When Janis Joplin turned a Bee Gees classic into a gospel blues triumph

7 May 2026, 12:01

She had a voice like no other.

Raspy, powerful, pained, brimming with blues and sexy as hell – when she sang, Janis Joplin could break your heart in an instant.

Renowned for her blues-soaked psychedelic rock, Joplin brought buckets of soul to the counterculture movement.

Starting out as the singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company, she branched out as a solo star and solidified her status as an icon of the era.

Though for her debut solo album I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, she took inspiration from an unlikely source.

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British, dashing, and pretty prim, the Bee Gees would've been regarded by many as the antithesis of Joplin's raw persona.

But Gibb brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice possessed a songwriting talent like no other, considering the sheer amount of artists that covered their songs.

Joplin was one of the aforementioned, who displayed how versatile and soulful their songs truly were after performing one live in 1969.

It's fair to say, after her performance of 'To Love Somebody' on The Dick Cavett Show, that she made it her own.

The 1960s was the decade when musicians tore up the rule book, and trailblazing artists blurred the lines between soul, rock, psychedelia, pop and R&B.

Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Animals, Small Faces, Joe Cocker, and of course, Janis Joplin.

Janis was no doubt one of the first female artists to break the glass ceiling, and break out as a standalone icon of the rock music domain.

Despite her immense talent, she was embattled with doubts about her appearance and ability to find love.

Based on her heart-on-the-sleeve performances, like 'To Love Somebody', she had plenty of love to spare.

TO LOVE SOMEBODY by Janis Joplin

Joplin appeared on The Dick Cavett Show in 1969 to promote her new album, a television show that embraced the burgeoning countercultural movement.

Dick Cavett's willingness to talk to these pioneering artists meant he secured some of the most iconic interviews of the era – and their live performances too.

In between chatting to Cavett about her rising stardom and her love of Tina Turner (who she called "the best chick ever"), she performed two songs.

Firstly was 'Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)' and secondly 'To Love Somebody', both of which established her as a genuine star.

1969 was a transformative year for Joplin, especially when her appearance at Woodstock Festival that August became the thing of legend.

To the untrained ear however, 'To Love Somebody' might've seemed like an unlikely choice for the freewheeling 'Piece Of My Heart' singer.

But the Bee Gees took many of the cues from American roots music, and actually had Otis Redding in mind when they wrote it.

Over the years, 'To Love Somebody' has been covered by Nina Simone, Lulu, Roberta Flack, Leonard Cohen, and more recently Al Green.

It's not the only Bee Gees song Al Green covered, as he leant his voice to ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart’.

Whilst his rendition of ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart' was perhaps the definitive cover version, Janis did the same with 'To Love Somebody'.

Without any background knowledge of it being a Bee Gees song, she made it virtually unrecognisable, more akin to the classic Stax sound of Otis Redding and Booker T. & the MG's.

It would've been music to Barry Gibb's ears at least, who made a habit of writing incredible songs that could've been tailored to iconic artist's individual singing voices and not just his own.

During a 2017 interview with Piers Morgan, Barry was asked: "Of all the songs that you've ever written, which song would you choose?"

Gibb replied that 'To Love Somebody' was the song that he'd choose as it has "a clear, emotional message". It's a message that Janis Joplin understood.