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Janis Ian

JANIS IAN
 
 
Janis Ian  (born Janis Eddy Fink; April 7, 1951) is a singer-songwriter who was mostly active in the 1960’s and 1970’s; her most successful song “At Seventeen”, was released as a single from her 1975 album Between the Lines which reached number 1 on the Billboard chart.  Born in 1951 in New York, Ian entered the American folk music scene while still a teenager in the mid-1960’s.  Most active musically in that decade and the 1970’s, she has continued recording into the 21st century.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

 

 

When she was just 13, folksinger Janis Ian – perhaps the most relentlessly soul-baring folksinger ever – began writing a heartbreaking song about interracial dating that she called “I’ve Been Thinking”; it was ultimately released in 1965 under the name “Society’s Child”.  Unable to bear the hatred of her parents and the taunts of her schoolmates, she eventually breaks under the pressure and calls off the romance herself at the end of the song.  Though slow to gain airplay (not to mention record sales), the song eventually peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967 – the same year that the similarly themed film, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was released. 

 

(March 2013)

 

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