Ten Albums "Everybody" Owned -- Except Me: Pearl

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Hot, hot, hot, hot. Oh, and did I mention HOT?! I had to skip the golf tournament today because of the heat. It's supposed to be overcast tomorrow, plus we're starting earlier in the day (not to mention it's only four rounds, as opposed to the six played today), so I'll be there to play, not to root on my friends. And from there I give you another album that's on the list of classic albums, one that "everybody" has...except me. Pearl - Janis Joplin In the space of a month in 1970 there were three musicians dead from drugs: Canned Heat's Alan Wilson, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin. All were 27. Two weeks before her death she was quoted in newspapers nationwide mourning Hendrix: "He was a good friend of mine, and I will miss him." Janis left $2,500 and a stipulation in her will that friends were to have a party in her honor when she died, and invitations were sent out reading, "The drinks are on Pearl." Three months later Pearl, Joplin's final album, was released. It featured an instrumental that Joplin hadn't put vocals to ("Buried Alive in the Blues"), the you-know-it-by-heart FM rock classic "Me and Bobby McGee," and the final song she recorded, the a cappella "Mercedes Benz." It went promptly to #1. To date, it has sold more than four million copies in the US alone. And I never bought it. I'm not much into the blues, or the blues-rock the way Janis sang. I'll be first to tell you that the woman had a singularly unique voice, and there's no telling what she would have done had she lived. It's just not for me. And that's why I never bought it. Pearl Recorded by Janis Joplin Produced by Paul A. Rothchild Released (posthumously) in 1971 Remember "Still the One" by Orleans? Their lead singer, John Hall, co-wrote this song: