Cherie Currie arrived at her 1975 audition fully planning to sing Peggy Lee's "Fever." "Fever" is a slow, sultry jazz standard. The song that took its spot was two minutes and twenty seconds of pure angst and aggression. Nobody in that room could have predicted the distance between those two songs. The band wouldn't play "Fever," so Jett and manager Kim Fowleywrote the chorus of "Cherry Bomb" on the spot to test what Currie's voice could do. It was the first time Jett had ever written a song with anyone else.
Fowley explained the thinking behind the title. It played on Currie's name and conjured the image of "a teenage firecracker that's popular at the Fourth of July." Currie's voice was exactly what the song needed. A chorus written in haste to solve an audition issue became one of the most recognized rock anthems of the decade.
Sandy West was discovered behind the Rainbow Bar and Grill. Jackie Fox was found in a parking lot. Currie was spotted in a teen club. The fifth member was Lita Ford, who'd go on to her own major solo career in the 1980s. The Runaways produced two of the most significant and iconic female guitarists in all of rock history, before either of them was even out of their teens.
Fowley pitched them as "an all-girl answer to Grand Funk." The music industry wasn't sure what to do with them. They were too young, for many, to be taken seriously and, simultaneously, too loud to be ignored.
While American crowds were throwing things at them, The Runaways were becoming superstars in Japan. Their 1977 Live in Japan album is still celebrated as one of the great live rock recordings. The band that nobody wanted in America was selling out arenas in Tokyo.
The 16-Year-Old Who Wrote It Is Still Playing It at 67
Joan Jett kicked off 2026 with the Greenstone Summer Concert Tour alongside Iggy Pop and followed it with a five-night residency at House of Blues Las Vegas. "Cherry Bomb" still appears in her setlists. The woman who improvised its chorus at 16 in an audition room is still performing it at 67.
Brad Elterman / Getty Images
Joan Jett walked into an audition room in 1975 at 16 and improvised one of the most defiant songs in rock history because the original plan wasn't working. The crowds threw things at her. Twenty-three record labels said no. She kept playing anyway.
The old folks were spectacularly wrong.
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