Songfacts®:

• "I'm Alive" is an ecstatic declaration of passion for living. In contrast to his usual soft, R&B vocal style (as exemplified in his most-remembered tune, "Loop De Loop"), Johnny Thunder comes out howling on this one. The vibe is closer to garage rock than to rhythm and blues or pop.
• A small New York label named Calla Records released Thunder's "I'm Alive" as a single backed by "Verbal Expressions of T.V." It didn't sell well enough to sustain Thunder's music career, but it certainly caught the attention of one of the era's biggest stars. In 1969, at the height of his fame and influence, Bob Dylan thought of this song when Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone asked him if any songs out there impressed him. Dylan called the tune "one of the most powerful records I've ever heard."
  
  It was a rare endorsement from the very laconic Dylan.
• The song was written by Tommy James and Peter Lucia of Tommy James and the Shondells. They released the original version in 1969 on their Crimson & Clover album and released it as the B-side to the "Crystal Blue Persuasion" single. Johnny Thunder released his version a short time later.
• Also in 1969, Don Fardon out of England recorded a cover of "I'm Alive" that was used in UK commercials for Five Alive fruit drinks and the Vodafone telecommunications company. Fardon's version was reissued in the Netherlands in March 2011 and cracked the Dutch singles Top 20.
• The Swedish group Blue Swede recorded a mash-up of "I'm Alive" and "Hush" by Deep Purple in 1975, releasing it on their third studio album, Out of the Blue.
  
  In 2008, Tom Jones recorded a version on his album 24 Hours.
  
  UIC, a punk band from Canada, recorded a version on their album Our Garage in 1986. They recorded and performed from 1982 to 1995 and reunited in 2016.