Fifty-six years ago tomorrow, on 4 October 1970, Janis Joplin died in Hollywood. She was 27, halfway through making the album that became Pearl, and she joined Jimi Hendrix, who had died just sixteen days earlier, in what we now call the 27 Club. She only made four studio albums, but people are still digging for every one of them.
So this weekend we're putting Janis on the turntable and writing the guide we'd want if we were hunting her records today: what each album is, which original US and UK pressings to look for, how to tell a first issue from a later one, and which records from her world are sitting in our Mansfield crates right now.
Janis Joplin on vinyl: the four albums
Janis recorded four studio albums in four years. Two were with Big Brother and the Holding Company, and two came out under her own name:
- Big Brother & the Holding Company (Mainstream, August 1967)
- Cheap Thrills (Columbia, 12 August 1968)
- I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! (Columbia, 11 September 1969)
- Pearl (Columbia, 11 January 1971, three months after she died)
After that come the posthumous records: Joplin In Concert (1972), Janis Joplin's Greatest Hits (1973) and a long line of live sets and box sets. The first four are the ones collectors chase, and three of them are the subject of most questions we get.
Cheap Thrills vinyl: Crumb, crowd noise and orange CBS labels
Cheap Thrills is the one with the Robert Crumb comic-strip cover, and it's one of the best-loved sleeves of the sixties. Crumb drew it as the back cover. Janis loved it so much that she insisted Columbia put it on the front. The band wanted to call the album Sex, Dope and Cheap Thrills, and Columbia said no. They also said no to the band's first cover idea, a photo of the group naked in bed together. Probably for the best for anyone flicking through the racks in Woolworths.
It sounds like a live album, but mostly it isn't. Producer John Simon added crowd noise to the studio recordings. Only Ball and Chain, Janis's nine-minute take on Big Mama Thornton's song, was actually recorded at a gig, at Bill Graham's Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco in April 1968. The sleeve credits the live material to the Fillmore. Side one also has Piece Of My Heart and Summertime. The album spent eight weeks at number one in America.
What to look for:
- US original: Columbia KCS 9700 (stereo), 1968. It also came out in mono, and the original mono pressing is now a genuine rarity.
- UK original: CBS 63392, 1968, in mono and stereo, on plain orange CBS labels in a sleeve laminated on the front. UK stereo copies have SBPG 63392 stamped in the run-out groove. Specialist dealers list the A1/B2 matrix as the earliest stereo pressing.
- Early-70s UK reissues kept the orange label but came in a sleeve without lamination. If the front of your copy has that glossy lamination, you're in first-issue territory. If it doesn't, it's probably a later one: still a lovely record, just a different price.
- 50th anniversary: in November 2018 Columbia/Legacy put out Sex, Dope & Cheap Thrills, finally using the band's original title, with alternate takes and a different live Ball and Chain. It's worth having alongside the original, but it doesn't replace it.
I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!: the sticker trap
Janis's first solo album came out on 11 September 1969. It was recorded in New York that June with the Kozmic Blues Band, and the horn section gave it a Stax-soul feel that Big Brother had never had. It has Try (Just A Little Bit Harder), her version of the Bee Gees' To Love Somebody, and Little Girl Blue. Critics were sniffy about it at the time. Most of them have come round since, which happens a lot with records.
Here's a detail that catches out plenty of collectors. On the first US pressing, Columbia KCS 9913, the title appears only on the spine and the labels. The Robert Crumb title sticker on the shrink-wrap came later. So a copy with the sticker isn't the earliest issue, whatever the listing says. Later US reissues (PC 9913) had the title printed on the cover.
In the UK it came out as CBS S 63546 (63546 on the sleeve), again on plain orange labels. First UK issues have SBPG 63546-A1 / B1 stamped in the run-out groove and come in a sleeve laminated on the front.
Pearl original pressing: what to check
Pearl is the big one. Janis recorded it at Sunset Sound in Hollywood with producer Paul A. Rothchild, who was best known for his work with the Doors, and with the Full Tilt Boogie Band, the touring band she called hers at last. She died before the sessions were finished. Her last recording was Mercedes Benz, sung a cappella and done in one take on 1 October 1970. Buried Alive In The Blues is an instrumental because she was due to sing over the backing track the following day. It's hard to listen to that one without a lump in the throat.
Me And Bobby McGee, written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster, went to number one in America in March 1971. The album spent nine weeks at the top there and reached number 20 in the UK. The cover is Barry Feinstein's photograph of Janis lounging on a Victorian loveseat, drink in hand.
What to look for:
- US original: Columbia KC 30322, January 1971. Columbia also issued a four-channel quadraphonic version in the US in 1972 (CQ 30322).
- UK original: CBS 64188, 1971. The labels read S 64188 while the sleeve and spine just say 64188. Look for orange CBS labels, "Made in England", and the CBS company inner sleeve. UK copies were pressed at CBS's Aston Clinton plant. Early run-outs read S 64188-A1 / S 64188-B1, and Discogs lists several later stamper variants.
