Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer and musician. One of the most successful and widely known rock stars of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and “electric” stage presence.
Joplin died of a heroin overdose in 1970, at the age of 27, after releasing three albums. A second solo album, Pearl, was released in January 1971, just over three months after her death.
It reached number one on the Billboard charts. She was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.
Janis Joplin siblings: Meet Laura Joplin, Michael Joplin
While Janis Joplin was in San Francisco becoming one of the greatest singers of the ’60s, she was always writing to her family, especially her sister Laura, who was six years younger and completely idolized Janis.
Laura kept all those letters, which became not only the basis of her 2005 book Dear Janis, but the backbone of the documentary Janis: Little Girl Blue, as voiced onscreen by indie rock maven Chan Marshall, a.k.a. Cat Power.
Janis was six years older than I was, and she was really into having a younger sister — and later, when Micheal was born, having a younger brother. Our neighborhood was full of kids running around, playing chase and hide-and-seek and stuff.
