Piece of My Heart is a romantic soul song written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns, originally recorded by Erma Franklin in 1967 for the Shout label with the B-side Baby, What You Want Me to Do. Franklin's single, released in October 1967, peaked at number 10 on the US Billboard R&B chart and number 62 on the Hot 100. The tune gained iconic status when Janis Joplin fronted Big Brother and the Holding Company on the 1968 album Cheap Thrills, a cover that became a major hit and helped earn Franklin a Grammy nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. The Joplin version is often considered the definitive recording, and it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 and ranked number 353 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004. Since then the song has been covered by Dusty Springfield in 1968, Faith Hill in 1994 who reached the US country chart No 1, and by Melissa Etheridge and Joss Stone in 2005 as a Grammy tribute medley.
