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Album | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | July 1983 | |||
Recorded | 1983 | |||
Studio | Kingdom Sound (Syosset, New York) | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 34:59 (LP) 39:01 (cassette) | |||
Label | ||||
Producer |
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Joan Jett and the Blackhearts chronology | ||||
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Singles from Album | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
Metal Forces | 4/10 [2] |
Rolling Stone | [3] |
The Village Voice | B+ [4] |
Album is the third studio album by Joan Jett and the second to feature her backing band the Blackhearts. It was released in July 1983.
Unlike Joan Jett's two previous albums, only three tracks are cover songs, "Everyday People," "Tossin' and Turnin'," and a re-recording of the Runaways "I Love Playing With Fire", though this had not been the original plan. During the recording of the album, Jett commented, "I know what's going to happen. When we included lots of covers, people would call us on it. If we don't they'd say, 'Where's the covers?'" [5]
The cassette tape version had 2 different issues, one issued in a regular black plastic case (MCA MCAC-5437) and one issued in a red plastic case (MCA MCAC-5445). The initial version contained The Rolling Stones song "Star Star" on it as a hidden track at the end of side one. The second version deleted the song and was designated as "Album Version Only". The album was re-released in 1992 with six more bonus tracks.
The first single released from the album was the lead track "Fake Friends". The U.S. 7-inch vinyl featured "Nitetime" on the reverse side, with a locked groove at the end of the song. This meant that jukeboxes playing the track would have to be manually ejected. The CD bonus track "Locked Groove" is an actual recording of the end of the single. A second issue with "Handyman" as the B-side was sent to distributors. A video was shot for "Fake Friends" where Joan and the Blackhearts are continually mobbed by 'fans' and hangers-on who quickly turn into cardboard cut-outs and fall over. It received heavy airplay on MTV, though the song was a relative disappointment on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 35. Kenny Laguna later told Creem magazine that he had objected to "Fake Friends" being the first single, as it wasn't a natural fit for rock radio, but was rebuffed by the label.
The second single, "Everyday People" (backed with "Why Can't We Be Happy") fared no better, peaking at number 37. The release was accompanied by a slapstick video in which Jett is plagued by calamity, including a smoking hair-dryer, a defective alarm clock, and a collapsing bed. Promotional 7-inch and 12-inch records of the song were sent to radio stations featuring the longer "Dance Mix."; and the commercial 12-inch record featured the notorious "Star Star" on the B-side.
A third video was filmed for "The French Song", but MTV gave it scant airtime and a single was only released in Canada, where it was backed with "Coney Island Whitefish".
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Fake Friends" | Joan Jett, Kenny Laguna | 3:23 |
2. | "Handyman" | Jett, Laguna | 3:23 |
3. | "Everyday People" (Sly and the Family Stone cover) | Sylvester Stewart | 2:40 |
4. | "A Hundred Feet Away" | Jett, Laguna, Peter Anders | 2:33 |
5. | "Secret Love" | Jett, Laguna | 4:03 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
6. | "The French Song" | Jett, Laguna, Ricky Byrd, Mike Winter Jr. | 3:35 |
7. | "Tossin' and Turnin'" (Bobby Lewis cover) | Ritchie Adams, Malou Rene | 2:25 |
8. | "Why Can't We Be Happy" | Jett, Laguna | 3:53 |
9. | "I Love Playing with Fire" (the Runaways Re-Recording) | Jett | 3:03 |
10. | "Coney Island Whitefish" | Jett, Laguna | 3:35 |
11. | "Had Enough" | Jett, Laguna, Byrd | 2:26 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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6. | "Star Star" | Jagger/Richards | 4:00 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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13. | "Nitetime" | Jett, Laguna | 4:52 |
14. | "Everyday People" (Dance Mix) | Sylvester Stewart | 4:19 |
15. | "Wait for Me" (The Runaways cover) | Jett | 4:33 |
16. | "Who Can You Trust" | Jett, Laguna, Stephen Lunt | 2:51 |
17. | "Scratch My Back" | Jett, Laguna, Lunt | 4:13 |
18. | "Locked Groove" | 3:47 |
Chart (1983) | Peak position |
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Australian Albums (Kent Music Report) [6] | 85 |
Canada Top Albums/CDs ( RPM ) [7] | 48 |
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) [8] | 19 |
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) [9] | 29 |
US Billboard 200 [10] | 20 |
US Rock Albums ( Billboard ) [11] | 15 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United States (RIAA) [12] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Joan Jett is an American musician, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress, best known as the frontwoman of her band Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. She also co-founded and performed with the Runaways, who recorded and released the hit song "Cherry Bomb". With the Blackhearts, her rendition of the song "I Love Rock 'n Roll" was the number-one song on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks in 1982. Her other notable songs include "Bad Reputation", "Light of Day", "I Hate Myself for Loving You" and her covers of "Crimson and Clover", "Do You Wanna Touch Me " and "Dirty Deeds".
