18 Essential Songs in Bloomington, MN

18 Essential Songs
is a one-disc distillation of the triple-disc
Janis
box set. Running 70 minutes, it is a more extensive best-of than the ten-track 1973
Janis Joplin's Greatest Hits
album. But it is denied "first pick" status because, unlike that album, it does not contain the hit version of
Joplin
's only number one single,
"Me and Bobby McGee."
(It does, however, contain an alternate demo version of that song.) ~ William Ruhlmann