B-side "Blackmail" Format 7" Length 2:19 | Released 1976 Genre Hard rock
punk rock Label Mercury | |
"Cherry Bomb" is a 1976 punk-influenced hard rock single by the all-girl band The Runaways from their self-titled debut album. It is regarded by many as the band's signature song. "Cherry Bomb" was also ranked 52nd on VH1's 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs. Singer/guitarist Joan Jett composed the song with Kim Fowley, the band's then-manager, and would later go on to re-record it with her band The Blackhearts for the 1984 album Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth. Cherie Currie also re-recorded "Cherry Bomb" with Marie Currie, her identical twin sister, on their 1997 re-released version of the album Messin' with the Boys.
In the 2005 documentary Edgeplay: A Film About the Runaways, Fowley and former Runaways lead singer Cherie Currie claimed that "Cherry Bomb" was quickly written just for Currie to audition for the band because the band members could not perform the song she originally chose to sing. It reached #1 on the Japanese chart and #106 on the U.S chart.
Popular culture
The Runaways' version of "Cherry Bomb" was used in the television film Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway (1976) as well as the film Dazed and Confused (1993), and was featured on the latter film's soundtrack album.
"Cherry Bomb" was re-recorded by Jett and Currie for use in the 2010 video game Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock as a playable song.
The "Cherry Bomb" refrain is sung by Jojo Levesque in a scene of the 2006 movie RV. Levesque had to be trained to sing the song poorly for humorous effect.
"Cherry Bomb" was covered by Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart (who played Currie and Jett, respectively) for the biographical film The Runaways (2010).
Joan Jett recorded a live version backed by L7 for inclusion on the benefit album Spirit of '73: Rock for Choice.
Currie performed "Cherry Bomb" with Warehouse 13 star Allison Scagliotti in the series' Season 4 episode "Runaway" (2013).
The song is heard in the Marvel Studios film Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), during the opening moments of the film's climactic battle sequence. It is also included on the film's soundtrack.