Janis Ian

Janis Ian (born April 7, 1951, Farmingdale, New Jersey, U.S.) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who wrote multiple popular soft rock songs in the late 1960s and ’70s, most notably “Society’s Child (Baby I’ve Been Thinking),” the story of a white girl pressured by her family and society to relinquish her Black boyfriend. Ian recorded the song in 1965, when she was 14 years old, and released it in 1966. The following year, “Society’s Child” reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 music chart.

Early life and “Society’s Child”

Fink grew up on a farm in New Jersey and was raised by parents who were Jewish atheists. Her father taught music, inspiring her early interest in the piano, which she began studying at a very young age by choice. She later learned to play acoustic guitar, harmonica, and other instruments. Her musical influences in her youth included a diverse range of singers and musicians who were popular between the 1930s and 1960s, among them American blues-folk singer Odetta, French singer and actress Edith Piaf, and American jazz singer Billie Holiday.

Fink wrote her first song, “Hair of Spun Gold,” when she was 12. The song was published by a prominent folk-music journal and was later included on her debut album, Janis Ian (1967). In 1964 she legally changed her surname to Ian, and she began writing “Society’s Child,” which she would complete the following year. She attended the Manhattan High School of Music and Art, performing at school functions and at local New York folk clubs; she dropped out school, however, following the release of “Society’s Child.”

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Ian recorded “Society’s Child” with the help of producer George (“Shadow”) Morton. Although the song was rejected by 22 record labels for being too provocative, it was finally released by Verve. Disc jockeys across the country were reluctant to play the song until Ian performed it on a Leonard Bernstein television special and became an instant celebrity. With “Society’s Child” and Janis Ian climbing the charts, Ian embarked on a national tour. With Verve, she subsequently recorded three other albums, For All the Seasons of Your Mind (1967); The Secret Life of J. Eddy Fink (1968), and Who Really Cares (1969).

“At Seventeen” and professional hardship

Despite her widespread publicity and early success—she was touted as the female Bob Dylan—Ian became disillusioned with the music industry and briefly withdrew from the music scene after the release of Who Really Cares. Her return to recording in the early 1970s was slow, yielding several unremarkable albums. In 1974, however, she finally had another success, with Stars, produced with Columbia Records. The album featured the hit song “Jesse,” which was written by Ian and had been made famous the previous year by rhythm-and-blues singer Roberta Flack. Ian’s next album, Between the Lines (1975), went platinum and included the song “At Seventeen,” a poignant portrayal of adolescent pain, rejection, and cruelty. In 1976 she won her first Grammy Award, for best female pop vocal performance, for the song.

Following the success of the single “Fly Too High,” which was from the album Night Rains (1979) and which was popular in Australia and the Netherlands and was a number one hit in South Africa, Ian experienced various ups and downs, professionally and personally. In 1978 she married Portuguese filmmaker Tino Sargo; however, the two divorced in 1983. When her record contract expired in the early 1980s, she had trouble finding a new label because of her controversial songs and declining popularity. She decided to relocate to Nashville, where she carved out a niche writing songs for other artists, including Bette Midler, Amy Grant, and John Mellencamp. During this time, she disclosed her sexual orientation as a lesbian.

Breaking Silence and later success

Although Ian never regained her early stardom, she continued writing and performing in the 1990s and early 2000s. After 12 years without a major release, she returned to the music scene with the Grammy-nominated, folk-inspired Breaking Silence (1993). Ian’s 1995 album, Revenge, featured a mix of jazz, funk, and samba. Her later albums include God & the FBI (2000), Billie’s Bones (2004), and Folk Is the New Black (2006). Ian released the book Society’s Child: An Autobiography in 2008; in 2012 she released an audio recording of the book, for which she won a Grammy Award for best spoken word album in 2013.

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