Columbia 30322
Producer: Paul A. Rothchild
Track listing: Move Over / Cry Baby / A Woman Left Lonely / Half Moon / Buried Alive in the Blues / My Baby / Me and Bobby McGee / Mercedes Benz / Trust Me / Get It While You Can
February 27, 1971
9 weeks
Janis Joplin was in top form during the recording sessions for her second album, Pearl, recalled producer and longtime friend Paul A. Rothchild. “She was up, healthy and happy and seemingly not using [drugs] at all,” he said. “We learned subsequently that two or three weeks prior to her death, she had been chipping, which is junkie talk for taking tiny hits, but she didn’t want to die.”
Joplin certainly had everything to live for. Although her first solo album, I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, which peaked at number five, failed to match the commercial success of Big Brother and the Holding Company’s Cheap Thrills, Joplin was primed for her next career step. After exiting Big Brother, Joplin formed the Kozmic Blues Band, which backed her for one album and tour. For her next album, she decided to turn to a group of unseasoned players, who would become known as the Full-Tilt Boogie Band. “She intentionally wanted these pure kids,” Rothchild said. “She didn’t want any too-hip, too-wise, or too-stoned guys in the band.”
The new blood invigorated Joplin, as did some advice from Rothchild. “I told her to sing like she sang in church choir,” he said. “And she sang pure like an angel. You can hear that voice throughout the album, like in ‘Me and Bobbie McGee.’ She starts off with that sweet girl voice and ends up kicking major butt by the end of the song. She got cranked up even a little harder than Jim Morrison did, and Jim could really get cranked up.”
Since Rothchild preferred the acoustics of Sunset Sound studios, he persuaded Columbia president Clive Davis to allow Joplin to become the first CBS act to record in an independent studio. The atmosphere was loose and upbeat when the sessions began in September 1970. When searching for additional material, Joplin sung a verse she wrote over drinks with Bobby Neuwirth at the No Name bar in Sausalito. Rothchild liked the verse enough to encourage her to write additional lyrics. The following day, Joplin cut “Mercedes Benz.” Said Rothchild, “She told me she had to stomp her foot when she sang it and we recorded it just like that.”
Another tune, “Buried Alive in the Blues” was written by Nick Gravenites, after he spent some time in the studio with Joplin. On October 3, 1970, the band cut the instrumental track.
Pleased with the sessions, Joplin headed for the local watering hole Barney’s Beanery for a few drinks before returning to her room eat the Landmark Hotel in Hollywood.
She never had a chance to cut a vocal. The following evening, she found dead in her room of a heroin overdose. She was 27. Rothchild, Joplin’s manager Albert Grossman, and the band gathered to decide whether to complete the album or scrap the project. “We knew it was going to be an emotionally difficult situation, trying to do a Janis Joplin album without Janis there, but everyone voted to finish as kind of monument to Janis herself and the greatness that she was putting down,” Rothchild said. “We decided that this record should not die with her.”
Two weeks later, Pearl was complete. “Buried Alive in the Blues” would appear on the album as an instrumental track. As a testament to Joplin’s popularity and talent, Pearl climbed to Number One in a mere seven weeks. With the album still in the top position, “Me and Bobby McGee,” written by Kris Kristofferson, hit the summit of the Hot 100, giving her first Number One single.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of February 27, 1971
1. Pearl, Janis Joplin
2. III, Chicago
3. Love Story, Soundtrack
4. Jesus Christ Superstar, Various artists
5. Abraxas, Santana