Original
released on LP Columbia KCS 9700
(US 1968,
August 12)
«What we're
trying to do in our music is just get back to old-time havin' a good time,
jumpin', gettin' stoned.» Janis Joplin, 1968
“DOPE, SEX, AND CHEAP THRILLS”, that’s what Big Brother & The Holding Company wanted to call this album. Somewhere along the way to their skyrocketing fame in the 1960s they picked that phrase as their unofficial motto. Five words that captured, with characteristic humor, the San Francisco rock-and-roll ethic of the City by the Bay’s most off-the-wall band. Janis was all for it. Clive Davis, then president of Columbia Records, huddled with his advisers and nixed it. No way we’re going to approve dope and sex on our album covers, came the edict from on high. Big Brother was adamant. When Janis was adamant about something, she could reduce men in suits to quivering yes-men. Gingerly, with misgivings, the powers at Columbia approved "Cheap Thrills". The album was released in August 1968. It sold a million copies, and it had legs. Three months after its release, "Cheap Thrills" topped out at Nº 1 on Billboard’s Top 100 albums chart.
"Cheap Thrills", the major-label debut of Janis Joplin, was one of the most eagerly anticipated, and one of the most successful, albums of 1968. Joplin and Big Brother had earned extensive press notice ever since they played the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, but their only recorded work was a poorly produced, self-titled Mainstream album, and they spent a year getting out of their contract with Mainstream in order to sign with Columbia while demand built. Joplin, with her ear- (and vocal cord) - shredding voice, was the obvious standout. Nobody had ever heard singing as emotional, as desperate, as determined, as loud as Joplin's, and "Cheap Thrills" was her greatest moment. Big Brother's backup, typical of the guitar-dominated sound of San Francisco psychedelia, made up in enthusiasm what it lacked in precision. But everybody knew who the real star was, and Joplin played her last gig with Big Brother while the album was still on top of the charts. Neither she nor the band would ever equal it. Heard today, "Cheap Thrills" is a musical time capsule and remains a showcase for one of rock's most distinctive singers. (William Ruhlmann in AllMusic)
"Cheap Thrills"' critical reputation rests on the theatrical grandeur of Janis Joplin's raw, visceral vocals. Blending traditions and influences through a hippy Haight haze, Joplin's perfomances here transcended contemporary discussions about whether a white Texan female could sing the blues. If you can wring more emotion out of these songs, it ain't gonna happen on this planet. There are plentiful reminders of late-Sixties Haight-Ashbury. Its strengths can be seen in the iconic strip-cartoon cover art by Robert Crumb, which blew the photo of Joplin onto the back cover, and also in the exuberance with which the band adopt a range of black music styles - notably doo-woop, soul, and blues. The limitations of genre are also clear: the sometimes leaden quality of the band's solos and rhythms restrain them from taking off with Joplin; it's her pleading, ecstatic, mighty voice that stays with you. Given this fact, it is not surprising that she quit Big Brother (along with guitarist Sam Andrew) while the album still topped the charts - sadly, she never found another musical context that really nurtured her. (Max Reinhardt in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die")
