The Story of the Lost Shadow Album

In 1980, after weeks of rehearsing at Nino's in New York, we booked a one-hour session at Odo Studios to record the exact set we'd been playing on the road. When we were done, we thought, "Wow, this sounds great," and came up with the idea that this would be the new album. These "Shadow Session" recordings were forgotten, and for decades everyone assumed the tapes were lost. After years of searching, we finally found the tapes, and Thom Panunzio and Ken Dahlinger restored them.
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Far from rough demos, the Shadow album captures the first version of I Love Rock 'N Roll, featuring the original Coasters on "Nag" and the original recordings of "Little Drummer Boy" and "Crimson and Clover." More than 45 years later, these recordings offer a rare look at Joan Jett and the Blackhearts just before everything came together.

The Story Behind I Love Rock 'N' Roll

“Top 40 didn’t want to play “I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll,” they had to play it. They were getting so many requests wherever we went— If we could get them to play it once, the phones would light up. When you played it, every line in the radio station would start flashing, because the people would call up and say, ‘We want to hear that record.’ That’s what happened.” - Kenny Laguna

Watch Joan Talk About I Love Rock 'N' Roll

ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC IMAGES IN ROCK MUSIC HISTORY

Legendary British photographer, Mick Rock, who snapped the most iconic rock images of the past 50 years, took the portrait image of Joan that would become the I Love Rock ‘N Roll album cover. Now it’s recognized as one of the most iconic images in rock music history. The concept for the photo shoot was pretty straightforward. Rock explained years later, “this picture defined her. I saw her as a female Elvis when I shot that."