Cheap Thrills (Album)

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Cheap thrills
Studio album by Big Brother and the Holding Company

Publication
(s)

1968

Label (s) Columbia Records

Format (s)

LP, MC

Genre (s)

Rock music

Title (number)

7th

production

John Simon

Studio (s)

Fillmore Auditorium

chronology
Big Brother & the Holding Company
(1967) 		Cheap thrills Be a Brother
(1970)
Single release
1968 Piece of My Heart
Big Brother and the Holding Company

Cheap Thrills is the second studio album by the California rock and blues band Big Brother and the Holding Company and was released in 1968 on Columbia Records . With the album, the band around singer Janis Joplin was able to place itself for the first and only time at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 ; the song Piece of My Heart released from this reached number 12 in the single charts.

Background and publication

The album was recorded in 1968 at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco and produced by John Simon ; it was released on LP and cassette on Columbia Records . A CD version has been available since 1987.

The recording of Cheap Thrills was preceded by the release of their debut album Big Brother & the Holding Company and an appearance by the band at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. The album was recorded by the members of the band: James Gurley played the guitar, Sam Andrew and Peter Albin alternated guitar and bass , Dave Getz played the drums , and the singer Janis Joplin took care of the vocals . Most of the songs were written by members of the band, although Summertime is an interpretation of the aria from the opera Porgy and Bess , composed in 1934 by DuBose Heyward and George Gershwin , and Ball And Chain is a cover version of the song of the same name by Big Mama Thornton . The song Piece of My Heart , also released as a single, was written by Bert Berns and Jerry Ragovoy , the original was sung by Erma Franklins . The band and producer also added shots of crowds to create the impression of a live album that the audience later mistakenly believed.

After its release on August 12, 1968, the album rose to number 1 on the American Billboard Hot 100 and stayed at that position for eight weeks. Overall, at 66 weeks, it stayed in the charts for more than a year. The album was sold more than 2 million times and was awarded a gold record in October 1968 . The album got a platinum record in 1986, followed by another platinum record in 2001. The single Piece of My Heart rose to number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Evaluation and aftermath

In the assessment by the critic Max Reinhardt in the anthology 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die , the album lived primarily from the rough and natural voice of Janis Joplin and its borrowings from the "black" blues that were typical of the time , which she called white Texan singer accepted and interpreted. It was shaped by the hippie generation and the band combined blues with other styles of African-American music such as soul and doo wop . Ultimately, however, it was her voice that made the album timeless. In his opinion, however, the "sometimes leaden quality" of the band solos and rhythms could not keep up with the vocal quality.

After the success of the album, Janis Joplin left the band and began her solo career. According to Reinhardt, this was not surprising given the differences in quality. With her new backing band, which also included guitarist Sam Andrew, she performed at the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and recorded the album I Got dem Ol 'Kozmic Blues Again Mama . Big Brother and the Holding Company released their next album Be a Brother in 1970 without Janis Joplin and Andrew.

Cover

The cover of the album was drawn by the American comic artist and musician Robert Crumb . It is designed in a comic style and shows scenes with the titles of the songs and other information about the album in several individual images.

Track list

The album consists of seven tracks. The original LP version from 1968 had four tracks on the A and three on the B side of the album:

  1. Combination of the Two (Sam Andrew) - 5:45
  2. I Need a Man to Love (Janis Joplin, Sam Andrew) - 4:56
  3. Summertime ( DuBose Heyward , George Gershwin ) - 3:59
  4. Piece of My Heart ( Bert Berns , Jerry Ragovoy ) - 4:12
  5. Turtle Blues (Janis Joplin) - 4:21
  6. Oh, Sweet Mary (Janis Joplin, Peter Albin) - 4:16
  7. Ball and Chain ( Big Mama Thornton ) - 9:30

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d Big Brother and the Holding Company - Cheap Thrills at Discogs ; accessed on August 14, 2020.
  2. ↑ Big Brother and the Holding Company - Cheap Thrills at Discogs ; accessed on August 14, 2020.
  3. ^ Cheap Thrills on the Recording Industry Association of America website database ; accessed on August 14, 2020.
  4. ^ A b c Max Reinhardt: Big Brother and the Holding Company: Cheap Thrills (1968). In: Robert Dimery: 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Quitessence Editions, 2016; 141. ISBN 978-1-84403-890-9

literature