Janice Joplin – Piece of My Heart

“Piece of My Heart” – Single by Big Brother and the Holding Company from the album Cheap Thrills.
B-side: “Turtle Blues”
Songwriters: Jerry Ragovoy, Bert Berns
Charted No. 12 in US

“Piece of My Heart” is a romantic soul song written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns, originally recorded by Erma Franklin in 1967.

Janis Joplin sang lead on “Piece Of My Heart,” but it’s credited to Big Brother & the Holding Company, one of the groups she sang with before going solo later in 1968. Until her death in 1970, it was her biggest chart hit and her best-known song (the posthumous “Me And Bobby McGee” went to #1 in 1971). Although she wasn’t the first to record it, the song remains most associated with Joplin and continued to get airplay long after her death.

Billboard called it “dynamite,” stating that “this raucous dance treatment will rock up the Hot 100.”

The song’s writer Bert Berns was Van Morrison’s producer at the time – Morrison had signed to Berns’ record label, Bang. Berns wanted Morrison to record this song for his first solo album in 1967, but Van declined, choosing to record his own songs instead. Berns never got to hear Joplin sing it; he died of a heart attack on December 30, 1967.

Janis Joplin sang this at Woodstock in 1969 as part of her encore.