Rewind: Pearl - Janis Joplin (1971)

Pearl - Janis Joplin

Columbia (USA) / CBS (UK)

Produced by Paul A. Rothchild

Released 11th January 1971

US Chart #1 (9 weeks)

Side 1

Side 2

 Click on the Link to listen to the album

1999 CD Reissue

Bonus Tracks

11 Tell Mama (Live)    
12 Little Girl Blue (Live)    
13 Try -Just A Little Bit Harder- (Live)    
14 Cry Baby (Live)

All tracks were recorded on 4th July 1970 on the Festival Express Tour

2005 Legacy Edition

The Legacy Edition included a demo of Me and Bobby McGee alongside a selection of Alternate versions of three other songs plus the Full Tilt Boogie Band instrumental tribute to Janis Joplin entitled 'Pearl'. Also included was a second disc featuring live performances from between 28th June - 4th July 1970 on the Festival Express Tour in Canada. Six of the songs featured had not previously been released.

 In 2012 Pearl was Reissued again and renamed as The Pearl Sessions and featured Mono Single Mixes and Alternate versions and various takes of different songs from the album.

 

Click on the Link to listen to the album

The Pearl Sessions

In 2016 it was released on Vinyl in Europe (on Limited Edition Numbered Red Vinyl) and retained the original 1971 Tracklist.

In the USA in 2016 it was issued as a Double Album (2 x 12" Vinyl Discs played at 45RPM)

 

 A1 Move Over   
A2 Cry Baby   
B1 A Woman Left Lonely   
B2 Half Moon   
B3 Buried Alive In The Blues   
C1 My Baby   
C2 Me & Bobby McGee   
D1 Mercedes Benz   
D2 Trust Me   
D3 Get It While You Can

Personnel
Janis Joplin – vocals, guitar on "Me and Bobby McGee"
    Richard Bell – piano
    Ken Pearson – organ
    John Till – electric guitar
    Brad Campbell – bass guitar
    Clark Pierson – drums

Additional personnel
Bobby Womack – acoustic guitar on "Trust Me"
Bobbye Hall – conga, percussion
Phil Badella, John Cooke, Vince Mitchell – backing vocals
Sandra Crouch – tambourine

Singles Released From Pearl

Me and Bobby McGee / Half Moon

Released 11th January 1971

US Chart #1*

*It was to be her only #1 Single.

(Dutch Picture Sleeve)

Cry Baby / Mercedes Benz

23rd April 1971

US Chart #42

(Dutch Picture Sleeve)

Get It While You Can / Move Over

21st August 1971

US Chart #78

(UK Maxi Single Picture Sleeve)

A1 Move Over    
A2 Cry Baby    
B1 Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)    
B2 Piece Of My Heart

5th November 1971 (UK)

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Recording for what was to become the final studio album from Janis Joplin began in early September 1970 through to 3rd October (Janis had laid her last vocal down on the 1st October - an a capella version of Mercedes Benz).

Three days later she was found dead at the Landmark Motor Hotel where she had been staying. The official cause of death was a heroin overdose, possibly compounded by alcohol. John Cooke, the manager of the Full Tilt Boogie (who had been the back up band for Joplin from around April 1970 and had toured with her on the Festival Express Tour through Canada along with the Grateful Dead and other artists), had found her body and believed that the heroin she had taken was much more potent than what she would normally have taken as several of her dealer's other customers had also overdosed in the same week. She was only 27 years old.

The album was produced by Paul A. Rothchild, who had previously worked with The Doors and he along with this new band of musicians brought a more polished sound to the songs that were recorded for the album.

Janis Joplin sings on nine of the ten tracks, only Buried Alive Blues remained as an instrumental as no lyrics had been written for it prior to her death.

Alongside The Greatest Hits album released in 1973, Pearl is one of Janis Joplin's biggest selling albums, having attained Platinum status a number of times in the USA.

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 323 - Janis Joplin

  

Janis Joplin's Greatest Hits - Janis Joplin

CBS/Columbia

Released July 1973

US Chart #37*

*Has sold over 7 Million Copies in the USA.

Tracklisting

A1 Big Brother and The Holding Company - Piece Of My Heart    
A2 Big Brother and The Holding Company - Summertime    
A3 Kozmic Blues Band  - Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)    
A4 Full Tilt Boogie Band - Cry Baby    
A5 Full Tilt Boogie Band - Me And Bobby McGee (Single Version)

   

B1 Big Brother and The Holding Company - Down On Me (Live)    
B2 Full Tilt Boogie Band - Get It While You Can    
B3 Big Brother and The Holding Company - Bye, Bye Baby    
B4 Full Tilt Boogie Band - Move Over    
B5 Full Tilt Boogie Band - Ball And Chain (Live)

The 1999 CD Reissue/Remaster included two bonus tracks:

11. Kozmic Blues Band - Maybe

12. Full Tilt Boogie Band - Mercedes Benz

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One of my favourite "Greatest Hits" album for years has been the one released by CBS (UK)/Columbia Records (USA) in 1973 celebrating the music of Janis Joplin. My vinyl copy of this is long lost to the wind but I still have it on CD these days. 

