Cheap Thrills
by Big Brother And The Holding Company

Cheap Thrills by Big Brother And The Holding Company
Year: 1968
Release date: 1968-08-12
Overall rank: 749th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
79/100 (from 419 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top 20 albums of 1968 (16th)
Award Top 100 albums of of the 1960s (86th)
Award Top 1,000 albums of all time (749th)

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Big Brother And The Holding Company bestography

Cheap Thrills is ranked as the best album by Big Brother And The Holding Company.

Big Brother And The Holding Company album bestography « Higher ranked
-
This album (749th)
Cheap Thrills
Lower ranked (8,119th) »
Big Brother And The Holding Company

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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Cheap Thrills track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 83 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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#
Track
Rating/Comments
3.
Track pick (880 - 107 votes)
Average Rating: 88 (107 votes)Comments: View 1
4.
Track pick (900 - 130 votes)
Average Rating: 90 (130 votes)Comments: View 0

Track pick (1000 - 100 votes) Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.

Cheap Thrills rankings

Cheap Thrills rankings summary
Overall rank: 749th | 1960s rank: 86th | 1968 rank: 16th  Overall chart history
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings).Help Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 7 hours ago)
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YearSourceChartRankRank Score
2026 JoaoMoreiraTop 8 Music Albums of 19685/83
2026mrmcrookTop 13 Music Albums of 19689/132
2026 DeusExMackiaTop 100 Greatest Music Albums71/10030
2026Exist-en-cielTop 63 Music Albums of 196847/631
2026JakorTop 100 Music Albums of the 1960s41/10012
2026 ERadioTop 35 Music Albums of 196813/353
2026AledJamesTop 81 Music Albums of the 1960s30/8113
2026HyggevinylTop 56 Music Albums of 196843/561
2026 PurplepashTop 34 Music Albums of 19684/345
2026 JoaoMoreiraTop 61 Music Albums of the 1960s24/6112
2026 ExTeaSeaTop 41 Music Albums of 19687/414
2026martinthoTop 55 Music Albums of 196836/552
2026 junodog4Top 20 Music Albums of 19687/204
2026JakorTop 90 Music Albums of 19688/905
2026 videoheadcleanerTop 20 Music Albums of 196819/201
2026 Patman360Top 90 Music Albums of 196880/901
2026 sszwalbenestTop 100 Music Albums of the 1960s30/10014
2026cicadelicRobert Christgau's 1968 Jazz & Pop Ballot: Pop3/10 -
2026downandoutTop 100 Music Albums of the 1960s49/10010
2026mrmcrookTop 61 Music Albums of the 1960s43/616
Total Charts: Help The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. 427
Total Rank Score: Help The total rank score. 2,306
You can include this album in your own chart from the My Charts page!

Cheap Thrills collection

Cheap Thrills ratings

Average Rating: 
79/100 (from 419 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 419 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
75/100
 !
07/31/2026 22:47 colabunga  Ratings distribution  62580/100
 
85/100
 !
07/22/2026 17:44 Tamthebam  Ratings distribution  23,17069/100
 
80/100
 !
07/18/2026 19:55 xhitmanx  Ratings distribution  1,57274/100
 
75/100
 !
06/25/2026 22:04 mrmcrook  Ratings distribution  1,11177/100
 
80/100
 !
05/10/2026 09:54 Milhaud  Ratings distribution  2,13471/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album is rated in the top 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 78.9/100, a mean average of 78.0/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 79.1/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.7.


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Cheap Thrills comments

Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 25 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)
Rating:  
75/100
From 06/25/2026 22:05 | #315062
Nice mix of psychedelia, psych blues, rock, even a touch of prog & soul. My preferred album featuring Janis. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
60/100
This album is pretty average in my opinion with there being just one song that is really worth listening to and the rest feeling like filler. Obviously, the vocal is phenomenal and it makes what would be a very dull album into one that is reasonably entertaining. Once you look past the voice though the music is pretty simplistic and feels very repetitive by the time you get to the end. It also doesn't take any risks and feels like a safe record that blends in with other generic rock releases. Overall, I was quite disappointed revisiting this album as I love the big single and Joplin's voice is fantastic but the rest falls flat in my opinion. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
From 03/04/2022 05:04 | #282244
Not always sure "Pearl" is her best album; there's a lot of good stuff here. But apparently they were stressful sessions and management was determined to split her off from the band by the end. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 09/08/2021 23:40 | #273571
Blisteringly hot blues rock. Rivals the likes of Blue Cheer and The Velvet Underground for the title of most raucous release of 1968.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
65/100
From 02/08/2021 13:58 | #266007
the energy of Janis. decent stuff
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 01/26/2021 13:36 | #265138
Great album. Love her voice (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 01/18/2021 10:32 | #264594
Janis is untouchable and the song material is almost as consistently great, though the half-assed effort to make it seem like a live album feels like the cheapest thrill. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
60/100
From 09/26/2020 23:37 | #258757
60/100.

Best songs: Summertime, Piece of My Heart
Worst song: Oh, Sweet Mary

Pretty good album!
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
A powerful psychedelic album with plenty of edge and energy. Janis Joplin sounds like what Grace Slick might have sounded like if she gargled with Whisky regularly. Love 'Piece of my Heart'. Parts of Joplin's vocal style reminds me of a female version of Robert Plant. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 08/21/2020 17:25 | #257277
Janis is Amazing and The Holding Company can jam with the best of them. Rating (82.86) (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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