Cherie Currie Releases New Rendition of Runaways' 'Queens of Noise'

Former Runaways frontwoman will digitally release her long-awaited, star-studded album, Blvds of Splendor, former Runaways guitarist Joan Jett’s Blackheart Records on April 28th.

The album previously came out as a vinyl-only release for Record Store Day last year, but didn’t get a wide release; the digital version includes three bonus tracks.

Currie first began teasing the album — which features guest appearances by Billy Corgan, Guns N’ Roses’ Slash, Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum, Juliette Lewis and Brody Dalle, among others — in 2016. She shelved the project at the time after falling more than 12 feet while chainsaw carving, causing head trauma and partial facial paralysis that lasted months.

“I’ve never had so much fun making a record before,” Currie said in a statement about Blvds of Splendor. “We all looked at each other when we were making it] and went, ‘Oh, my God. There’s magic happening here.’”

Now that she has recovered, and put out an album with Fanny drummer-vocalist Brie Darling in the interim, she’s previewing the album with a new rendition of the Runaways’ “Queens of Noise,” which also features Dale, Lewis and the Veronicas. The track, which is available now on streaming services, features thick, heavy-metal guitar and Currie and Dalle’s tightly wound harmonies and handclaps guiding the track.

A behind-the-scenes clip shows producer Matt Sorum talking about the song’s importance and footage of Currie and some of her famous guests gathering around a microphone in a studio. She and Dalle work out who will sing each line as they go, and Lewis adds in some upper harmonies as Sorum drums.

“Cherie’s voice tells it all, she is the real deal,” Sorum said in a statement. “And now more than ever that voice tells the story of where’s she’s been in her life. This record is about who Cherie Currie is now. We’ve waited a long time to hear this icon of rock and roll do what she does best. I’m very proud to be a part of this album by one of the best female singers of all time.”

Currie and Sorum began work on the album in 2010, around the time The Runaways biopic came out. She took a break from it and cut Reverie with Runaways producer Kim Fowley instead. She revisited Blvds of Splendor in the leadup to Record Store Day and decided now was the time to put it out.

Blvds of Splendor Tracklist

1. “Mr. X”
2. “Roxy Roller”
3. “You Wreck Me”
4. “Black Magic”
5. “Blvds of Splendor “
6. “Force to be Reckoned With”
7. “Bad and Broken”
8. “Rock & Roll Oblivion”
9. “Shades”
10. “Draggin’ the Line”
11. “Breakout”
12. “The Air That I Breathe”
13. “What Do All the People Know?” (bonus track)
14. “Gimme” (bonus track)
15. “Queens of Noise” (bonus track)