Out at one of my local haunts, Mad Jacks, I found a handful of 7″ singles and the first one up is from Joan Jett & the Blackhearts for their song “I Hate Myself For Loving You”. The song was released in June 1988 and is off her album “Up Your Alley”. The song was written by Joan Jett along with the great Desmond Child who also produced it as well. The song was a Top 10 hit for Joan Jett going all the way to #8 on the charts and help propel the album platinum status.
My version is the standard U.S. Edition with the B-Side being a live version of “Love is Pain”. The original song is off her album “I Love Rock & Roll”. Joan Jett wrote and produced this song. My copy isn’t special or rare, but I am trying to collect any decent 80’s rock picture sleeves so I had to have it.
A-SIDE:
Joan came up with the guitar riff for this song and wrote it as “I Hate Myself Because I Can’t Get Laid.” Wow! That will never fly, so she took the song to Desmond Child who told her to add Love to the title and they worked together on it and came up with “I Hate Myself for Loving You”. The song opens with a great drum beat and handclap feel to it. That cool guitar riff comes in and is instantly recognizable. It has that old time rock & roll vibe to it and that chorus is so contagious. The pacing is brilliant as it is so simple yet effective. You have the great Mick Taylor on guitar and he handles that wicked solo as well. A total rocker and one of my favorite Joan Jett songs.
B-SIDE:
“Love is Pain” was originally on the album “I Love Rock & Roll”. This version here is the live version but not sure what year it is from as it doesn’t say. It is not a song I know well, but the live version sounds great. Joan is front & center as her vocals are high in the mix. The Blackhearts do what they do best and that is play and they sound great live. Can’t beat the A-Side on this one.
And there you have it. I have a handful more to showcase from the trip to Mad Jacks’ so expect to them shortly. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 
Both are great songs. “Love is a Pain” sounds like one of those when played live can be used to encourage audience participation.
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Probably would be good live. I have actually never seen her live so I can only assume.
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I haven’t seen her live either so we only can.
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Nice score! Back in 88 it was good to see Jett get another hit and get her name back out there especially since that movie Light of Day tanked..
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I don’t know if I even saw that whole movie. I think I only watched a little and that was enough.
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“I Hate Myself Because I Can’t Get Laid”? Geez! Thank goodness for Desmond Child.
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Thank goodness indeed.
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I mean seriously, what the heck was Joan thinking when she came up with that original title?!?
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Who knows.
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They say sometimes all Child does for his huge paycheck is to exchange some words here and there, but in this case his input was worth every penny.
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I believe it, I wish I had that talent to change a word and get a writing credit.
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He must have taken some notes from Glenn Frey how to make a fortune by adding a single line to a song
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LOL!!
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It’s such a Desmond song title.
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Ha! It certainly is.
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It’s all in the titles. She hates herself for loving you, but she loves rock and roll.
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She loves playin’ with fire, too
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She’s a lady who knows what she likes!
Thanks for commenting (and I love your avatar)!
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Thank you too, I appreciate it!
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Ha! That is so true.
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