Songoftheday 2/9/17 - If you're havin' trouble with the high school head he's givin' you the blues, you wanna graduate but not in his bed here's what you gotta do...
from the album The Hit List (1990)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #36 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 2
Today's song of the day comes from punk-turned-pop rocker Joan Jett, who with the band the Blackhearts had made a comeback in 1988 with their Up Your Alley album, which spun off two hits with the top-tenner "I Hate Myself For Loving You" and the top-20 follow-up "Little Liar". In 1990 Joan released an album of all covers, The Hit List, under solo billing. With versions of songs from the Kinks, ZZ Top, the Sex Pistols, and Creedence Clearwater Revival among others, the set spun the gamut of the rock genre acts that inspired her. The first track on the album and lead single was a cover of Australian hard rock heroes AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds", which originally was released in 1976, where it went to #47 in the UK, but after the death of lead singer Bon Scott and the success of their album Back In Black (with new guy Brian Johnson), the original climbed Billboard's Mainstream Rock (then the "Album Tracks") chart to #4 in 1981...
Joan's version brought a "cleaner" sound to the track, but her growl still brought some menace...
Joan's take on "Dirty Deeds" became her final top-40 pop hit in the U.S. in March of 1990. The single also climbed to #23 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart. Internationally, the song did best Down Under, going to #14 in New Zealand, while being a minor hit in Australia (#64) and the UK (#69).
A second single from the record, a cover of the Everly Brothers by way of Nazareth's "Love Hurts", missed any American charts but slipped in in Britain at #100. A year later, Jett put out another studio album with the Blackhearts, Notorious, and the first single "Backlash" was a respectable hit on Modern Rock radio at #7, while reaching #40 on the Mainstream list. She's done a successful job touring since, along with releasing a few more albums. A CD single of her version of the Mary Tyler Moore theme song "Love Is All Around" almost made the pop chart, "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #108 in 1996.
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Here's Joan live on tour with "Dirty Deeds" in 1991...
Up tomorrow: The king of Latin Freestyle wants eternal commitment.
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