When a band breaks up due to musical differences, it’s always interesting to hear how those differences manifest in their subsequent work.

Despite a fair amount of popularity in Japan in the late 1970s, The Runaways (who we met here) broke up amid declining sales in the US, growing acrimony within the band, and that most classic of clichés — musical differences. Joan “Put another dime in the jukebox” Jett (who we met here) was heavily influenced by glam rock and punk, and she wanted The Runaways to sally forth in that direction. At the same time, lead guitarist Lita Ford preferred to steer the band towards more of a hard rock sound.

Alas, a ship with two captains will soon run aground.

Embarking on a solo career, Joan donned black leather and ripped t-shirts and made records inspired by The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, and a whole lot of 1960s pop and garage rock. Following her own path, Lita donned black leather and spandex and posed on her album covers with spiderwebs and heavy metal guitars.

In the early to mid-80s, Lita was a pioneer on the metal frontier since very few women at the time populated this male-dominated genre. Her first couple of albums didn’t do much besides establish her presence, but by album number three — titled Lita — she was co-writing with Lemmy from Motörhead and Nikki Sixx from Mötley Crüe, and she would go on to score a huge hit duetting with Ozzy Osbourne. She also hit the pop jackpot when producer Mike Chapman was hired to work on the album. Chapman wrote and produced dozens of UK hits in the 70s (including this one) before working with Blondie and The Knack.

“Kiss Me Deadly,” the first single from the album, was released in March of 1988 and just missed the US Top 10. The video remained in constant rotation on MTV for the next year. Lita never reached such heights again, but pioneers don’t need to repeat their success — they’ve already made their mark on history.

So come on pretty baby — I know you like dancing … with Lita Ford.