Piece of My Heart

"Piece of My Heart"
Single by Erma Franklin
B-side	"Baby, What You Want Me to Do"
Released	October 1967
Recorded	August 1967
Genre	R&B[1]
Length	2:35
Label	Shout
Songwriter(s)	Jerry Ragovoy, Bert Berns
Erma Franklin singles chronology
"Big Boss Man" (1967) "Piece of My Heart" (1967) "Open up Your Soul" (1967)

"Piece of My Heart" is a romantic soul song written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns, originally recorded by Erma Franklin in 1967. Franklin's single peaked in December 1967 at number 10 on the Billboard Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart in the United States.

The song came to mainstream attention when Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin on lead vocals covered the song in 1968 and had a much bigger hit, after which Franklin's version was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. The song has since been remade by Dusty Springfield, also in 1968, Faith Hill in 1994 and as a duet by Melissa Etheridge and Joss Stone in 2005.

In 2004, the Big Brother and the Holding Company version was ranked No. 353 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song is also included among The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. In 1999, the version of the song by Big Brother and The Holding Company was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.^[2]