Janis Joplin died of a heroin overdose at 27 in a Los Angeles motel room on Oct. 4, 1970. Unlike contemporaries like Jimi Hendrix, who also died in 1970, Joplin's profile has diminished significantly in the years since her death.
"The singer’s faded cultural presence suggests a failure to groom a legacy lately reduced to pale imitations on 'American Idol,' " Greg Evans writes.
Left, Janis Joplin in 1967.