Music history has given us some truly strange duets. Gothic rock icon Nick Cave has linked up with fellow Aussie and pop star sensation Kylie Minogue. Elton John once made an unlikely appearance alongside Eminem during a Grammys performance. And club classics connoisseur Charli XCX recently roped folk artist Bon Iver onto a remix. However, few unlikely pairings can rival the collaboration between Tom Jones and Janis Joplin from the late 1960s.
Despite how well their surnames work together, Jones and Joplin existed within entirely different worlds. The former spent his childhood in a Welsh village, where he would discover his unmatched talent behind a microphone. He became a star in the United Kingdom with singalong-worthy hits like ‘It’s Not Unusual’ and ‘She’s a Lady’, winning audiences over with the depth and soul of his voice.
Even now, 60 years after he released his debut single, Jones’ voice and the songs he lent them to remain iconic, finding their way into wedding playlists and karaoke sets across the country. Joplin experienced a very different rise to acclaim. Far from Jones’ radio-friendly tunes, she spawned from the 1960s counterculture of California, donning flowy outfits as she became a pioneer of the psychedelic movement.
Joplin’s voice was just as powerful as Jones’, filling the stage at Woodstock and captivating audiences far and wide in the process. Though they both found success in the 1960s, Jones and Joplin’s styles and trajectories couldn’t have been much more different. When they linked up for a duet on Jones’ television show, it seemed like an absurd pairing.
But somehow, their voices and personalities melded together perfectly on stage. Joplin joined Jones to sing ‘Raise Your Hand’, taking on the first verse with unparalleled intent. “You better get up, now don’t you understand, raise your hand,” she sings, her voice flitting between screeches and powerful belts. She looks Jones in the eye as she sings.
Jones matches Joplin’s energy, putting just as much power into his own vocal performance, though he looks a little daunted by Joplin. The two laugh their way through the song, interacting with one another and the audience, bopping along to the instrumentation and fighting to outdo one another’s singing.
The intensity only builds as the song reaches its climax, Jones and Joplin each raising their hands in the air as their voices fight for power. “Yeah,” Jones shrugs at the end before a slightly awkward attempt to hug Joplin concludes the performance. It’s a duet that, on paper, really shouldn’t have worked, pulling two artists together from completely different worlds, sonically and literally.
But sometimes those unexpected pairings can yield the best results. Jones and Joplin’s performance of ‘Raise Your Hand’ acted as a demonstration of both artist’s undeniable talent with a microphone, pushing each other to be better. The performance itself was stellar, but this wasn’t the only positive effect for Jones and Joplin.
Joplin’s appearance made Jones look cooler than people might have previously perceived him to be, showing that he had his finger on the pulse when it came to more alternative genres. Meanwhile, Joplin was able to show off her vocal prowess to a brand new subsection of people, pushing beyond the realms of California subcultures and psychedelic rock. Decades later, it remains a landmark duet and a stunning watch.
