September 5, 1970, Janis Joplin recorded a version of the Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster song ‘Me and Bobby McGee’. Joplin was a lover and a friend of Kristofferson’s from the beginning of her career to her death. The release topped the US singles chart with the song in 1971 after her death, making the song the second posthumous No.1 single in US chart history. (after ‘(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay’ by Otis Redding.)
Janis Joplin was born in Port Arthur, Texas, on January 19, 1943, to Dorothy Joplin, a registrar at a business college, and her husband Seth Joplin, an engineer at Texaco. Janice was different. As a teenager, she befriended a group of outcasts, one of whom had albums by African-American blues artists Bessie Smith and Leadbelly, and it was while listening to these that Joplin discovered she had an inborn talent to sing the blues.
Janis made her last recordings on October 1, 1970. She recorded ‘Mercedes Benz’ and a birthday greeting for John Lennon, whose birthday was October 9. Her taped greeting arrived at his home after her death.
On Saturday, October 3, Joplin was at Sunset Sound Recorders in Los Angeles to listen to instrumental tracks prior to recording her vocals, scheduled for the next day. She never returned.
She failed to show up at Sunset Sound Recorders for the next recording session. Full Tilt Boogie’s road manager, John Cooke found her dead on the floor beside her bed. The official cause of death was an overdose of heroin, possibly combined with the effects of alcohol. October 4, 1970, Janis Joplin was found dead at the Landmark Hotel Hollywood after an accidental heroin overdose.
On 26 October 1970, they held a wake at Lion’s Share in San Anselmo, California, to celebrate the singer’s life. Almost as though she’d had a premonition about her own death, Janis had left $2,500 in her will to throw a wake party in the event of her demise. Her sister Laura and Joplin’s close friends attended the party, with brownies laced with hashish passed around amongst the guests. They cremated Joplin in the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Mortuary in Los Angeles; they scattered her ashes from a plane into the Pacific Ocean and along Stinson Beach.
