By the end of the 1960s, Janis Joplin was one of the most famous singers to come out of the psychedelic San Francisco rock scene. Initially making her name with Big Brother and the Holding Company, Joplin’s Texas twang and raspy belting voice added a bluesy edge to the city’s heady atmosphere. As a flamboyant character and mesmerizing stage performer, Joplin quickly rose to the top as the city’s premiere musical attraction.
In fact, Joplin was so alluring that she even caught the attention of The Beatles. As she later explained in a letter back to her parents in Texas, Joplin performed with Big Brother at The Matrix, the premiere psychedelic rock club owned by Jefferson Airplane singer Marty Balin, when no other than Paul McCartney walked in. Joplin was starstruck, even though she had a preference for a different Beatle.
“Speaking of England, guess who was in town last week – Paul McCartney!!! (he’s a Beatle),” the letter said. “And he came to see us!!! SIGH, Honest to God! He came to the Matrix & saw us & told some people that he dug us. Isn’t that exciting!!!! Gawd, I was so thrilled – I still am! Imagine – Paul!!!! If it could only have been George….oh, well. I didn’t get to see him anyway – we heard about it afterwards. Why, if I’d known that he was out there, I would have jumped right off the stage and made a fool of myself.”
Joplin had unfortunately missed her opportunity to befriend George Harrison. Harrison had visited the Haight-Ashbury neighbourhood during the summer of love in 1967 but left with a less-than-positive view of the scene. Joplin was already singing with Big Brother at that point, but she didn’t get to see Harrison during his brief sojourn to San Francisco.
Joplin’s connection with The Beatles didn’t end there. In 1970, Yoko Ono sent out requests to a variety of artists asking them to send in tapes of themselves singing ‘Happy Birthday’ for John Lennon’s 30th birthday. Some artists who obliged included Donovan and Harrison, whose rendition of ‘It’s Johnny’s Birthday’ eventually found its way onto the ‘Apple Jam’ side of All Things Must Pass. Joplin also sent her tape in but died a few days before Lennon’s actual birthday. The tape was one of Joplin’s final recordings.
“We didn’t meet, but she sent me a birthday tape on my birthday for my last birthday,” Lennon explained on The Dick Cavett Show in 1971. “Yoko asked all different people to make a tape for me, and she was one of them, and we got it after she died. It arrived in the post, and she was singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me in the studio.”
Listen to Joplin sing ‘Happy Birthday’ for Lennon down below.
