Janis Joplin and Bessie Smith

Phil writes: A contestant on 'The Voice' was told by Tom Jones that she reminded him of Janis Joplin. She later admitted that she hadn't heard of Janis. But she's only 17 so has some excuse. For anyone else who hasn't heard of her  -  and there will be such people out there  -  here she is. First, the amazing song she really made her own:



She could perform lesser material equally successfully, making it memorable:



Janis herself was compared, undertandably, with the legendary Bessie Smith. So here's Bessie:

Cat Power's latest covers album

The first track from Cat Power's forthcoming Jukebox album has just gone up on iTunes. It's an new original song called Song To Bobby apparently about meeting Bob Dylan, and very nice it is too (here's the iTunes UK link).

The rest of the album is covers plus one new version of an old Cat Power song. All the originals are worth owning, especially Lost Someone by James Brown Live at the Apollo (the other amazing live recording in the world apart from The Dance by Garth Brooks), the Theme From ‘New York, New York’, Dark End of the Street, and Don't Explain by Billie Holliday. I've restrained myself to posting just one of the originals, my new favourite Janis Joplin track, Woman Left Lonely, written by Spooner Oldham and Dan Penn (the latter of whom also co-wrote Dark End of the Street).

iTunes should do an album of "Buy the originals". I think I'll suggest it to them.

Janis Joplin - Woman Left Lonely (iTunes)