If you successfully fought the urge to crash come midnight on December 31, then you might have stayed up long enough to catch the premiere of Avril Lavigne‘s new single, “What The Hell,” on Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve. As fate would have it, I fell asleep with the TV on well before the clock struck twelve, but woke up a short time later to Lavigne’s performance and was impressed.

Lavigne immediately made “What The Hell” available as a free download via her Facebook page for the following 48 hours, but if you missed it, you were out of luck until today. Now up for paid digital download, “What The Hell” is nearly four minutes of total ear candy, co-written and produced by Max Martin and Shellback (Pink’s “Raise Your Glass,” Britney’s “If U Seek Amy,” Adam Lambert’s “If I Had You”).

Sure, “What The Hell” may be just the latest in a long line of Lavigne’s boy-bashing pop songs, but with her bad-girl declarations punctuated by a peppy “96 Tears”-style organ and crazy-good hooks that double-dog dare you to sit on your hands, it’s impossible not to join in the chant. Lavigne’s new single’s just the thing to shake off those January doldrums. Come on, join the fun, what the hell:

I think it’s safe to assume that “What The Hell” isn’t how Lavigne would have preferred to preview her forthcoming fourth album, Goodbye Lullabye. Early on in the recording process, she’d described the set a “stripped-down rock record,” and this single certainly doesn’t fall into that category. Due out on March 8, Goodbye Lullabye has been finished for over a year, and with Lavigne saying that “What The Hell” is the most pop-sounding song on the album, it appears some internal record-label wrangling has been at play.

Purchase Avril Lavigne – “What The Hell” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.