who originally recorded a real wild child

Joplin was first and foremost a blues singer – ‘What Good Can Drunken’ Do’ bears more than a hint of Bessie Smith – yet her various bands took the genre to new heights, not that dissimilar to what Led Zeppelin were also attempting. The album of the show replaces the cast recordings with twelve original tracks, still in the context of her letters.įor those unfamiliar with her work, the power and range of those early recordings is nothing short of staggering. Drawing on letters that the singer wrote to her family during and after her rise to fame, the show combines her own words and her music to create an insight into her short life. Yet there are many that feel that her work deserves a wider audience, not least her younger sister Laura, one of the guiding lights behind the Love, Janis stage show. Her songs don’t soundtrack a multitude of adverts, her albums don’t take pride of place in the record stores, her face does not adorn a million bedroom walls but all of this somehow makes the work of Janis Joplin more special. But Joplin hasn’t exactly been raised to the same exalted status as some of her contemporaries. She lived fast, died young and made some fantastic music along the way. In many ways, Janis Joplin is the ’70s lost icon.

Who originally recorded a real wild child