Yes, I'd heard "I Love Rock and Roll" many times, and the title track to Good Music, as well as two singles from Up Your Alley, but I'd never had the gumption to get any of Joan Jett's albums. Well, I ordered this back in 1990, thinking that with a title like that, it was a greatest hits. When I got it, I found it was an album of cover songs. Many of the songs I recognized, and those I didn't, I fell for and went out of my way to discover who originally did them. Years later, when I bought Flashback, I was surprised at how many cover songs Joan had done. Oh yes, and she did Tommy James' "Crimson And Clover" as well.

On to The Hit List. I heard her version of AC-DC's "Dirty Deeds" before the original so my bias is here. This is as hard-rocking as the original, with crunching guitars, and even a sax (!) in the middle.

She really evinces the knife-twisting pain of "Love Hurts" in power ballad mode. After doing a song like "Little Liar" from Up Your Alley, she's more than capable of interpreting this classic.

One of the hardest rocking numbers is her take on the Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant", again appropriate as she did their song "EMI" only doing it as "MCA" to reflect the label she was on. She blazes through this without the intense and in-your-face whiny Rotten vocals, but with dignified energy.

Her take on the Kinks' ode and warning to movie stars, "Celluloid Heroes" puts in her emotional oomph in the ballad on how by virtue of being dreamers, everyone's in show biz, or dreams of being one just by watching the silver screen, and she sings of a few stars out of the "some who succeeded, some who suffered in vain." Key lines: "I wish my life was a nonstop Hollywood movie show/a fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes/because celluloid heroes never feel any pain/and celluloid heroes never really die."

That it contrasted by the grinding version of ZZ Top's hard rock blues number "Tush" and a harder-edged version of the Chamber Brothers' "Time Has Come Today", whose original version I heard over and over for TIME magazine ads on TV.

I haven't heard the original of Jimi Hendrix's "Up From The Skies", but given what I heard of Hendrix's material, Joan seems to do a decent version. Guess I better buy Axis:Bold As Love and find out.

Her cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?" is more straight ahead and not as bombastic as Bonnie Tyler's rendition from Faster Than The Speed Of Night. However, there's a harder edged guitars in the Doors' "Love Me Two Times" that sets it aside from the original.

A new version of the Modern Lovers' "Roadrunner" finishes up the album, and judging from the album, it seems a harder rendition, she's got the power, the AM, the FM, the fifty thousand watts of power, oh yeah!

What's also interesting are two songs that didn't make it here, a cover of The 1910 Fruitgum Co.'s "Indian Giver" and "Be My Lover" by .... I don't know. Info from this was gotten from Flashback, but as for the Hit List, it's clear that Joan easily acquits herself, putting the right amount of hard guitar on the rockers and emotional sensitivity in her voice in the ballads, and with her longtime producer Kenny Laguna doing the honours, it can't be bad. This is probably the best cover songs album I've bought.

Well, the CD title says Hit list, and these songs are hits from 70's and 80's. But Joan Jett couldn't deliver any of these hits as good as it should be, on all songs here, her vocals are very lame & weak. Musicianship sucks, I know Blackhearts can play, but here it's just a dissapointment, maybe, this album is the greatest mistake of Joan Jett & B's career. Avoid this CD.

Very disappointing. I picked this one up expecting a greatest hits compilation but nope that's not what this is. The title is very misleading. If you want Joan's 80's era hits like "I Love Rock & Roll" don't look here. Check the imports because apparently Joan's label doesn't want her real hits to be available in the US.

I've been a fan of Jett since Bad Reputation was released; it was the theme song in a a group house I lived in in the '80s and was played about 10 times a day.

But this album is awful, and there may be some truth in advertsing issues here. It does not contain her Hit List; it's some really poor covers of some other artists' semi-hits. Sounds like Joan was a contractual bind: album due, no material.

You might want to buy this if you have to have everything she's done, but you won't play it more than once.

Joan Jett (nee, Joan Marie Larkin) first gained fame as the teenage guitarist and singer for prototypical all-grrl band, the "Runaways," ("Cherry Bomb"), then continued her success with "Joan Jett and the Blackhearts," which produced (among many other songs) the hit "I Love Rock 'N Roll," which reached Billboard's #1 spot in the Spring of 1982. Jett recorded many covers during the 'Blackhearts' years, including the seminal "I Love Rock 'N Roll" (written by "The Arrows"), as well as a great version of "Crimson and Clover" and "Do You Wanna Touch Me."

This 1990 release is all covers, and is mostly outstanding. Highlights include her ironic, aggressive rendition of "Pretty Vacant," her voice appropriately drone-y, yet soaring over the backgrounds; "Love Hurts," in which her covers outshines the original; and risky--because the originals were done by rock icons--but surprisingly superb and enjoyable treatments of "Love Me Two Times" (the Doors), "Up from the Skies (Jimi Hendrix)," "Have You Seen the Rain (Credence Clearwater Revival)," and "Celluloid Heroes (the Kinks)" featuring Ray Davies and a very satisfying guitar solo.

The songs are muscular, energetic, and heavy on the rhythm section (bass and drums), giving a raw, propulsive feeling to most of the songs (e.g., "Tush" in which--unlike ZZ Top--she doesn't distort the pronunciation of the title, and "Dirty Deeds," more honest and less gimmicky than the original, IMHO). The only disappointing cuts were "Roadrunner USA," probably never a great song anyway, and her belabored try at "Time Has Come Today." I must admit that I've never heard a good cover of the latter song. At least Joan's take is far superior to the awful Steve Earle version. Apparently, only the Chambers Brothers can do this song right.

Parenthetically, Jett never received what she was owed for "I Love ROck and Roll," and the ensueing years are a testament to her multifaceted talent (producing, acting), and longevity (she has been both pre- and post-punk, and was a participant/role model for some in the "riot grrl" movement]). Her "Greatest Hits" LPs will give you more original Joan Jett (including the famous "Cherry Bomb," on which she "covers" the Runaways own song), but "The Hits" deserves your attention for the (mostly) great selection of songs sung by the now-iconic J. Jett. Excellent production (in New York City), nice photo of Jett on the cover, but, unfortunately, no liner notes.