited to Joan Jett & the Blackhearts that are covers