If you had to pick just one album featuring Janis Joplin, this would be it – not that there are a lot of options.

This is her only her second solo album, and yet she didn’t live enough to see the cover, having died three months before its release. In her short career, she released albums with three different bands, and “Pearl” is surely her most realized work, thanks in part to the Full Tilt Boogie Band and producer Paul Rothchild.

As if to convey how shocking and unexpected her death was, one track on the album is instrumental, simply because Joplin died before adding her vocals. It’s a sad testament to a strong talent who was only starting to grow in to her talent.

Tracks include:

Move Over

Cry Baby

A Woman Left Lonely

Half Moon

Buried Alive in the Blues

My Baby

Me and Bobby McGee

Mercedes Benz

Trust Me

Get It While You Can

January 1971 - Billboard Charted #1