Kristofferson

Kristofferson was produced by Fred Foster at Monument's studio in Nashville, with Todd Parker and Tommy Strong engineering and Bergen White arranging strings. Kristofferson plays guitar, with Chip Young, Jerry Kennedy and Jerry Shook on guitar, Norbert Putnam on bass, Kenny Buttrey on drums and Charlie McCoy on harmonica; liner notes are by Foster, Johnny Cash and Billy Swan. Wikipedia dates its release to June 1970, while his official timeline says April 1970.

It sold 30,000 copies in 1970 and failed commercially. After Columbia took over Monument's distribution, and after Joplin's hit, it was reissued in September 1971 as Me and Bobby McGee, reaching number 43 on the Billboard 200 and number 10 on the country albums chart, and was certified gold. Billboard called the 1970 original a dynamite package, Rolling Stone called it superb, and Rolling Stone's Adam Bresnick in 2001 gave it four stars and called it one of the great lost records of the hippie era; AllMusic gave it five stars.