Legendary Bands - Janis Joplin Posters

Her hair-tossing, foot-stomping performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival--immortalized the Monterey Pop documentary--made Janis Joplin a star. Dying less than three years later would make her a legend.

Born in Port Arthur, Texas on January 19, 1943, Joplin was a folk-blues singer bouncing between Austin and San Francisco before hooking up with the rawboned, biker bar-band Big Brother And The Holding Company in 1966. Clutching her funky, thrift-shop feather boas and her omnipresent bottle of Southern Comfort, she became the wildest white female blues singer anyone had ever seen. Showcasing searing renditions of Big Mama Thornton's "Ball And Chain," and Irma Franklin's "Piece Of My Heart," Cheap Thrills--the band's '68 Columbia Records debut--was a stone smash, and Joplin's tough 'n' tender persona turned her into a role model for hippie chicks everywhere.

Waving good-bye to Big Brother, she formed a horn-powered soul band, released the spotty I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! album, and toured non-stop. Putting together a new outfit of mostly Canadian musicians, the Full Tilt Boogie Band, Joplin started work on her next LP, dying of an heroin overdose on October 4, 1970 before the album could be completed. Titled Pearl (after her nickname), the posthumous release was a phenomenal success, spurred by her hang-loose hit cover of Kris Kristofferson's "Me And Bobby McGee," the searing soul ballad "Cry Baby," and the goofy "Mercedes Benz."

Joplin's life story was made into a movie (Janis) in 1974. Five years later, Hollywood would crank out The Rose, starring Bette Midler in a thinly-veiled rewrite of the Joplin legend. Janis Joplin has since been the subject of several biographies as well. Columbia issued an authoritative box set in 1994, the year before she was inducted into the Rock 'N' Roll Hall Of Fame.