Cheap Thrills, Big Brother and the Holding Company (Columbia, August 1968)
Following their show-stopping performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, Big Brother and the Holding Company’s Cheap Thrills was one of 1968’s most eagerly anticipated albums. The San Francisco band featured the raw ecstatic vocals of Janis Joplin, a 24-year old from Port Arthur, Texas who had deeply absorbed blues influences and traditions while singing in clubs in Houston and Austin. Cheap Thrills topped the album charts for eight weeks, featuring songs “Piece of My Heart” (U.S. #12) and “Ball and Chain.” The album also featured cover art by underground cartoonist Robert Crumb, founder of Zap Comix.
[THIS ITEM WAS ON DISPLAY DURING THE WILSON SPECIAL COLLECTIONS LIBRARY EXHIBITION, “SOUNDS OF ’68: REVOLUTION IN THE AIR,” JANUARY – APRIL, 2018. DRAWING FROM THE DEEP HOLDINGS OF UNC LIBRARIES’S NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVES, MUSIC LIBRARY, AND SOUTHERN FOLKLIFE COLLECTION, THE EXHIBIT CELEBRATES THE RECORDINGS AND THE ARTISTS THAT DEFINED AN ERA.]
