‘Have You Ever Seen The Rain’: Joan Jett’s greatest-ever cover version
Joan Jett didn’t experience a rise to fame like most. At a young age, forming The Runaways might have seemed more like a passion project than the start of a longstanding career, but it eventually led her to open for acts from Talking Heads to Van Halen before establishing a name for herself in her own right. Along the way, she encountered everything you might expect as a woman in rock circles.
One of the biggest changes Jett noticed when she suddenly gained a substantial following was the lengths to which they ventured to express their passion. Saying that, it’s easy to guess this as something relatively acceptable, like screaming as loud as they could to get her attention on stage or throwing items, like pieces of clothing or written notes of adoration.
While these likely happened too, Jett, more often than not, left the stage covered in spit after “fans” felt it appropriate to hurl their emotions at a woman daring to play rock ‘n’ roll like the guys. And even though she didn’t like it—obviously—she had to grow accustomed to that being just the way things were. They could get away with it because they were men, and she wasn’t.
However, all of these problematic sides to fame aside, Jett was also a force with a voice that felt cutting, organically balanced between raw and emotional—the perfect inbuilt tool for delivering hard-hitting rock tunes and more delicate dynamics. It’s always easy to focus on the former, especially as Jett reinstated the energy in many rock spaces, but she also sang with varying cadences, resulting in layered music that told stories without feeling explicit.
Beyond her own discography, which includes countless examples of this, Jett has also proven herself to be a master of covers, from the more obvious reinterpretation of the Arrows’ ‘I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll’ to Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. While most of her covers hold their own unique energy, the one that commands the most attention, even more than ‘I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll’, is her quintessential take on a Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Covering CCR isn’t an easy feat, but when Jett took on ‘Have You Ever Seen The Rain’, she didn’t just adopt a loyal approach but embellished it with her signature charm, maintaining all the reasons it resonated emotionally to begin with. CCR’s original version is no doubt one of their best, demonstrating their inexplicable ability to create music that ventures beyond the walls of easy description, but Jett’s cover pushes this to new heights, capturing the melancholy with a gritty edge.
Side by side, they might initially seem inextricable from one another. But when Jett’s vocals kick in, we’re reminded of all the reasons she grew popular in the first place. Jett was never merely a charged entity sent to disrupt the space with anarchy and noise; she knew the parameters of musical reinvention and how to access different stems of emotionality whenever it was needed.
As a result, her cover of ‘Have You Ever Seen The Rain’ doesn’t feel like a cover for the sake of it; it feels more like a statement about covers done right. After all, countless artists have attempted to take on classic CCR songs, but something about Jett’s approach feels entirely effortless, like sparks from all corners of her own ability to make music feel completely and utterly alive.
