| Janis | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Compilation album by | ||||
| Released | November 23, 1993 | |||
| Recorded | December 1962 – September 26, 1970 | |||
| Genre | Blues rock, psychedelic rock, soul, blues | |||
| Length | 195:50 | |||
| Label | Columbia Legacy | |||
| Janis Joplin chronology | ||||
| ||||
Janis is a compilation album by Janis Joplin, released in 1993. The album features a broad overview of her career from her first recording in December 1962, to the last songs she recorded during the sessions for Pearl just a few days before her death in October 1970.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| Entertainment Weekly | A+ [2] |
| Rolling Stone |  [3] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [4] |
| The Village Voice | A [5] |
Janis was voted the seventh best reissue of 1993 in The Village Voice 's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll; [6] Robert Christgau—the poll's supervisor—called it "a smart, audiowise set that not only gets Joplin's achievement right but helps us understand it". [7]
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United States (RIAA) [8] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer and songwriter. One of the most iconic and successful rock performers of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals, as well as her "electric" stage presence.
Michael Bernard Bloomfield was an American blues guitarist and composer. Born in Chicago, he became one of the first popular music stars of the 1960s to earn his reputation almost entirely on his instrumental prowess, as he rarely sang before 1969. Respected for his guitar playing, Bloomfield knew and played with many of Chicago's blues musicians before achieving his own fame and was instrumental in popularizing blues music in the mid-1960s. In 1965, he played on Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, including the single "Like a Rolling Stone", and performed with Dylan at that year's Newport Folk Festival.
Big Brother and the Holding Company was an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Jefferson Airplane. After some initial personnel changes, the band became well known with the lineup of vocalist Janis Joplin, guitarists Sam Andrew and James Gurley, bassist Peter Albin, and drummer Dave Getz. Their second album Cheap Thrills, released in 1968, is considered one of the masterpieces of the psychedelic sound of San Francisco; it reached number one on the Billboard charts, and was ranked number 338 in Rolling Stone's the 500 greatest albums of all time. The album is also listed in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Pearl is the second and final solo studio album by American singer Janis Joplin, released on January 11, 1971 by Columbia Records, three months after her death on October 4, 1970. It was the final album with her direct participation, and the only Joplin album recorded with the Full Tilt Boogie Band, her final touring unit. It peaked at number one on the Billboard 200, holding that spot for nine weeks. It has been certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album is ranked number 259 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2020 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
Michael Monarch is an American guitarist. He is best known for his work with the band Steppenwolf.
Cheap Thrills is the second studio album by American rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, released on August 12, 1968, by Columbia Records. Cheap Thrills was the band's final album with lead singer Janis Joplin before she left to begin a solo career. For Cheap Thrills, the band and producer John Simon incorporated recordings of crowd noises to give the impression of a live album, for which it was subsequently mistaken by many listeners. Only "Ball and Chain" was actually recorded in concert at the Winterland Ballroom.
Sam Houston Andrew III was an American rock musician, singer, songwriter, composer, artist and founding member and guitarist of Big Brother and the Holding Company. During his career as musician and composer, Andrew had three platinum albums and two hit singles. His songs have been used in numerous major motion picture soundtracks and documentaries.
Nick Gravenites is an American blues, rock and folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his work with Electric Flag, Janis Joplin, Mike Bloomfield and several influential bands and individuals of the generation springing from the 1960s and 1970s. He has sometimes performed under the stage names Nick "The Greek" Gravenites and Gravy.
I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! is the debut solo and third studio album overall by American singer-songwriter Janis Joplin, released on September 11, 1969. It was the first album which Joplin recorded after leaving her former band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and the only solo album released during her lifetime.
In Concert is a live album by Janis Joplin. It was released in 1972, after Joplin's death, as a double-LP record. The first record contains performances with Big Brother and the Holding Company and the second with the Full Tilt Boogie Band, recorded at various locations in 1968 and 1970. The album lacks any live recordings with her first solo effort with the Kozmic Blues band though songs that had been produced with that band were performed in the recordings of the Full Tilt Boogie Band. The photographs used for the gatefold album were taken by photographer David Gahr in New York City in 1969 and 1970.
Janis Joplin's Greatest Hits is a 1973 collection of hit songs by American singer-songwriter Janis Joplin, who died in 1970. It features live versions of Down on Me and Ball and Chain which were included on the album In Concert the previous year.
Janis is a collection of performances by Janis Joplin, issued in 1975 as a compilation album containing film soundtrack and live recordings. Disc one is subtitled "From the soundtrack of the motion picture Janis ". In addition to concert recordings from Toronto and Frankfurt, there are several short TV-interviews. Disc two contains recordings from Austin, Texas, plus four recordings from San Francisco (1965). The album booklet contains a photo documentary, with 22 pictures from Janis Joplin's life and career.
"Ball and Chain" is a blues song written and recorded by American blues artist Big Mama Thornton. Although her recording did not appear on the record charts, the song has become one of Thornton's best-known, largely due to performances and recordings by Janis Joplin.
Farewell Song is a 1982 collection of nine previously unreleased recordings of Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Kozmic Blues Band, and Full Tilt Boogie Band. Tracks include Cheap Thrills-era outtakes and live performances; "Misery 'N", "Farewell Song", and "Catch Me Daddy".
Full Tilt Boogie Band was a Canadian rock band originally headed by guitarist John Till and then by Janis Joplin until her death in 1970. The band was composed of Till, pianist Richard Bell, bassist Brad Campbell, drummer Clark Pierson, and organist Ken Pearson.
"Kozmic Blues" is a song from American singer-songwriter Janis Joplin's I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! album, her first after departing Big Brother and the Holding Company. It was a part of Joplin's set at the Woodstock Festival in 1969.
The Woodstock Experience is a box consisting of a set of studio albums and live performances from the 1969 Woodstock Festival by the artists Santana, Janis Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone, Jefferson Airplane, and Johnny Winter. Each set consists of the 1969 studio album by the artist as well as each artist's entire Woodstock performance. The set was released as both a box containing all five artists, and also as individual releases separated by artist, each containing the studio album and live performance of that artist.
Move Over! is an album by Janis Joplin released for Record Store Day 2011. The album contains unreleased, rare and alternate songs from all three of Joplin's backing bands, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Kozmic Blues Band and Full Tilt Boogie Band.
Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968 is a live album by Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin. The album was recorded by Owsley Stanley in 1968, and released on 12 March 2012 through Columbia and Legacy, on the one-year anniversary of his death in an automobile accident. He had been supervising the development and release of this album right up to the time of his death on March 12, 2011. The album is dedicated to him, and set to the specifications Stanley set prior to his death.
The Lost Tapes is a two-disc compilation album by the San Francisco psychedelic rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin as lead singer. The material on the first disc consists of a show at The Matrix on January 31, 1967 that is previously unreleased. The second disc consists primarily of a show at The California Hall on July 28, 1966 that had first seen release in 1984 as Cheaper Thrills, with the final track "Hall Of The Mountain King" taken from a KQED TV broadcast on April 25, 1967.