The Rolling Stones Song That Inspired “I Love Rock ’N’ Roll”

In 1976, while Joan Jett was on tour with The Runaways in the UK, glam-rock band The Arrows caught her attention with a song they were playing on their variety show.

She couldn’t convince The Runaways to cover the song. But she got her chance to record it in 1981 with backing band The Blackhearts. In January of 1982, that song—”I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll”—became her biggest hit with seven weeks at No. 1 and over two million copies sold. It’s practically synonymous with her name, and people often assume she wrote it.

“I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll” was actually written by The Arrows’ vocalist Alan Merrill, with input from producer Mickie Most of RAK Records. It was released in 1975 as a B-side.

A Response to The Rolling Stones

“I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll” is more than just an ode to the genre. Merrill wrote the song specifically as a “knee-jerk response” to The Rolling Stones’ song “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It)”. He felt the band displayed a rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle onstage but were part of the establishment in daily life.

“I remember watching it on Top of the Pops,” Merrill once explained in an interview. “I’d met Mick Jagger socially a few times, and I knew he was hanging around with Prince Rupert Lowenstein and people like that – jet setters. I almost felt like ‘It’s Only Rock And Roll’ was an apology to those jet-set princes and princesses that he was hanging around with – the aristocracy, you know. That was my interpretation as a young man: Okay, I love rock and roll.”

“I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll” is essentially a song within a song. The verses depict two teenagers flirting with each other over a jukebox, while the chorus is the song they’re playing.

Although it was written solely by Merrill, the song is also credited to Jake Hooker. Merrill agreed to give Hooker a songwriting credit in return for Hooker paying Merrill’s fare for a flight.

“Jake won the lottery with that air ticket,” Merrill joked with Guitar World.

Photo by Ebet Roberts/Redferns