Janis Ian
Background information
Birth name	Janis Eddy Fink
Born	April 7, 1951 (1951-04-07) (age 57)
Occupation(s)	Singer/songwriter, author
Years active	1965 — present
Website	http://www.janisian.com/

Janis Ian (born Janis Eddy Fink, April 7, 1951) is a Grammy Award-winning American songwriter, singer, multi-instrumental musician, columnist, and science fiction fan-turned-author.^[1] She had a highly successful singing career in the 1960s and 1970s, and has continued recording into the 21st century.

Biography

Childhood

Born to a Jewish family in New York City,^[2] she was primarily raised in New Jersey and attended East Orange High School^[3] and the New York City High School of Music & Art. At age thirteen, she legally changed her name to Janis Ian, her new last name being her brother's middle name.^[2]

Music career

At the age of fifteen, Ian wrote and sang her first hit single, "Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)," about an interracial romance forbidden by a girl's mother and frowned upon by her peers and teachers; the girl ultimately decides to end the relationship, claiming the societal norms of the day have left her no other choice. Produced by melodrama specialist George "Shadow" Morton and released three times between 1965 and 1967, "Society's Child" finally became a national hit the third time it was released, after Leonard Bernstein featured it in a TV special titled Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution.^[2] The song's lyrical content was too taboo for some radio stations, and they withdrew or banned it from their playlists accordingly; in her 2008 autobiography Society's Child, Ian recalls receiving hate mail and death threats as a response to the song, and mentions that a radio station in Atlanta that played it was burned down. In the summer of 1967, "Society's Child" reached #14 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Apparently "Society's Child" was too hot for Atlantic Records as well at the time. Ian relates on her website that although the song was originally intended for Atlantic and the label paid for her recording session, the label subsequently returned the master to her and quietly refused to release it. Years later, Ian says, Atlantic's president at the time, Jerry Wexler, publicly apologized to her for this. The single and Ian's 1967 eponymous debut album were finally released on Verve Forecast; her album was also a hit, reaching #12. In 2001, "Society's Child" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which honors recordings considered timeless and important to music history.

Her early music was compiled onto a double CD entitled Society's Child: The Verve Recordings in 1995. Many of these songs are extremely sad; a common theme is feeling badly treated by one's parents.

Her most successful single was "At Seventeen," released in 1975, a bittersweet commentary on adolescent cruelty and teenage angst, as reflected upon from the maturity of adulthood. "At Seventeen" was a smash, receiving tremendous acclaim from critics and record buyers alike — it charted at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and hit #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. It even won the 1975 Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance - Female beating out the likes of Linda Ronstadt who was nominated for the classic Heart Like A Wheel album, Olivia Newton-John and Helen Reddy. Ian performed "At Seventeen" as a musical guest on the very first episode of Saturday Night Live on October 11, 1975. The song's album, Between the Lines, was also a smash and hit #1 on Billboard's Album chart. It was quickly certified Gold and later earned a 'Platinum' certification for sales of over one million copies sold in the US. Another measure of her success is anecdotal - on Valentine's Day 1977, Ian received 461 Valentine cards, having indicated in the lyrics to "At Seventeen" that she never received any as a teenager.^[4] "At Seventeen" can also be heard playing in the background in one scene in the 2004 movie Mean Girls. The movie, like the song, addresses the topic of teenage cruelty and alienation; the film features a character named "Janis Ian" who was not a lesbian but was called one nonetheless by some of her classmates in an attempt to demean her. The character was played by actress Lizzy Caplan. (The song starts at 46:38 on the Mean Girls DVD). "At Seventeen" is also mentioned in Jeffrey Eugenides's 1993 novel The Virgin Suicides, where the song is used by four girls imprisoned in their own home and essentially cut off from normal adolescent experiences to communicate with the narrator and his friends.

"Fly Too High" (1979), produced by disco legend Giorgio Moroder, was her contribution to the soundtrack of the Jodie Foster film Foxes. It earned her a Grammy nomination and became a hit single in many countries, including South Africa, Belgium. Australia, Israel, and the Netherlands.

Another country where Ian has achieved a surprising level of popularity is Japan. She had two top 10 singles on the Japanese Oricon charts, "Love Is Blind" in 1976, and "You Are Love" in 1980; and her album Aftertones was a #1 best-seller there in October 1976. "You Are Love (Toujours Gai Mon Cher)" is the theme song of Kinji Fukasaku's 1980 movie Virus, which was the most expensive Japanese film ever made at the time.

