Here’s one I’ve chosen specially for my friend Cranky Robert:

It’s kind of weird, considering how much of this crap I watched as a kid, but I don’t recall ever seeing this particular video until today. I knew the song, of course — I doubt if anyone in my general age bracket doesn’t — but the corresponding video somehow fell through the cracks. It amuses me that the early ’80s as depicted here looks much more like the ’70s than what we usually think of as “The Eighties” — no shoulder pads, florescent colors, or big hair in sight! It’s also notable just how bloody young Joan Jett appears to be; I’ve always imagined the face behind that chainsaw voice as so mature and experienced. Well, she may have been, ahem, experienced — that whole rock-n-roll lifestyle thing, you know — but a little googling and some math reveals she was all of 22 years old when the song was recorded in 1981. Like a lot of the girls I had a thing for in high school, she looks to me now like a kid who was trying to look much tougher than she probably felt. Genuinely tough or not, though, Joan is at least more masculine-looking than the guy who’s “standing by the record machine.”

And is it just me, or is Joan giving off a distinct Suzi Quatro vibe in this… anyone else remember her? I can’t recall if she actually had any charting hits in the U.S., but she made a bit of a splash with a recurring role on Happy Days; she played Leather Tuscadero, the little sister of Fonzie’s occasional girlfriend, Pinky Tuscadero. (You’re probably asking yourself how the hell I remember all this stuff… it’s a gift, my friends. Or perhaps a curse… there are days when I’m not quite sure.)
I always thought this song originated with Joan Jett, but it turns out she was covering an earlier band called The Arrows; their version of “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” was released in 1975, and if you’re curious, you can listen to it here. Jett’s version seems to have attained evergreen status — it turned up in the movie Wayne’s World 2 back in the ’90s and is featured on the popular Guitar Hero game — but the song was recently covered again by Britney Spears. Needless to say, Britney’s version doesn’t have quite the same umph as Jett’s. I’ve got nothing against Spears, but that girl doesn’t know anything about rock ‘n’ roll. Talk about a kid trying to be tougher than she is.

Anyhow, in true block-party weekend fashion, here’s one more selection from Joan and the Blackhearts, in which she’s looking much more feminine and (in my humble opinion) tres sexy. This is “Crimson and Clover,” a cover version of the old 1968 hit from Tommy James and the Shondells, from the same album as “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll”:

And with that, happy weekend, kids…