Piece of My Heart

Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns wrote the song, and Erma Franklin recorded it first, in 1967, for Berns's Shout label. Her single reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart that December. Berns died of a heart attack on 30 December 1967 and never heard Joplin's version.

Big Brother's recording, on Cheap Thrills, reached number 12 on the Hot 100. Sam Andrew arranged the instrumental parts and played three distorted, loud guitar solos. Pitchfork's Judy Berman wrote that it is spare for a Big Brother track, with the guitars pushed back behind Joplin's "annihilating vocals". Franklin said that when she first heard Joplin's version on the radio she did not recognize it, because of the vocal arrangement. The writer Ellen Willis heard the difference between them: Franklin's version is a challenge, while Joplin seems to say that if she keeps taking it, surely he will understand.

The B-side of the single was Summertime. Rolling Stone ranked the Big Brother version 353rd on its 2004 list of the 500 greatest songs, and it is in the Grammy Hall of Fame (1999) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 songs that shaped rock and roll. A 6:41 live version is on Live at Winterland '68.