50 Favorite Albums: 46

Big Brother and the Holding Company was never the premiere band, nor were they ever prestigious, but I'll be damned if their songs weren't great to listen to. And their album, Cheap Thrills, the last one with Janis Joplin as lead singer, just had the makings of a classic from the beginning. Not only did Joplin have one of the most killer voices of the 1960s, but she used it to record Piece of My Heart, the biggest track on the album.

Cheap Thrills: 1968 blues rock album from Big Brother and the Holding Company.