More than Cheap Thrills or even Pearl, Greatest Hits has helped keep Janis Joplin's short-lived recording career alive for listeners who came along after her 1970 death. "Me and Bobby McGee" is the biggest draw, of course--it was a posthumous No. 1 single--but the rest is equally exciting. Despite the familiarity of the titles here, this goes far beyond the merely serviceable. Finally, the cover photo of Janis smiling in a sunny park is as poignant a shot of her as exists. --Rickey Wright
More Albums by Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin "Box of Pearls: The Janis Joplin Collection"
$27.89
Janis Joplin was one of the most exhilarating performers of an era blessed with riveting stage artists, but all but her most emphatic champions must concede her recorded oeuvre is problematic. With Big Brother & the Holding Company she was surrounded by up-from-the-streets cohorts who were spiritually attuned to Joplin, even if they weren't always musically in tune. After one rushed, premature effort for the Mainstream label, Big Brother hit the top of the charts with one of the touchstones of the San Francisco sound, Cheap Thrills. Barraged by critics who believed Joplin's skills as a blues and soul singer were being squandered in a psychedelic setting, the toast of Haight-Ashbury went solo with the up-and-down I Got Them Ol' Kozmic Blues Again, Mama. Joplin was hitting her stride during the 1970 Pearl sessions when she died of a drug overdose at age 28. The album's posthumous release was a critical and commercial smash. Box of Pearls binds the 1999 remastered and expanded versions of the aforementioned albums and tosses in a five-track rarities EP entitled, appropriately enough, Rare Pearls. Much of Box of Pearls is brilliant while portions are badly dated, but it's all Joplin. --Steven Stolder