"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" is a hard rock song by the Australian band AC/DC. Written by group members Angus Young, Malcolm Young, and Bon Scott, it was recorded for the title track of their album Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, released in September 1976.
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"Star Star" is a song recorded by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. It was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. In a few select countries, the song was released as a single from the band's album Goats Head Soup (1973), with "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)" as its B-side. The song's title was changed to "Star Star" from "Starfucker" after Ahmet Ertegün of Atlantic Records insisted on the change.
"Do You Wanna Touch Me", also referred to as "Do You Wanna Touch Me? " is a song by English glam rock singer Gary Glitter, written by Glitter with Mike Leander and produced by Leander. It was released as the lead single from his second studio album, Touch Me (1973), peaking at No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart in January 1973, his third successive UK hit. The single also reached No. 9 in Ireland and No. 11 in Australia.
Bad Reputation is the debut solo studio album by American recording artist Joan Jett. It was originally released independently in May 1980 as a self-titled album after her previous band The Runaways disbanded. After Jett signed with Boardwalk Records, the album was re-released worldwide with the new title on January 23, 1981. The album was positively received by critics and reached number 51 on the Billboard 200.
I Love Rock 'n Roll is the second studio album by Joan Jett and the first with her backing band the Blackhearts. The album was recorded during the summer of 1981 and was released in November. Soon after the first recording sessions at Soundworks Studios, original Blackheart guitarist Eric Ambel was replaced by Ricky Byrd. It is Jett's most commercially successful album to date with over a million copies sold, largely due to the success of the title track, which was released as a single soon after the album was released.
Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth is the fourth studio album by Joan Jett and the third to feature her backing band The Blackhearts. The album was released in 1984 and reissued in 1998 with seven bonus tracks. The title of the album was taken from a line of dialogue in an episode of The Honeymooners.
Up Your Alley is the sixth studio album by American rock band Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, released on May 2, 1988 by Blackheart Records and CBS Records in the United States, and by Polydor Records in Europe and Japan, a year and a half after their previous album Good Music (1986). This album contains the single "I Hate Myself for Loving You", which peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100, and had been used as the theme song for Sunday Night Football NFL games in America during the 2006 and 2007 seasons. The follow-up single "Little Liar" continued Jett's chart success, peaking at No. 19 on the Hot 100 in late 1988/early 1989.
Pure and Simple is the ninth studio album by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, released in 1994. The album includes several tracks co-written with Kathleen Hanna, including "Go Home", a response to the murder of Mia Zapata.
Good Music is the fifth studio album by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, released in 1986. The album's working title was Contact, after the final song off the album, but it was changed to Good Music in its final stages.
The Hit List is the seventh studio album, and the first cover album by Joan Jett. The album was released in 1990. All of the tracks are covers of famous songs.
Notorious is the eighth studio album by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. The album was released in 1991.
Flashback is a compilation album of outtakes and rare songs released by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. The album was initially released in late 1993 and was reissued in 1998 with a slightly different track listing. The 1998 version dropped five tracks from the 1993 release: "Summertime Blues", "Louie Louie", "Star Star", "Stand Up for Yourself" and "Call Me Lightning" and replaced them with "Real Wild Child ", a live version of "Bad Reputation" and "Right 'Til the End", which was only available on the cassette version of the 1993 release. "Call Me Lightning" and "Summertime Blues" were later added as bonus tracks on reissues of Bad Reputation and "Louie Louie" became a bonus track on the reissue of I Love Rock 'N Roll. "Star Star" was included as an unlisted "surprise" track on the 1983 cassette release of Album, but was later removed after the original cassette was pulled from some stores because of non-labelled "explicit" track lyrics. The song was restored on the CD release.
Naked is the tenth studio album released only in Japan by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. The album was released on April 27, 2004.
"I Hate Myself for Loving You" is a song by American rock band Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, released as the lead single from their sixth studio album, Up Your Alley (1988). The song reached number eight on the US Billboard Hot 100, Jett's third and last single to reach the top 10, and was her first since "Crimson and Clover" in 1982. The song spent six weeks longer on the charts than did the group's biggest hit, "I Love Rock 'n' Roll". On September 10, 2011, the single reached number 39 on the US Rock Digital Songs chart.
"Bad Reputation" is a rock song co-written and recorded by Joan Jett from her debut album of the same name. It remains one of her signature songs.
"I Love Rock 'n' Roll" is a rock song written by Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker and first recorded by the Arrows, a British rock band, in 1975. A 1981 cover version by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, released as the first single from her album of the same name, became Jett's highest-charting hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming the No. 3 song for 1982. The single was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, representing two million units shipped to stores. Jett's version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016.
Kenneth Benjamin Laguna is an American songwriter, record producer, and musician, best known for his work with Joan Jett.
Unvarnished is the twelfth studio album by American rock band Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, released on September 30, 2013. It reached number 47 on the US Billboard 200, becoming Jett's first album to chart since The Hit List (1990).