Historical Info

Laguna had experience to draw from when "I Love Rock ’n Roll" rocketed up the charts. In 1968, he produced, played keyboards and sang on Tommy James and the Shondells’ surprise hit "Mony Mony."

The song was originally supposed to be the "B" side of another single. And the sound was so raw the record label executives told Laguna it sounded like it was recorded in a garbage can. Yet the tune, which got its name from the MONY — Mutual of New York — building in Manhattan, went to No. 3 on the American pop charts.

"We laughed about the song when we recorded it," Laguna says, still chuckling at the 40-year-old memory. "And if you told me then it was a song that was gonna end up being played at like every ball game, I’d have said you were crazy. It’s another example of an iconic song in my life that I don’t understand, that’s a mystery."

The performer-turned-producer was still a teenager when he produced hits in the 1960s for Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers, Tommy James and the Shondells, Darlene Love, Jay and the Americans and The Ohio Express.

The bubblegum sound changed Laguna’s career. Then along came Joan Jett, who changed his life, and he hers.

He wrote for big acts in the '70's like Tony Orlando and Dawn, and the Ohio Express.