Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

This double CD set collects two of Joan Jett's best releases. Album, released in 1983 is up there with her career-defining debut and features fan favorites "Fake Friends" and "Everyday People" (an exuberant Sly Stone cover). Other highlights include the Stones' "Star Star" and "The French Song," where Jett proposes the kind of "let's bring in my female friend" arrangement that has fueled late night cable for years. Misspent Youth,released in 1984, kicks off with "Cherry Bomb," Jett's classic from her days with the Runaways. Each CD is loaded with extras, though it would be nice to have a full picture of Album's cover -- it visually sums up Jett's stomping glam-meets-early punk sound.

It's one of Jett's virtues that unlike so many rock traditionalists she doesn't let her sense of humor undercut her commitment --"Fake Friends" (cf. "Back Stabbers") and "The French Song" (cf. "Triad") are the real stuff. It's also one of her virtues that unlike so many other rock traditionalists she does have a sense of humor. Even makes fun of the Stones--they called "Starf*cker" "Star Star," she covers it as "Star Star" (cassette-only until retailers pressured MCA into taking it off, still available as twelve-inch B-side), then dubs her own "Scumbag" "Coney Island Whitefish." And if you don't see what's so funny about her tuneless "Everyday People" (the twelve-inch in question), I guarantee Sylvester Stewart is laughing all the way to his next label. No joke: her nagging love-is-pain clichés. (Grade - B+)