Janis Ian - The Secret Life of J.Eddy Fink (1968)

Janis Fink is Ian's real name, and her concerns moved more toward the personal on her third album. "42nd St. Psycho Blues" was her unhappy commentary on what having a pop music career had been like, while "When I Was a Child" found her reminiscing regretfully about what had happened to her. Other songs waxed poetic, and producer Shadow Morton kept recreating the folk-rock sound of "Society's Child," but nothing here caught fire, and this album failed to chart, seeming to confirm that Ian would be a one-hit wonder, over the hill at 17. With a few years to think about it, of course, she'd have some trenchant things to say about that age.