I'm certain I've said it here before that the first ever album I bought was Cheap Thrills by Big Brother and The Holding Company. I was just a kid and bought it because I liked the crazy cartoon cover art but also because somewhere in my young life I had heard Ball and Chain and Piece of My Heart and liked them both. I can't recall if I had seen footage on the television of her perfoming them or whether I had heard them on the radio, but aged ten what was I to know about who she was and what she was all about! I just knew that I liked what I had heard and that was the reasoning for spending money that I had saved up. At that age I probably didn't even understand the concept that she was dead either!

I didn't get the Greatest Hits album straight away when it came out but maybe a year later. Again my reasoning was that it contained Me and Bobby McGee which I had heard on the radio and liked along with my favourites Ball and Chain and Piece of My Heart and the fact that she looked kinda cool on that motorbike! 😎

I had a listen to the album last night for the first time in a couple of years at least and the report is that 43 years and 4 months since its release it still sounds pretty fine to me. 😃

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 225 Big Brother & the Holding Company

Big Brother & the Holding Company - Big Brother & the Holding Company

Mainstream/Columbia

Produced by Bob Shad

Released 12th August 1967

US Chart #60

Original Track List
Mainstream Records Version 1967
Side A
1. Bye, Bye Baby
2. Easy Rider
3. Intruder
4. Light is Faster Than Sound
5. Call On Me
Side B
6. Women is Losers
7. Blindman
8. Down on Me
9. Caterpillar
10. All is Loneliness

Bonus Tracks
Columbia Records Version 1967
11. Coo Coo (Single, Side A track 6)
12. The Last Time (Single, Side B Track 6)
1999 CD Reissue
13. Call On Me (Alternate Take)
14. Bye, Bye Baby (Alternate Take)

Cheap Thrills - Big Brother & the Holding Company

Columbia

Produced by John Simon

Released 12th August 1968

US Chart #1

Original Tracklist

Side A

1 - Combination of the Two
2 - I Need a Man To Love
3 - Summertime
4 - Piece of My Heart

Side B

1 - Turtle Blues 

2 - Oh, Sweet Mary
3 - Ball and Chain

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Once again we return to the 1960s for our daily infusion of music and today a special 2 for 1 because both albums by the same band were released on the same day a year apart.

Big Brother & the Holding Company are of course well known for the fact that centre stage on the mic was one heck of a blues howler in Janis Joplin.

The Debut Album was released in 1967 shortly after the band's successful apperance at The Monterey Pop Festival. When Columbia took over the contract from the band they reissued the album with "featuring Janis Joplin" on the cover. It's actually not a bad album for a Debut and some have highlighted that the production is maybe not all that good, as someone with no experience twiddling the knobs in a recording studio I really can't comment on that.

It's actually the second album that really is the bees knees as they say (I've never worked out exactly who "they" actually are so you'll just have to trust me on this).

Cheap Thrills was actually the first album I ever bought with my own money mainly because I absolutely loved the cover art and secondly because I absolutely loved Piece of My Heart and Ball and Chain. I think I probably heard them on the radio at some point in time and just loved the sound and that throaty howl of Ms Joplin.

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Rewind: 1971 - Janis Joplin hits #1

On this day in musical history back in 1971, five months after her death, Janis Joplin started a nine-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with 'Pearl.' The album was released on 11th January and was the only album that her touring band at the time, The Full Tilt Boogie Band, appeared on. The original release contained ten tracks, nine of which Janis sang on, 'Buried Alive in the Blues' is an instrumental that Joplin never got around to adding vocals to due to her untimely death.

Rewind: 1943 Janis Joplin Born

Would have been the birthday of Janis Joplin today

Big Brother and the Holding Company

Big Brother and the Holding Company (1967).

Cheap Thrills (1968).

Live At Winterland '68 (1998).

Live At Carousel Ballroom '68 (2012).

Kozmic Blues Band

I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! (1969).

Full Tilt Boogie Band

Pearl (1971).

Janis Joplin

Greatest Hits (1973). 

Tidy Tune #277: Piece of My Heart - Janis Joplin

On this day in 1970, US singer Janis Joplin was found dead at the Landmark Hotel Hollywood after an accidental heroin overdose.

Click on the links to enjoy the music.

Thankfully all these years on from the death of Janis Joplin there is still so much footage of her in action and here's a selection of  audio, documentary, TV and live in concert. Enjoy.

Janis Joplin - Live in Germany.

The Best of Janis Joplin (Full Album).

Fallen Legends: Janis Joplin Documentary.

Ball and Chain - Montreaux.

To Love Somebody - 1969 US TV.

Little Girl Blue - 1969 Tom Jones Show.

Raise Your Hand - Janis Joplin and Tom Jones - 1969 Tom Jones Show.

Woodstock 1969.

Janis (Full Movie Special).

Janis Joplin with Full Tilt Boogie - Honolulu 6th July 1970 (Live Bootleg).

Live at The Coffee Gallery 1963.

Come Up the Years - Big Brother and the Holding Company 1967 Documentary.