- European copies with CBS S 64188 on the label were also pressed in Holland. Check the label and the back of the sleeve for "Made in Holland" or "Printed in Holland" if you particularly want a UK copy.
- Audiophile option: Mobile Fidelity issued Pearl in 2016 as a double LP cut at 45rpm (MFSL 2-454).
Pearl sold in huge numbers, so this is the easiest Janis original to find in good condition. With that one, it's worth holding out for a nice copy rather than grabbing the first one you see.
A quick checklist before you buy any Janis LP
- Catalogue number: make sure the sleeve, spine and labels all agree. The UK CBS numbers to know are 63392, 63546, 64188, and S 67241 for the In Concert double, plus S 65470 for the 1973 Greatest Hits.
- Label: first UK issues of the three Columbia-era albums are on plain orange CBS labels.
- Sleeve: front lamination on 1968–69 UK issues. Expect ring wear and a seam split or two, because these sleeves have been to a lot of parties.
- Run-out groove: stamped matrices beat a vague "original pressing" in a listing title every time.
- The loud bits: Janis sang at full tilt, and decades of worn styli have left their mark on plenty of copies. Play the big climaxes, the end of Ball and Chain or the choruses on Cry Baby, and listen for breakup. As we explain in vinyl grading explained, an honestly graded VG still plays well, but loud vocal records show wear sooner than quiet ones.
We won't make up values for you. Prices move. Condition, completeness and the right matrix are what really separate one copy from another.
Janis's world in the WholelottaVinyl crates
We don't have a Janis LP on the shelf as we write. Her records don't hang about here, and we'd rather tell you that than pretend otherwise. If you'd like first dibs on the next one, add it to our wanted list and we'll email you when a matching copy comes in.
In the meantime, these records from her world are in stock right now, each one graded by hand and photographed as the actual copy:
Where it started: Bessie Smith – Empty Bed Blues LP (CBS 66273, 1971), UK press on solid orange CBS labels, VG+/VG, £5. Janis said Bessie Smith was one of the singers who made her want to sing. In August 1970, just weeks before she died, she shared the cost of a headstone for Bessie's grave, which had been unmarked since 1937. It's also a handy reference for the orange CBS labels of the time.
The orange-label neighbour: Bob Dylan – Self Portrait (CBS 66250, 1970), gatefold, UK press on solid orange CBS labels, VG+/VG, £20. It's from the same label and the same era as UK Pearl and Kozmic Blues.
San Francisco friends:
- Country Joe McDonald – Paris Sessions LP (Vanguard VSD 79328, 1973), UK press, VG+/VG+, £5. Janis and Country Joe lived together for a few months in 1967, and he wrote the song Janis for her.
- Jefferson Airplane – Long John Silver LP (Grunt FTR 1007, 1972), US press with printed inner, VG+/G+, £7.50. Back in 1964, Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen recorded a set of blues with Janis that later surfaced as The Typewriter Tape.
Woodstock and Festival Express company:
- Richie Havens – On Stage 2LP (Polydor 2659 015, 1972), gatefold, UK press, VG+/VG, £10. Richie was the first act on stage at Woodstock.
- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – 4 Way Street (Atlantic 2657 004, 1971), gatefold, UK plum label, VG/G+, £15. At Woodstock, Janis was one of the performers who stood behind CSN on stage during their set.
- Ten Years After – Recorded Live (Chrysalis CTY 1049, 1973), UK green Chrysalis, VG/G+, £12. Ten Years After played Woodstock and rode the Festival Express train across Canada with Janis in the summer of 1970.
- Melanie – Candles In The Rain (Buddah 2318 009, 1970), gatefold, UK press, VG+/VG, £5. Another Woodstock voice, and the album with Lay Down (Candles In The Rain) on it.
- Santana – Greatest Hits (CBS 69081, 1974), UK press, VG+/VG, £7.50. They played Woodstock too, and they're a Columbia/CBS stablemate.
The British blues-rock shelf: Free – Highway (Island ILPS 9138, 1970), UK pink-rim Island, VG/VG, £30 and Cream – Live Cream (Polydor 2383 016, 1970), UK press, VG/G+, £10.
Every record sold on the website is cleaned with a Pro-Ject VC-S3 vacuum record cleaner before it goes out. If you'd like a deeper clean, you can add a Degritter Mark II ultrasonic clean at checkout for £2. It's a proper spa day for the grooves, and details are on our cleaning service page. New customer? Use code Autumn10 for 10% off your order.
Got a Janis record in the loft?
If you've got an orange-label Cheap Thrills, a stickered Kozmic Blues or a whole shelf of late-sixties rock you'd like to see go to people who'll play it, we buy vinyl collections from all over the UK. Start at sell your vinyl records or get in touch.
Dig the crates
Fifty-six years on, nobody has sounded quite like her. Put on Pearl tomorrow, turn it up a notch and let Get It While You Can do what it does. Then have a dig through the shop for the rest of 1967 to 1970. Thank you, Janis.