- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- Heavily influenced by African American blues legends like Bessie Smith and Odetta, Janis Joplin had a short career, appearing on just four studio albums.
Janis Joplin – Janis Joplin’s Greatest Hits (1973): Heavily influenced by African American blues legends like Bessie Smith and Odetta, Janis Joplin had a short career, appearing on just four studio albums. Janis Joplin’s Greatest Hits covers most of the better-known songs that Janis Joplin recorded. One song that is not included on Janis Joplin’s Greatest Hits is “Mercedes Benz” (“Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz?”), a near-novelty song that Janis Joplin recorded a capella just three days before her death; the song is included on her final album, Pearl. Particularly since so few women were in hard rock bands during the 1960’s, even at the time it was clear how extraordinary she was; and Janis Joplin has been an inspiration for generations of female musicians.
In October 2013, a musical featuring her songs, called A Night with Janis Joplin opened on Broadway; the musical continues to be performed regularly, including a tour in 2019. The woman playing Janis Joplin, Mary Bridget Davies is good enough at her job to have been the touring female vocalist with Big Brother and the Holding Company for many years. The classic album Cheap Thrills (1968) by that band is one of the greatest American rock albums of the 1960’s. Janis Joplin was a bandmember in Big Brother and the Holding Company at the time, and she also performed on their first album that was released shortly after their electrifying appearance at the Monterey Pop festival, Big Brother and the Holding Company (1967). Janis Joplin left Big Brother and the Holding Company in December 1968; with the help of Mike Bloomfield, Harvey Brooks, and Nick Gravenites of the Electric Flag, Joplin formed a new band called the Kozmic Blues Band in early 1969. Bandmembers included Sam Andrew of Big Brother and the Holding Company, plus John Till and Brad Campbell who were also in her later backing band, the Full Tilt Boogie Band. In September 1969, the sole album by Janis Joplin with the Kozmic Blues Band came out just after their performance at Woodstock, I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama! In early 1970, Janis Joplin was more directly involved in putting together what became known as the Full Tilt Boogie Band; she has been quoted as saying: “It’s my band. Finally, it’s my band!” Janis Joplin’s final album that she made with the Full Tilt Boogie Band, Pearl was released in early 1971, about three months after her death. The #1 hit single from Pearl, “Me and Bobby McGee” was written by Kris Kristofferson and had previously been recorded by Roger Miller. It is in a different style from Janis Joplin’s earlier songs and provides a hint of what we might have heard if she had been able to survive her frequent periods of heavy drinking and heroin addiction. These three bands are quite different, although it is fair to say that Janis Joplin dominated all of them: Big Brother and the Holding Company was a psychedelic rock band and part of the San Francisco Sound; the Kozmic Blues Band was influenced by R&B and soul artists of the 1960’s and had a prominent brass section; and the Full Tilt Boogie Band had an organist but no horns and was mostly composed of previous backing musicians for Canadian rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins – the bandmembers in the Band had also come from Hawkins’ backing band. Janis Joplin toured widely in Europe and in America with all three bands and made some television appearances also, notably on The Dick Cavett Show. The songs on Janis Joplin’s Greatest Hits are all identified as to which band Janis Joplin was performing with – four with Big Brother and the Holding Company, five with the Full Tilt Boogie Band, and just one with the Kozmic Blues Band.