Big Brother & The Holding Compa Cheap Thrills CD

Also available with BIG BROTHER & THE HOLDING COMPANY FEATURING JANIS JOPLIN, PEARL, I GOT DEM OL' KOZMIC BLUES AGAIN MAMA! and bonus disc RARE PEARLS in BOX OF PEARLS: THE JANIS JOPLIN COLLECTION.

Also available with PEARL and I GOT DEM OL' KOZMIC BLUES AGAIN MAMA! in a 3-CD set.

Big Brother & The Holding Company: Janis Joplin (vocals); Sam Houston Andrew, III, Peter S. Albin (guitar, bass); James Gurley (guitar); Dave Getz (drums).

Recorded from March-May 1968 & live at The Grande Ballroom, Detroit, Michigan on March 2, 1968.

2 LPs on 1 cassette. Both are available separately on CD and cassette. See individual albums for details.

After a relatively obscure indie debut album, Big Brother's unforgettable appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival led to CHEAP THRILLS, their major label bow. Its R. Crumb cover art made it a visual standout, but the visceral power contained within heralded Janis Joplin's arrival as a new countercultural blues-rock diva. Partially recorded live at San Francisco's Fillmore, CHEAP THRILLS showed Joplin's affinity for the blues, as she effortlessly covered the standard "Summertime" as well as her heroine Big Mama Thornton's "Ball & Chain." Band conflicts caused by Joplin's high profile within the group resulted in her leaving soon afterward for a solo career.

In the mid-'90s, Sony Music began remastering and upgrading many of the classic albums in their library, and Cheap Thrills got the bonus-track treatment in 1999. The major-label debut of Janis Joplin, the original LP was one of the most eagerly anticipated, and one of the most successful albums of 1968. Joplin and her band Big Brother & the Holding Company had earned extensive press notice ever since they played the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, but for a year after that their only recorded work was a poorly produced, self-titled album that they'd done early in their history for Mainstream Records; it took the band and the best legal minds at Columbia Records seven months to extricate them from their Mainstream contract, so that they could sign with Columbia. All the while demand continued to build, and they still faced the problem of actually delivering something worthy of press they'd been getting -- Columbia even tried to record them live on-stage on the tour they were in the midst of

Originally released on Columbia (9700).

Includes liner notes by John Byrne Cooke.

Contains 4 Bonus Tracks

Full performer name: Big Brother & The Holding Company.

Producer: John Simon.

Reissue producer: Bob Irwin.

Engineers include: Fred Catero, Jerry Hochman, Roy Segal.

2 LPs on 1 CD: Big Brother & The Holding Company's CHEAP THRILLS (1968)/Janis Joplin's PEARL (1970).

Personnel: Janis Joplin (vocals); Sam Andrew (vocals, guitar); James Gurley, Peter Albin (guitar); David Getz (piano, drums); John Simon (piano).

Audio Mixers: Diana Reid Haig; Elliot Mazer; Vic Anesini.

Liner Note Author: John Byrne Cooke.

Recording information: Bill Graham's Winterland, San Francisco, CA (03/02/1968-05/20/1968); Columbia Studio's New York (03/02/1968-05/20/1968); Columbia Studios, Los Angeles, CA (03/02/1968-05/20/1968); Grande Ballroom, Detroit, MI (03/02/1968-05/20/1968); The Grande Ballroom, Detroit, M K Crossing (03/02/1968-05/20/1968).

Authors: David Getz; Sam Andrew.

Editor: Jen Wyler.

Illustrator: Robert Crumb.

Photographers: Baron Wolman; David Gahr; Elliott Landy; Jim Marshall .

Unknown Contributor Role: Elliott Landy.

Arranger: Sam Andrew.

Additional personnel: John Simon (piano).

Entertainment Weekly (10/1/99, p.75) - "...a blues-rock apotheosis, with Joplin's primal scream scraping up against Big Brother's willfully deranged, acid-stoked boogie..." - Rating: A-
Q (11/99, p.156) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...a raw fiery collection that includes the hits 'Piece Of My Heart', 'Summertime' and 'Ball & Chain'..."