By contrast, in the U.S., Ian made the pop charts only once more after "At Seventeen" ("Under the Covers," #71 in 1981), though she had several more songs reach the Adult Contemporary singles chart through 1980 (all failing to make the Top 20, however). Ian spent much of the 1980s and early 1990s without a record deal; her label dropped her in 1981 following the disappointing sales of Miracle Row (1977), Night Rains (1979), and Restless Eyes (1981). "Basically, I didn't do anything from 1982 to 1992."^[5] After 1984's Uncle Wonderful, released only in Australia and featuring the minor dance single "Heart Skip Too Many Beats," Ian took a hiatus from recording for nearly a decade, but continued to write songs. During the 1980s, she also studied under legendary acting coach Stella Adler and struck up a close friendship with Adler which continued until the latter's death in 1992.

Ian finally resurfaced in 1993 with the album Breaking Silence, its title song about incest.^[6] She came out as a lesbian with that release. Also in 1993 was her infamous Howard Stern Show appearance where she performed a "new" version of "At Seventeen" about Jerry Seinfeld. Ian has released five albums since (including one live album, 2003's Working Without A Net).

Ian's most recent album, Folk Is The New Black, was released jointly by the Rude Girl and Cooking Vinyl labels in 2006. It is the first in over twenty years where she did all the songwriting herself.^[7]

She still tours and has a devoted fan base.

Other artists have recorded Ian's compositions, most notably Roberta Flack, who had a hit in 1973 with Ian's song "Jesse"^[6], also recorded by Joan Baez; Ian's own version is featured on her 1974 album Stars (the title song of which has also been oft-covered, including a version by Cher). Ian also co-wrote "What About The Love?" with Kye Fleming, featured on Amy Grant's 1988 album Lead Me On. Another Ian-Fleming composition, "Some People's Lives," served as the title song of an album released by Bette Midler in 1990. Most recently, Canadian singer-songwriter Jann Arden released a cover of "At Seventeen."

Criticism of the RIAA

She is an outspoken critic of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)^[8], a record industry organization which she sees as acting against the interests of musicians and consumers. As such, she has willingly released several of her songs for free download from her website.^[9] She was not only one of the first artists to do this but also was one of the first, along with author Eric Flint, to show conclusive evidence that free downloads dramatically increased hard-copy sales, contrary to the claims of RIAA and NARAS.^[10]. Ironically, Ian's signature tune At Seventeen sold over two million singles in the United States alone yet was never certified.

"I've been surprised at how few people are willing to get annoyed with me over it," she laughs, "there was a little backlash here and there. I was scheduled to appear on a panel somewhere and somebody from a record company said if I was there they would boycott it. But that's been pretty much it. In general the entire reaction has been favorable. I hear from a lot of people in my industry who don't want to be quoted, but say 'yeah, we're aware of this and we'd like to see a change too'."^[11]

Writing and editing

In addition to being an award-winning singer/songwriter, Ian writes science fiction. A long-time reader of the genre, she got into science fiction fandom in 2001, attending the Millennium Philcon. ^[12] Her works have been published in an assortment of anthologies, and she co-edited, with Mike Resnick, the anthology Stars: Original Stories Based on the Songs of Janis Ian, published in 2003 (ISBN 978-0756401771). When her schedule permits, she occasionally attends science fiction conventions^[13].

Ian has been a regular columnist for, and still contributes to the LGBT news magazine, The Advocate.^[14] She has a selection of her columns available on her website.^[15]

On July 24, 2008, Janis Ian released her Autobiography: Society's Child (published by Penguin Tarcher) to much critical acclaim. An accompanying double CD "The Autobiography Collection" has also been released with all Ian's best loved songs.

Current life

Ian currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with attorney Patricia Snyder, whom she married in Toronto, Canada on August 27, 2003.

