Question: Joan Jett & the Blackhearts covered a song by the first westerner to achieve pop start status in Japan.  When was that song first recorded?

Context articles: Open Arms (Journey song)
Jett Rock
I Love Rock 'n' Roll
I Hate Myself for Loving You
I Love Rock 'n Roll (album)
Blackheart Records
I Love Rock 'n' Roll (disambiguation)
Up Your Alley (album)
Alan Merrill
Sinner (Joan Jett album)

"Open Arms" is a song by American rock band Journey.
 It was released as a single from their 1981 album, "Escape".
 Co-written by band members Steve Perry and Jonathan Cain, the song is a power ballad whose lyrics are an empowering plea to a lover to forgive past wrongdoings and agree to start anew.
 It is one of the band's most recognizable radio hits and their biggest US "Billboard" Hot 100 hit, reaching number two in February 1982 and holding that position for six weeks (behind "Centerfold" by the J. Geils Band and "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts).
Jett Rock is a Greatest Hits album released in Japan by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.
 The album was released in 2003.
"I Love Rock 'n' Roll" is a rock song written in 1975 by Alan Merrill of the Arrows, who recorded the first released version.
 The song was later made famous by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts in 1982.
 Alan Merrill has played the song live in Europe, Japan and most often in his home town New York City.
"I Hate Myself for Loving You" is a 1988 song from Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and the first single from the album "Up Your Alley".
 The song reached No. 8 on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100, Jett's third single to reach the Top 10, but her first since "Crimson and Clover" in 1982.
 The song spent six weeks longer on the charts than did the group's biggest hit, "I Love Rock 'n' Roll."
I Love Rock 'n Roll is the second studio album by Joan Jett and the first to feature her backing band The Blackhearts.
 Soon after the first recording sessions at Soundworks Studios, original Blackheart guitarist Eric Ambel was replaced by Ricky Byrd.
 It is Jett's most commercially successful album to date with over 10 million copies sold, largely due to the success of the title track, which was released as a single soon after the album was released.
Blackheart Records is an American record label founded by rock musicians Joan Jett and Kenny Laguna.
 Artists include The Eyeliners, Girl in a Coma, the Cute Lepers, the Dollyrots, The Vacancies, and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts.
"I Love Rock 'n' Roll" is a song by Arrows made famous by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, covered by multiple artists.
 It may also refer to:
Up Your Alley is the sixth studio album by the American rock band Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.
 It was originally released in May 1988, on the labels Blackheart and CBS-Sony in the U.S., and Polydor in (Europe and Japan), a year and a half after their previous album "Good Music".
 This album contains the single "I Hate Myself for Loving You", which peaked at No. 8 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, and had been used as the theme song for "Sunday Night Football" NFL games in America (with altered lyrics, by two singers) during the 2006 and 2007 seasons.
 The follow-up single "Little Liar" continued Jett's chart success, peaking at No. 19 on the Hot 100 in late 1988/early 1989.
Alan Merrill (born Allan Preston Sachs; February 19, 1951) is an American vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, actor and model.
 In the early 1970s Merrill was the first westerner to achieve pop star status in Japan.
 He is the lead singer of the first ever released version and co-author of the song "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" by the Arrows in 1975.
Sinner is the eleventh studio album by the American hard rock band Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, released June 13, 2006, by Blackheart Records Group.
 While most of the contents previously appeared on the Japan-only release "Naked" (2004), some in different mixes, it is her first record of new material released in the United States since "Pure and Simple" in 1994.
 Singles released include "A.C.D.C." (originally by Sweet) and "Riddles" (Jett's first-ever political song), which is a new version of "Right in the Middle" from "Naked" with different lyrics.