Her legend began here–redefining grace, sex appeal, and popular singing, the Texas vagabond shrieked and staggered over fevered but formless blues riffing by Big Brother and the Holding Company, whom she’d soon outgrow. Nonetheless, there’s a genuine innocence about the group’s folksy debut. 

 Joplin's major label bow (and commercial breakthrough) Cheap Thrills features plenty of histrionic screeching and numbing acid rock, but Joplin rises above the din on the volcanic “Piece of My Heart,” and the band exercises restraint on the slow-burn cover of “Summertime." 

 Joplin’s raw delivery shocked even more effectively when backed by crack R&B players, as evidenced by her first “solo” album, the horns-and-soul-drenched I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama! Joplin was now balancing a Big Mama Thornton fervor with an Aretha Franklin sense of timing.  

 From start to finish, Pearl was her finest hour (“Me and Bobby McGee,” “Trust Me” and “Cry Baby”) and her last. Joplin died shortly before its completion; ironically, the album’s “Buried Alive in the Blues” is the only song she didn’t record a vocal for in time. 

 Greatest Hits is a fizzy delight–and a good place for the uninitiated to start.  

 The three-disc Janis box set is a treasure trove, collecting not only all of her essential recordings but 18 previously unissued tracks ranging from curio to historic (such as the Big Brother performance of “Ball and Chain” at the Monterey Pop Festival that ignited Joplin’s buzz like wildfi... 

 Curiously, this set–which captures a concert recorded right before Cheap Thrills–while ostensibly of interest only to hard-core fans, is the easiest to swallow document of Joplin’s Big Brother period; you get the best of both albums and Joplin in powerhouse form.  

 Box of Pearls collects the first four albums and adds a fifth, EP-length disc of rarities. 

 The soundtrack to the play Love, Janis, which intersperses songs with an actress reading some of Joplin’s letters to her mother back home, is a novelty at best.  

 The two-disc Essential Janis Joplin offer a bigger picture of Joplin's career without necessarily saying more than any of the previous hits collections. 

 Part of a slew of CDs released to commemorate Woodstock’s 40th anniversary, this features Joplin’s entire ten-song performance at the concert, plus a remastered version of Kozmic Blues. The set rocks, with an energized Joplin sounding terrific and spitting fire.