Discography

Albums

• Janis Ian (1967) #29 US (Verve)
• For All the Seasons of Your Mind (1967) #179 US (Verve)
• The Secret Life of J. Eddy Fink (1968) (Verve)
• Who Really Cares (1969) (Verve)
• Present Company (1971) (One Way)
• Stars (1974) #83 US, #63 (One Way)
• Between the Lines (1975) #1 US, #22 Japan (Festival)
• Aftertones (1976) #12 US, #1 Japan (Festival)
• Miracle Row (1978) #45 US, #26 Japan (Festival)
• Janis Ian (1978) (1978)(Columbia)
• Night Rains (1979)(Columbia)
• Restless Eyes (1981) #156 US (Columbia)
• Uncle Wonderful (1983) (Grapevine) (Australia only)
• At Seventeen (1990)
• Breaking Silence (1993) (Morgan Creek)
• Simon Renshaw Presents: Janis Ian Shares Your Pain (1994)( Morgan Creek)
• Revenge (1995) (Beacon)
• Hunger (1997) (Windham Hill)
• God & the FBI (2000) (Windham Hill)
• God & the FBI (3 Bonus Tracks) (2000) (JVC Japan)
• Lost Cuts 1 (2001) (Rude Girl)
• Billie's Bones (2004) (Oh Boy)
• Breaking Silence (Bonus Track) (2003) (Rude Girl)
• Hunger (Bonus Track) (2003) (Victor)
• Stars (Bonus Track) (2004) (Festival)
• Between the Lines (Bonus Track) (2004) (Festival)
• Aftertones (Bonus Track) (2004) (Festival)
• Miracle Row (Bonus Track) (2004) (Festival)
• Janis Ian (1978) (Bonus Track) (2004) (Festival)
• Night Rains (Bonus Track) (2004) (Festival)
• Billie's Bones (Bonus Track) (2004) (JVC Japan)
• Folk is the New Black (2006) (Rude Girl)
• Fold is the New Black (With DVD) (2006) (Evasound)
• Revenge (Bonus Track) (2006) (WEA)

Compilation albums

• Remember (1978) (JVC Japan)
• The Best of Janis Ian (1980) (CBS)
• My Favourites (1980) (CBS)
• Stars/Night Rains (Double Album) (1987) (CBS)
• At Seventeen (1990) (CBS)
• Up 'Til Now (1992) (Sony)
• Society's Child: The Verve Recordings (1995) (Polydor) (This double CD contains most of the songs from the first 4 albums, with the exception of the song, "Snowbird.")
• Live on the Test 1976 (1995) (BBC World Wide)
• Unreleased 1: Mary's Eyes (1998) (Rude Girl)
• The Bottom Line Encore Collection (1999) (Velvet)
• The Best of Janis Ian (2002) (Festival) (Contains some of the songs on the 1977 release but has many different ones and four more tracks.)
• Live: Working Without a Net (2003) (Rude Girl)
• Souvenirs: Best of 1972-1981 (US CD) (2004) (Rude Girl)
• Souvenirs: Best of 1972-1981 (Japan CD) (2004) (JVC Japan)
• Souvenirs: Best of 1972-1981 (CD/DVD) (2006) (Evasound)
• Unreleased 2: Take No Prisoners (2006) (Rude Girl)
• Unreleased 3: Society's Child (2006) (Rude Girl)
• Ultimate Best (2007) (JVC Victory)
• Best of Janis Ian: Autobiography Collection (2008) (Rude Girl)

Various artists

Selected singles

• 1966: "Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)" #14 US Billboard, #13 US Cash Box (1967 release)
• 1967: "Insanity Comes Quietly to the Structured Mind" #109 US Billboard
• 1974: "The Man You Are In Me" #104 US Billboard, #33 US AC
• 1975: "When the Party's Over" #20 US AC
• 1975: "At Seventeen" #3 US Billboard, #1 US Cash Box, #1 US AC
• 1975: "In the Winter" #97 US Cash Box, #21 US AC
• 1976: "Boy I Really Tied One On" #43 US AC
• 1976: "I Would Like to Dance" #28 US AC
• 1976: "Roses" #37 US AC
• 1976: "Love Is Blind" #3 Japan
• 1976: "Between the Lines" #90 Japan
• 1977: "Will You Dance?" #40 Japan
• 1978: "That Grand Illusion" #43 US AC
• 1979: "Fly Too High" #44 UK
• 1980: "You Are Love" #10 Japan
• 1980: "The Other Side of the Sun" #47 US AC, #44 UK
• 1981: "Under the Covers" #71 US Billboard

DVDs

• Live at Club Cafe (2005) (Rude Girl)
• Janismania (2005) (Rude Girl)
• Through the Years: A Retrospective (2007) (Rude Girl)
• Janis Ian '79: Live in Japan & Australia (2008) (Rude Girl)

Bibliography

• Who Really Cares: Poems From Childhood and Early Youth 1969 (2002 re-release) ISBN 978-1930709379
• Songbook 1999 ISBN 978-0769201481
• Stars: Original Stories Based on the Songs of Janis Ian 2003 ISBN 978-0756401771 (ed., with Mike Resnick)
• "Prayerville" 2003 (in Women Writing Science Fiction As Men, ed. Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg ISBN 978-0756401481)
• Society's Child: My Autobiography, 2008, Tarcher/Penguin; ISBN 1-58542-675-X; ISBN 978-1-58542-675-1

References

External links

• Official website
• Works by Janis Ian at Project Gutenberg
• Janis Ian interview on Slashdot
• The Pearl Foundation
• 2006 interview