Janis Joplin
About
Biography
Biography
Janis Joplin emerged from the burgeoning San Francisco music community of the late-1960s to become one of music history's most important performers. Combining rhythm-and-blues with rock-n-roll, Joplin burst onto the scene with her first band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, following an explosive performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. She quickly became arguably the most popular female singer of her day, thanks in part to the band's second album, Cheap Thrills (1968), which featured the hit "Piece of My Heart." But drugs took their toll with the band, leading to Joplin's departure at the end of the year in pursuit of a solo career. She found a fuller sound with the Kozmic Blues Band, which performed at the Woodstock Music Festival in August 1969, but again an excessive lifestyle led to the band breaking up. She emerged the following year with Full Tilt Boogie, a group of polished musicians who finally gave Joplin the space for her voice to fully bloom. With several notable performances and appearances on television, Joplin's new band seemed poised for great things. But her death from an accidental overdose while recording the posthumously released Pearl (1971) - which featured her most remembered songs, "Me and Bobby McGee" and "Mercedes Benz" - ended any realization for their full potential. Joplin was regarded as a pioneer for female rock singers, having reached enormous popularity in a world previously dominated by men, while often being cited as one of the greatest musical artists of all time.
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