Post by rtbuck on Mar 17, 2010 13:11:58 GMT -5
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts ‘Greatest Hits’
Released: 2010
Label: Blackheart Records
CD 1: Cherry Bomb/ You Drive Me Wild/ School Days/ Love is Pain/ Bad Reputation/ You Don’t Know What You’ve Got/ I Want You/ I Love Rock & Roll/ (I’m Gonna) Run Away/ Crimson & Clover
CD 2: Do You Wanna Touch Me/ The French Song/ Everyday People/ Fake Friends/ Light of Day/ I Hate Myself for Loving You/ Backlash/ Activity Grrrl/ Love is all Around/ Androgynous/ A.C./D.C.
Review by Bucky
With the new Runaways movie starring Dakota Fanning (as Cheri Currie) & Kristin Stewart (as Joan Jett) hitting theaters on March 19, 2010 Joan Jett has jumped on the hype of the Runaways by releasing a hardcover book on the movie’s release date (this is the first book ever on Joan Jett so I can’t wait for its release) & Joan Jett released an awesome retrospective ‘Greatest Hits’ double CD on March 8th.
This ‘Greatest Hits’ double CD is a great introduction to Jett if you’re a new fan who is curious of Jett’s musical career or if you are just a casual rock music fan who’s only heard her radio & MTV friendly hits. If you’re a big fan of Jett’s that has almost everything then this double CD set is still worth the cheap 10 dollar bill it costs because there are a couple of rare songs & the highlight of the CD is new recordings of a couple of Runaways tunes reworked by Joan & the Blackhearts which were recorded in 2009.
The album kicks off with Joan Jett’s fiery & explosive cover of the Runaways big hit “Cherry Bomb” from her 1984 “Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth” album which I always felt was as good if not better than the original version. The next two tunes are great updated rocking versions of two Runaways classics “You Drive Me Wild” (which features an awesome earsplitting scream by Jett followed by a kick ass solo) & “School Days” (which is another hard driving rocker that will have you shouting out “School Days” all day long). Up next is another rerecording, this time it’s a great remake of “Love is Pain” from Jett’s ‘I Love Rock & Roll’ album. I feel it’s a much better version than the original as it starts with Jett playing around a bit on her guitar & then a quiet drum roll builds up to the hard rocking riff that runs through the song. “Bad Reputation”, “I Love Rock & Roll”, “Crimson & Clover”, “Do You Wanna Touch Me”, & “I Hate Myself for Loving You” which are Jett’s most well known hits are all here on the album in their original versions. “You Don’t Know What You’ve Got” from the ‘Bad Reputation’ has always been one of my favorite tunes of Jett’s so I was pleased to see it on this album. One track that really surprised me that is on this compilation is “I Want You”. It’s a rare hard driving punk tune that will get stuck in your head for days. The version that appears on this album is from ‘1979’ which was recorded just after the Runaways split up. ‘1979’ is a rare hard to find fan club only release cd which surfaced in 1995. This song also appeared on 1991’s ‘Notorious’ album but with different more innocent lyrics. On the 1979 version the first verse starts out with the lyrics “I Want Drugs…I want Booze...” & the 1991 versions lyrics went “I want a life …without the blues...”. “I’m Gonna Runaway” is from the ‘I Love Rock & Roll’ album & it’s a rocker with a bit of power pop flavor to it. My favorite Joan Jett album is ‘Album’ & it is represented with three tunes on this album “The French Song” (which lyrically is about having a threesome), “Everyday People” (a great cover of the Sly & the Family Stone hit. This has always been a regular concert staple of Jett’s since its release), & “Fake Friends” (another one of my all-time favorites by Jett). In 1987 Jett starred in the film ‘Light of Day’ with Michael J. Fox. Included on this album is the song ‘Light of Day’ from the movie by Jett. The song was written by Springsteen & is a great rocking combination of Joan’s hard edge rock mixed with the song’s Springsteen feel to it. “Backlash” is from Jett’s 1991 album ‘Notorious’ album & it was the first single from that album. The song was your typical Jett single mixing hard rocking guitars with a pop style & it was a minor hit on the US charts. 1994 brought us Joan Jett’s ‘Pure & Simple’ album which despite a couple pop songs this album had a dark punk feel to it. At the time Jett was into bands such as L7, Bikini Kill, & she even made & album with Seattle punk band, the Gits (who’s lead singer Mia Zapata was brutally murdered), titled ‘Evil Stig’ (backwards reads Gits Live)..
Anyway, included here on this album is the very punk “Activity Grrl” which appeared on the ‘Pure & Simple’ album. In 1996 Jett recorded a revved up one minute punk version of “Love is All Around” (Theme from the Mary Tyler Moore Show) which also made it to this compilation as did Jett’s cover of the Replacements “Androgynous” which Jett seems to make it her own tune as she does with so many other cover tunes including the albums final track “A.C./D.C.” originally recorded by Sweet. “A.C./D.C.“ is one of Jett’s best covers as it is very hard edge & it will kick your ass.
Overall, it’s a great compilation & well worth the price of 10 dollars. As with any other Greatest Hits or Best of albums it’s easy to find fault & say it’s missing some important songs but I really feel this compilation gets the job done & will cause listeners to check out other recordings of Joan Jett.