50 years ago: Janis Joplin charted with “Piece of My Heart”

Piece of My Heart Big Brother & the Holding Company

Writer(s): Jerry Ragovoy, Bert Berns (see lyrics here) First Charted: August 31, 1968 Peak: 12 US, 14 CB, 14 HR, 1 CL, 9 CN, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, -- UK, 1.03 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 2.0 radio, 53.6 video, 154.6 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: In her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee bio, Janis Joplin is described as “the greatest white urban blues and soul singer of her generation.” RH In 1968, she was still forging that voice, having come off a triumphant performance at the Monterey Pop Festival the summer before. Her San Francisco-based group, Big Brother & the Holding Company, charted soon after with their self-titled debut, but it stalled at #60. Their second album, Cheap Thrills, fared better, spending a whopping eight weeks atop the charts. The same week the album launched its chart run, Janis & Co. hit the Billboard Hot 100 with their maiden entry, “Piece of My Heart.” The song peaked at #12, but reached iconic status. It has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and is featured on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of “The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.” The song was written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns. Erma Franklin, the sister of Rock Hall inductee Aretha Franklin, recorded the song in 1967 and took it to the top ten in the R&B charts. Big Brother & the Holding Company’s rendition a year later has become the definitive version, but it has been notably covered by others, including Dusty Springfield, Sammy Hagar, Faith Hill, and as a duet between Melissa Etheridge and Joss Stone. Joplin embarked on a solo journey after Cheap Thrills, but her days were numbered. A heroin overdose cut her life short at 27 years old on October 4, 1970. 1971’s Pearl and “Me and Bobby McGee” were posthumous #1 hits. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Big Brother & the Holding Company RH Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (inductee bio) Related Links: First posted 8/31/2011; last updated 7/24/2022.

Dire Straits “Sultans of Swing” released

Sultans of Swing Dire Straits

Writer(s): Mark Knopfler (see lyrics here) Released: May 19, 1978 Peak: 4 US, 5 CB, 11 HR, 2 RR, 46 AC, 1 CL, 8 UK, 26 CN, 6 AU, 2 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.6 UK, 0.78 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 794.10 video, 1147.10 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “Dire Straits were initially regarded as a new wave band. They landed in this company having come up through the London pub scene with a vaguely gloomy name.” TC They were, “in fact, the perfect representation of the ‘80s – an era of post-modernism. They played long songs that appeared to have flights of improvisation but were tightly scripted. They lyrics had a Dylanesque obscurity but lacked poetry or much meaning.” TC They did, however, “have their moments. The first of them is ‘Sultans of Swing,’” TC a song which “was a marked change from the waning disco style and the nascent punk movement.” SF “The thing here is the hook that [Mark] Knopfler lays down with fluid and inventive guitar runs while the rhythm section maintains a gentle funk undertow. Knopfler’s voice is etherieal and laid back.” TC In Dire Straits’ debut single, Knopfler paints a story of protagonist caught up in the music at a jazz club. The band has no pretenses of making it big; “they’re here because they live for this.” PW Critic Paul Williams says “Sultans of Swing” isn’t just “one of the truly great song-poems that is overtly about the love of music…This is a song about values.” PW “Music is our meeting place…What else, apart from sex, is so constistently intimate?” PW Knopfler got the idea from the song when he ducked into a bar on a rainy night in Ipswich. A band was performing to “maybe four or five drunks” and ended their set “announcing, with no apparent irony, ‘Goodnight and thank you. We are the sultans of swing.’” As Knopfler said, “there was something really funny about it to me because Sultans, they absolutely weren’t.” SF Resources: TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Pages 327-8. SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia PW Paul Williams (1993). Rock and Roll: The Best 100 Singles. Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc.: New York, NY Pages 186-7. Related Links: First posted 7/14/2022; last updated 4/10/2024.

ZZ Top “La Grange” charted

La Grange ZZ Top

Writer(s): Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill, Frank Beard (see lyrics here) First Charted: March 30, 1974 Peak: 41 US, 24 CB, 33 HR, 24 RR, 1 CL, 34 CN, 15 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.2 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 264.42 video, 396.46 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: ZZ Top was formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. The blues-style rock band consisted of singer/guitarist Billy Gibbons, singer/bassist Dusty Hill, and drummer Frank Beard. “The trio had the attention of their peers right from the start;” UCR Jimi Hendrix referred to Gibbons as “America’s best young guitarist.” UCR They were also “developing a reputation as a powerful live band.” UCR However, they did not find commercial success right away. Their 1971 debut failed to chart and the follow-up, 1972’s Rio Grande Mud, stalled at #104 on the Billboard album chart. Their fortunes changed with 1973’s Tres Hombres, which reached #8 and went gold, largely because of the success of the group’s “La Grange.” The song just missed the top-40 on the Billboard Hot 100, but became an album-rock staple and the group’s “ubiquitous musical calling card.” UCR The song is “a loving lyrical tribute to Texas’s favorite little whorehouse,” UCR a brothel later known as the Chicken Ranch and celebrated in the Broadway play and film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. WK “It’s a testament to both the song’s immediate appeal and enduring quality that despite all this airplay and multi-media placement, it’s still a thrill every time Gibbons launches into his deep growl for that famous intro: ‘Rumour spreadin’ a-’round in that Texas town / ‘Bout that shack outside La Grange ...’” UCR In a bit of irony, the intent to immortalize Miss Edna’s boarding house got it shut down. DT The song’s groove is based on John Lee Hooker’s “Boogie Chillen.” WK “That fuzz sound in the lead and in the front and back end of the composition is just pure tube distortion.’” UCR Cash Box called the song “a hard driving delight certain to satisfy those fans of heavy blues.” WK Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for ZZ Top DT Dave Thompson (2011). 1000 Songs That Rock Your World. Krause Publications: Iola, WI. Page 260. UCR UltimateClassicRock.com (6/20/2013). “Top 100 Classic Rock Songs” WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 8/3/2022; last updated 4/1/2023.