Joan Jett and the Blackhearts is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1979 as a conjunction of lead musician, singer and songwriter Joan Jett and the backup band. It has undergone many lineup changes since its inception, with founders Jett and producer Kenny Laguna being its only consistent members.
members: Joan Jett
formed in: Los Angeles
genres: rock music
awards: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
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In 1979, while fulfilling an obligation of the Runaways to complete a film based on the band's career, guitarist and singer-songwriter Joan Jett met songwriter and producer Kenny Laguna, who was hired by her manager Toby Mamis to help Jett with writing some tracks for that film. They became friends and decided to work together and Jett relocated to Long Beach, New York, where Laguna was based. The plug was pulled on the project halfway through shooting after Jett fell ill, but in 1984, after she became famous, producers looked for a way to use the footage from the incomplete film. Parts of the original footage of Jett were eventually used in another project, an underground film called Du-beat-eo, which was produced by Alan Sacks, but not...
After collaborating on Jett's self-titled solo debut, which was released independently on Jett and Laguna's Blackheart Records label after the album was rejected by 23 major labels, Jett formed the Blackhearts with Laguna's assistance. Laguna recounted, "I told Joanie to forget the band and support herself on the advance money. There was enough for her but not for a band. She said she had to have a band. And I believe to this day that it was the Blackhearts, that concept, that made Joan Jett." She placed an ad in the LA Weekly stating that she was "looking for three good men". John Doe of X sat in on bass for the auditions held at S.I.R. studios in Los Angeles. He mentioned a local bass player, Gary Ryan, who had recently been crashing on...
Are you them, or do you know them? The mail slot is open.
"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 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.
Cash Box called it "a mean, growling performance from the high-flying Jett" in which "over a craggy landscape of heavy guitars she exudes a sexual anger and power." The Atlantic asked, "Does she really hate herself, though? This song has the emphatic stomp of celebration—fat handclaps and blocky major chords. Pump your fist for unhealthy choices; do another shot and text your ex: This is an anthem of American compulsion."