Mixtape Monday: Returning to Joplin

Last week, one of my Twitter friends quoted a line from "Mercedes Benz" and it brought back a flood of memories. Janis Joplin was my major obsession during my high school years, even though she had already been dead for about 10 years when I first heard her music. Up until that time I was in love with Broadway show tunes, the smooth silky voices found in the big band music of the 1940s, and the sweet girl singers of the 1950s. The discovery of Janis Joplin helped me develop a taste for the flip side of that -- music with an edge and filled with raw emotion. It's been years since I sang with a Joplin tape at the top of my lungs, but I think it is time.

In addition to some of my favorite Joplin songs, I've included a YouTube video of Jennifer Love Hewitt singing "Me and Bobby McGee". When I first heard this on Coverville, I was shocked to find out that it was Hewitt singing. She is considered such a cream puff and the single she put out a few years' ago underwhelmed me. I really like this cover, though, because it combines the sweet girl singer with a soulful performance. I hope you enjoy it, too.