Janis Ian – Janis Ian (1967): When she was only 13, Janis Ian – perhaps the most relentlessly soul-baring folksinger ever – began writing a heartbreaking song about interracial dating (probably the very first song about that topic) that she called “I’ve Been Thinking”; it was ultimately released in 1965 under the name “Society’s Child (Baby, I’ve Been Thinking)”. Unable to bear the hatred of her parents and the taunts of her schoolmates, she eventually breaks under the pressure and calls off the romance herself at the end of the song. The history of this song is bathed in controversy, and “Society’s Child” was released three different times between 1965 and 1967; ultimately, the song reached #14 on the charts in the summer of 1967 – the same year that the similarly themed film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was released – and eventually sold 600,000 copies. Years later, the President of Atlantic Records, Jerry Wexler publicly apologized to Janis Ian for refusing to release the single and returning the master recording to her; “Society’s Child” finally came out on Verve/Forecast Records. Janis Ian might have remained a most remarkable one hit wonder had she not taken up other controversial issues – as related by Wikipedia, “adolescent cruelty, the illusion of popularity, and teenage angst” – with her biggest hit song “At Seventeen” (1975). The song and the accompanying album, Between the Lines both reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary Singles and Hot 200 Albums Billboard charts, respectively, with much less drama than had befallen “Society’s Child”. What’s more, Janis Ian won the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance – Female that year, beating out Linda Ronstadt (whose breakthrough album Heart Like a Wheel had been nominated), as well as Olivia Newton-John and Helen Reddy. Janis Ian is Janis Ian’s first album and was recorded by her when she was 15 years old. Besides “Society’s Child”, there are other unsettling tales on the album and many remarkable folk and folk-rock performances, with all being original songs.
