One very important fact about Alan Merrill: He was the lead singer and songwriter of the first and original 1975 version of "I Love Rock N Roll" with his band, The Arrows. The song has become an enduring international rock anthem, recorded by Joan Jett, Britney Spears, and many others. Joan Jett saw Merrill perform the song on a British television pop show in '76, while on tour with her band, The Runaways, and she was deeply inspired. Her 1982 version of the song was #1 for 8 weeks in the USA.
Alan formed his band, The Arrows. As lead singer/bassist of that group, he had hits with "Touch Too Much", "My Last Night With You",and "I Love Rock 'N Roll". He also hosted a weekly TV series in 1976-77 called "The Arrows Show", on ITV/Granada Television. A book was written about the Arrows by Liverpool legend Bill Harry, the former Merseybeat editor, on Everest Books. Famed hit-maker Mickie Most produced the Arrows on his RAK record label. There was even an Arrows cartoon strip which ran for over a year.
When the new wave of punk rock swept the UK in '77, the Arrows became suddenly unfashionable, and disbanded. Merrill then set his sights on the USA, and formed the band Runner with British musicians Steve Gould (Rare Bird) on guitar, Mick Feat (Van Morrison Band) on bass, and Dave Dowle (Whitesnake) on drums. They recorded an album titled "Runner" for Island Records in late 1978, which charted in the USA. When the group broke up in 1980 (due to the legendary "musical differences"), Merrill moved back from the UK to New York.
In 1980-83 1980-83, Merrill toured and recorded with Rick Derringer, contributing to his "Good Dirty Fun" and "Rick Derringer and Friends" albums, writing songs, singing, and playing guitar on these projects. This Derringer lineup also made a concert film for Sony, "The Rick Derringer Rock Spectacular", which featured all-star guests like Ted Nugent, Southside Johnny, and Edgar Winter. In 1985, Alan released a self-titled solo album for Polydor Records, a collection of all self-composed tracks. Some heavyweight friends contributing to this album were Steve Winwood, Mick Taylor, and Dallas Taylor. The album was a critical success with great reviews, but wasn't a chart hit.
In 1986, Alan joined Meat Loaf for the remainder of the 1980's and recorded the "Live At Wembley" and "Prime Cuts" albums with the band. In 1990, Alan Merrill got a part in the HBO television series "Encyclopedia Brown" playing rocker Casey Sparks. He also wrote the theme song of the show, which was titled "Who Done It?". This was followed in the 1990's with his involvement as a vocalist in the Christmas album "Holiday Heroes", with producer Jon Tiven. Two albums by the Jon Tiven Group followed, "Blue Guru" and "Yes I Ram". Merrill did all the lead singing on these two discs, except for one vocal duet on each CD, with Arthur Alexander and Jim "Basketball Diaries" Carroll, respectively.
Records, and the Vodka Collins reunion reissue is titled "Boys In The Band", a compilation of three albums. In September 2006 Alan Merrill released a new solo album titled "At The Candy Shop" and this follows a July reissue of his early career album, "Merrill 1." Alan Merrill currently resides in Paris, London, Tokyo, and New York.