Janis Joplin - Janis: Little Girl Blue (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2016)

Janis Joplin is one of the most revered and iconic rock & roll singers of all time, a tragic and misunderstood figure who thrilled millions of listeners and blazed new creative trails before her death in 1970 at age 27. With Janis: Little Girl Blue, Oscar-nominated director Amy Berg (Deliver Us from Evil, West of Memphis) examines Joplins story in depth for the first time on film, presenting an intimate and insightful portrait of a complicated, driven, often beleaguered artist. Joplins own words tell much of the films story through a series of letters she wrote to her parents over the years, many of them made public here for the first time (and read by Southern-born indie rock star/actor Chan Marshall, also known as Cat Power). Joplin was a powerhouse when she sang, and her recordings have never left the radio or the hearts of rock fans worldwide. Bergs Janis: Little Girl Blue offers new understanding of a bright, complex woman whose surprising rise and sudden demise changed music forever.

A remarkable career-spanning anthology, Janis: Little Girl Blue (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), brings together 17 essential Janis Joplin live and studio performances, including classic solo and Big Brother & the Holding Company tracks. The album debuts a previously unreleased version of "Piece of My Heart" (also featured in the documentary and recorded live at the Generation Club in New York City in April 1968 during the Wake for Martin Luther King concert, this performance was included in the 1991 D.A. Pennebaker/Chris Hagedus short film, "Comin' Home," and has been never been available as a commercial audio release).

Janis: Little Girl Blue includes an early recording of Janis Joplin singing Lead Belly's "Careless Love"; live performances with Big Brother & The Holding Company (from San Francisco's Avalon Ballroom, the Monterey Pop Festival, the Generation Club in New York City and Detroit's mythic Grande Ballroom); the Kozmic Blues Band (Frankfurt, West Germany, April 12, 1969); Janis live at the Woodstock Music & Art Fair (August 17, 1969) and the legendary Festival Express Tour (July 4, 1970). Rounding out Janis: Little Girl Blue are definitive studio performances from the classic four original albums--Big Brother & The Holding Company, Cheap Thrills, I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! and Pearl--recorded during Joplin's lifetime. All of the recordings on the Janis: Little Girl Blue soundtrack album may be heard in the film.