Janis Ian facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Janis Ian
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Ian performing in concert in Dublin, Ireland, 1981
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Janis Eddy Fink |
| Born | April 7, 1951 Farmingdale, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | Error: Need valid death date (first date): year, month, day |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
| Years active | 1965–present |
| Labels | |
Janis Ian (born Janis Eddy Fink on April 7, 1951) is an American singer and songwriter. She became very popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Her most famous songs are "Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)" from 1966 and "At Seventeen" from 1975. "At Seventeen" was a Top Ten hit and her album Between the Lines reached number one on the U.S. Billboard chart in September 1975.
Janis Ian grew up in Farmingdale, New Jersey. She joined the American folk music scene as a teenager in the mid-1960s. She has continued to record music into the 21st century. She has won two Grammy Awards. The first was in 1975 for "At Seventeen". The second was in 2013 for Best Spoken Word Album for her autobiography, Society's Child. She has been nominated for ten Grammy Awards in eight different categories. Ian also writes columns and science fiction stories.
Contents
Early Life and Musical Beginnings
Janis Ian was born in Farmingdale, New Jersey. She grew up on a farm. She went to high school in East Orange, New Jersey and also in Manhattan. Her grandparents came from Poland, Ukraine, and Tashkent, Uzbekistan. They moved to the New York-New Jersey area around 1918. Her parents, Victor and Pearl, were a music teacher and a college fundraiser. They were Jewish and ran summer camps in upstate New York.
As a child, Ian loved folk musicians like Joan Baez and Odetta. She started piano lessons at age two because she really wanted to. By the time she was a teenager, she could play the organ, harmonica, French horn, and guitar. When she was 12, she wrote her first song, "Hair of Spun Gold". This song was published in a folk magazine called Broadside. It was later recorded for her first album. In 1964, she officially changed her name to Janis Ian. She used her brother Eric's middle name as her new last name.
Janis Ian's Music Career
When Janis Ian was 14, she wrote and recorded her first hit song, "Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)". This song was about a forbidden interracial romance. It became a national hit in 1967 after Leonard Bernstein featured it on a TV special. In July 1967, "Society's Child" reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song sold 600,000 copies. Her first album, released in 1967, reached number 29 on the charts. In 2001, "Society's Child" was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame. This honor is for recordings that are important to music history.
"Society's Child" made some people think Ian was a one-hit wonder. But then her most successful U.S. song, "At Seventeen", came out in 1975. "At Seventeen" is a song about the tough parts of being a teenager. It talks about how popularity can be misleading and the struggles of growing up. The song was a huge hit. It reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Adult Contemporary chart. It won a Grammy Award in 1976 for Best Pop Vocal Performance - Female. Ian performed "At Seventeen" on the first episode of Saturday Night Live on October 11, 1975. Her album Between the Lines also hit number one on Billboard's album chart. It sold over one million copies in the U.S.
Another popular song, "Fly Too High" (1979), was part of the soundtrack for the Jodie Foster film Foxes. This song became a hit around the world. It reached number one in countries like South Africa, Belgium, Australia, and the Netherlands. Janis Ian is also very popular in Japan. She had two Top 10 songs there: "Love Is Blind" in 1976 and "You Are Love" in 1980. Her 1976 album Aftertones also topped Japan's album chart.
In 1992, Ian started her own record label called Rude Girl Records, Inc. This company helps produce her new music and re-release her older songs. From 1982 to 1992, Ian kept writing songs. Other artists have recorded her songs, including Roberta Flack, who had a hit with Ian's song "Jesse" in 1973. "At Seventeen" is Ian's most covered song, with 50 different versions by artists like Celine Dion. Ian continues to tour around the world. Her 2022 North American tour was her "last full tour" due to a health issue. In August 2018, she performed at the UK's Cambridge Folk Festival.
Writing and Acting
Janis Ian writes science fiction stories. She has been a fan of the genre for a long time. In 2001, she started attending science fiction conventions. Her short stories have been published in collections. She also helped edit an anthology called Stars: Original Stories Based on the Songs of Janis Ian in 2003. She still goes to science fiction conventions sometimes. At the 2009 Nebula Award Conference, she sang "Welcome Home". This was a special version of "At Seventeen" with new words about finding acceptance through reading science fiction.
Ian used to write a regular column for the news magazine The Advocate. She also wrote for Performing Songwriter magazine from 1993 to 2006. On July 24, 2008, Ian released her autobiography, Society's Child. This book was well-received. A two-CD set called The Autobiography Collection was released with it, featuring many of her popular songs.
In the early 1980s, Ian took acting lessons from Stella Adler. This helped her feel more comfortable performing on stage. They remained good friends until Adler passed away in 1992. In December 2015, Ian appeared in the final episode of the HBO comedy series Getting On. She played a patient who would not stop singing.
Personal Life and Philanthropy
Janis Ian's mother, Pearl Yadoff Fink, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1975. Because of this, Ian and her brother encouraged their mother to go to college, which had been her dream. Pearl Fink went to Goddard College and earned a master's degree. After her mother passed away in 1997, Ian decided to sell some of her belongings to raise money for a scholarship at Goddard. This scholarship was specifically for older students returning to school. This led to the creation of the Pearl Foundation, a charity that helps fund scholarships. By 2020, the foundation had given over $1,250,000 in scholarship money to four schools.
Ian married filmmaker Tino Sargo in 1978. They divorced in 1983. After moving to Nashville, she met Patricia Snyder in 1989. Snyder and Ian married in Toronto on August 27, 2003. Ian has a stepdaughter and two grandchildren through her marriage to Patricia Snyder.
Images for kids
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Ian performing in concert in Dublin, Ireland, 1981
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Ian performing at the National Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, May 1981
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Ian at a Borders store book-signing, May 2005
See also
In Spanish: Janis Ian para niños
