Cheap Thrills is the first and only album for a major label Janis Joplin made with Big Brother & The Holding Company. Personal and contractual problems deferred its release, and by the time it finally came out in the summer of 1968, Joplin was already itching to leave the fold and start another band. Nevertheless, Cheap Thrills accurately documents what everyone had been privy to when Joplin and Big Brother took the stage for an earth-shattering performance at the Monterey Pop Festival of 1967.
Formed almost two years before Janis Joplin even wandered into San Francisco’s city limits, Big Brother & The Holding Company had been perfecting their brand of progressive blues within the heady environs of Haight Ashbury. At the suggestion of promoter Chet Helms, the band recruited Joplin and altered their free form, improvisational approach to one that was more accommodating for a vocalist. While their debut album released on Mainstream Records barely got out of the gate, their barrel-house appearance at Monterey with the wailing, banshee vocals of Joplin at the forefront propelled them to national prominence.
With Joplin and Big Brother trailblazing the states, negotiations to break them free of their contract with Mainstream held up the release of Cheap Thrills. When it finally came out, it became an instant hit. It zoomed straight to the top of the charts, and generated Joplin’s signature tune, “Piece Of My Heart,” as well as the bluesy, psychedelic charmer, “Summertime,” and the Monterey showstopper, Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton’s “Ball And Chain.” While subsequent releases found Joplin in a more subtle and sensitive mood, Cheap Thrills will forever be the album that unleashed that raw and ferocious voice upon the world.
~ Shawn Perry
