Janis Joplin

Born in Port Arthur, Texas, in 1943, Janis Joplin fell under the sway of Leadbelly, Bessie Smith and Big Mama Thornton in her teens, and the authenticity of these voices strongly influenced her decision to become a singer.

With the rock band Big Brother, Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart,” on 1968’s Cheap Thrills LP, shot to the #1 spot, the album sold a million copies in a month, and Joplin became a sensation – earning rapturous praise from Time and Vogue, appearing on The Dick Cavett Show and capturing the imagination of audiences that had never experienced such fiery intensity in a female rock singer. Her departure from Big Brother and emergence as a solo star were inevitable; she put together her own outfit, the Kozmic Blues Band, and in 1969 released I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, which went gold. That year also saw her perform at the Woodstock festival.

In the years since, Janis Joplin’s recordings and filmed performances have cemented her status as an icon, inspiring countless imitators and musical devotees. In 1988, the Janis Joplin Memorial, featuring a bronze sculpture by artist Douglas Clark, was unveiled in Port Arthur. Myriad hit collections, live anthologies and other repackaged releases have kept her legend alive, as has the one-woman hit show Love, Janis (which Joplin’s sister, Laura, helped create) and Broadway’s critically-acclaimed musical A Night With Janis Joplin. A documentary film Janis: Little Girl Blue directed and written by celebrated, Academy Award®-nominated documentarian Amy Berg and produced by Academy Award®-winner Alex Gibney, is an intimate portrait of the iconic but troubled rock ‘n’ roll singer.

Joplin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and posthumously given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. But such honors only made official what rock fans already knew: that she was among the greatest, most powerful singers the form had ever known – and that she’d opened the door for countless artists across the musical spectrum.