Alan Merrill, who co-wrote Joan Jett & The Blackhearts' huge smash "I Love Rock'n'Roll", and who first recorded it in 1975 with co-writer Jake Hooker in their band the Arrows, has died in New York aged 69 from complications with Covid-19. ILYOS looks at the man and the song, and gives you the incredible true story of a boy from the Bronx who first became a pop star in Japan, then a pop star in the UK, who then looked on as his song became one of the most played in history.
While he's not exactly a household name, New Yorker Alan Merrill, who passed away on Sunday aged 69 after falling ill with coronavirus, co-wrote one of the most successful songs of the last 50 years. Before that, he was a pop star in the UK during the late Glam era; his band the Arrows even had their own TV show. And before that, unbelievably, he was a pop star in Japan!
Indeed Alan Merrill's story would make a great movie, but one that no one would believe. He packed a lot into those 69 years!.
Born of successful musician parents (jazz vocalist Helen Morrell and jazz player Aaron Sachs), Alan successfully auditioned at the age of 17 for the Left Banke of "Walk Away Renee" fame, but the band split on him. His first professional gig came immediately after in 1968 when he signed on with an American group called the Lead who were based in Tokyo. An unlikely move, but his mother lived there, and had connections. When the Lead broke up, Alan went solo. A stint in London in 1969 led nowhere, but by 1971 he was the biggest foreign pop star in Japan, a bona fide teen idol. He even appeared in a soap opera. Alan eventually formed a raunchy glam-oriented rock group called Vodka Collins with some Japanese musicians, releasing three successful albums (and singing in both Japanese and English) and influencing generations of Japanese rock'n'rollers before a split with management led him again to London.
In London, unbelievably, success came knocking again. Forming the glam outfit the Arrows with Jake Hooker and Paul Varley from the band Streak (who'd released a now-revered New York Dolls-inspired single called "Bang Bang Bullet"), Alan ended up on Mickie Most's famed RAK label. Significantly, RAK was home also to Joan Jett's idol Suzi Quatro, although the Arrows had a surprisingly more MOR sound, which Most perhaps thought was better suited to Merrill's soulful voice. The good-looking bunch of boys ended up with their own TV show (on which they hosted the likes of Marc Bolan, Slade, and the Bay City Rollers) and started notching up hits.
It was at this point that Joan Jett, in the UK with her band Runaways in 1976, saw the Arrows perform "I Love Rock'n'Roll" on their TV show.
Three years later - by which time the Arrows and the Runaways had both folded - Joan had her first crack at the song, recording a version with Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols.
Left it in the can when Joan and her producer Kenny Launa eventually self-released, on Blackheart Records, the first Joan Jett & The Blackhearts' album Bad Reputation in 1980, they had another go at it for her next album. It became the title track of her second album in 1982, and the rest, of course, is history. Appearances in films like Wayne's World 2, a parody by Weird Al Yankovic, covers and samples by Britney Spears and Eminem and more have made the song familiar to generations.
By the time Joan hit with the song, Alan was back in the States, playing guitar for Rick Derringer. He would also play with Meatloaf, and following the success of "I Love Rock'n'Roll," he made a self-titled solo album for Polydor in 1985. That didn't connect, but as the cheques kept rolling in, he spent the next few decades doing his own thing; recording, gigging, releasing albums, and even going back to Japan to reform and make more records with Vodka Collins. Latterly he was a regular and much-loved figure on the New York scene, and was playing as recently as couple of weeks before his passing. He'd just announced on his website the forthcoming release of a new solo album It's Always Rock N Roll.
Following Alan's death, Joan Jett posted on Facebook: "I can still remember watching the Arrows on TV in London and being blown away by the song that screamed hit to me." And it a hit it surely was, six years later. Having been a pop star twice over already, Alan probably didn't mind the wait.
We'll finish off with a recent live version of the song performed by Alan in New York, as well as a short interview in which Alan details the extent of the success of "I Love Rock'n'Roll" and how it impacted his life. R.I.P Alan Merrill.
