Big Brother had been the house band at San Francisco’s Avalon Ballroom, playing a progressive style of instrumental rock. 
Needing a strong vocalist, they contacted Janis Joplin in Austin, Texas, who at the time was considering joining up with Roky Erickson of the 13th Floor Elevators...
She traveled to San Francisco and debuted with the band at the Avalon on June 10, 1966…
It took a while for some of the band's followers to accept the new singer. Her music was completely different from that which Big Brother was playing at that time. Big Brother had a very experimental and non-conventional sound, but with Joplin, they became more conventional musicians, their songs adopted a more conventional structure, and the band started to increase its popularity in the underground San Francisco psychedelic scene…
At the end of 1966, Big Brother signed a contract with Mainstream Records…
August 12, 1967: Big Brother & The Holding Company’s self-titled debut album was released following the band's national success after the Monterey Pop Festival.
They recorded all the songs for the album Big Brother & the Holding Company for Mainstream at a studio in Chicago in three days; December 12 through 14th…
The album debuted on Billboard charts on 9/2/67, peaking at No. 60. It stayed on the charts for a total of 30 weeks. The Pop Chronicles criticized the record as difficult to find and "technically disappointing"…
They signed a contract with Columbia Records that November…
Their first album with Columbia was due to be recorded the spring and summer of 1968, and released later that year. It was eagerly anticipated, after the first album had been largely ignored. Initially planned as a live album, the band played two concerts at Grande Ballroom in Detroit, but the recorded results did not satisfy the producer John Simon or the manager Albert Grossman. The live album project was canceled, and Columbia decided to record most of the songs in studio….
NOTE:"Down on Me" and "Piece of My Heart", taken from the Grande Ballroom concerts, were later released as part of Joplin's live album In Concert in 1972…Unfortunately, somebody removed these classic DETROIT videos from my blog!
Yeah, I know, It's Only Rock 'n Roll...
Yeah, I know, It's Only Rock 'n Roll...
August 12, 1968: Cheap Thrills,' by Big Brother and the Holding Company, is released on Columbia Records. It tops the chart for seven weeks…
By the end of the year it was one of the most successful albums of 1968. It was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. on October 15 that year for $1 million dollars worth of sales, with subsequent sales pushing the total over a million units…
At the end of the summer of 1968, just after appearing at the Palace of Fine Arts Festival in San Francisco, Joplin announced that she was leaving Big Brother in the fall of that year. The official reason given was her desire to go solo and form a soul music band. Sam Andrew also left the band to join Joplin in her new project. Joplin played with Big Brother until December 1, 1968, at a Family Dog Benefit concert in San Francisco...
Twenty days later she and Sam played in Memphis for the first time with her new band, Full Tillt Boogie Band, later called Kozmic Blues Band and finally Full Tilt Boogie Band…
(At times, Full Tillt Boogie Band, then Full Tilt Boogie band with just one “l” in Tilt—The double “ll” had been a play on lead guitarist John Till’s name when he was the leader of the group…NOTE: Joplin was later quoted as saying, “Full Tilt Boogie Band is my band. Finally it’s my band!”)
August 12, 1970: At Harvard, Janis Joplin performs what would be her final concert before joining “The 27 Club,” ending with a version of Gershwin's "Summertime”…
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