Who recorded it first

I Love Rock 'n' Roll

Not a Joan Jett original — a 1975 Arrows song

Almost everyone takes ‘I Love Rock ’n’ Roll’ for a Joan Jett original, but Jett’s 1982 hit is a cover. The song was written by Alan Merrill (with a co-writing credit to Jake Hooker) and first recorded by their band The Arrows in 1975, released as a B-side on RAK Records. Jett saw The Arrows perform it on British television, and covered it seven years later.

The record

Who recorded it first

Original recording
The Arrows, 1975
Written by
Alan Merrill & Jake Hooker
First released
1975 (RAK Records) — a B-side
Made famous by
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, 1982 (US No. 1)

How we traced it

The song was written by Alan Merrill, the American lead singer and bassist of the London-based glam band The Arrows, in 1975 while he was living in Chelsea; a co-writing credit went to bandmate Jake Hooker Wikipedia ↗.

The Arrows recorded it first, in 1975 for RAK Records. It started life as a B-side before being flipped to the A-side, and the band performed it on their own ITV series — which is where it found its most important listener Wikipedia ↗.

Joan Jett saw The Arrows play it on British television in 1976 while she was touring England with The Runaways. She recorded her own version with the Blackhearts in 1981; released in January 1982, it went to No. 1 for seven weeks and eclipsed the original so completely that most listeners now assume she wrote it Wikipedia ↗.

Wikipedia — The Arrows original and the Joan Jett cover
Know more about the original — or think we’ve got it wrong? Add a source →

Paste a URL and we’ll check it. This doesn’t change the page — it goes to our review queue, and if it holds up we update the record.

Fact-check

The attribution problem

This is the cleanest kind of music misattribution: nothing about Joan Jett’s record is wrong or fake. The only error is believing she originated it — a 1982 cover mistaken for the source.

The beliefcover, not original

‘It’s a Joan Jett song’

Jett’s 1982 version is a cover. The song was written and recorded seven years earlier, in 1975, by The Arrows the history ↗.

The originalfirst to record it

The Arrows, 1975

Released as a B-side on RAK Records, it was never a hit in the band’s hands — which is exactly why the cover could eclipse it so completely. There was no famous original standing in the way.

The writersneither the famous act

Alan Merrill & Jake Hooker

Merrill wrote the song and sang the original; Hooker took a co-writing credit. Both were members of The Arrows, and neither is the performer the public associates with the song. Authorship and fame belong to different people here.

Written by Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker, first recorded by The Arrows in 1975, and made famous — but not originated — by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts in 1982 the record ↗.

Context

Why the cover ate the original

A cover eclipses its original most completely when the original never had its moment. The Arrows’ ‘I Love Rock ’n’ Roll’ went out as a B-side in 1975 and never charted as a single; there was no hit record occupying the public’s memory, so when Joan Jett’s version arrived it simply became the version, with nothing to displace.

The irony is that the original was not lost so much as broadcast and forgotten: The Arrows played it on their own ITV series, and that is precisely where Joan Jett first heard it. The cover that erased the original was only possible because Jett had been carrying the song around since watching the band perform it years before.

The creators, in order
  • Alan Merrill writes the song in London, 1975, and shares the credit with Jake Hooker.
  • The Arrows record it, 1975; released as a B-side on RAK Records; it is not a hit single.
  • The band performs it on their weekly ITV show, where Joan Jett sees it in 1976.
  • Jett records her version with the Blackhearts in 1981.
  • Released January 1982 → US No. 1 for seven weeks; the 1975 original fades from public memory.
The cover erased the original only because the writer’s band had quietly played it on television first.

The original recording act

The Arrows

Active 1974–1977 · British glam rock band

The Arrows were a London-based glam-rock band — American singer-bassist Alan Merrill, American guitarist Jake Hooker, and English drummer Paul Varley — who wrote and first recorded ‘I Love Rock ’n’ Roll’ in 1975 for RAK Records. It went out as a B-side and never became a hit single in their hands, though they played it on their own weekly ITV show. The band split around 1977, and it is a quiet irony that one of rock’s most recognisable anthems began with an act almost no one now remembers.

Popularly credited as the original

Joan Jett & the Blackhearts

American rock band · formed 1979

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.

The songwriters

Alan Merrill & Jake Hooker

Members of The Arrows · wrote the song in 1975

Alan Merrill (1951–2020) wrote both the music and the lyrics of ‘I Love Rock ’n’ Roll’ while living in London, and sang lead on The Arrows’ original. He shared the writing credit with bandmate Jake Hooker (1953–2014), the group’s guitarist, reportedly to settle a debt. They are the figures the song’s fame obscures most completely: not the famous performer, but the writers whose composition outlived the band that first cut it.