9 Posthumously Released Albums Everyone Should Own

Janis Joplin left this world all too soon 50 years ago today (October 4), but even after her untimely passing, she left her fans one final gift with the album Pearl.

Pearl was released about three months after Joplin’s death and would top the Billboard 200 album charts for nine weeks and go on to be certified four-times platinum.

Pearl, of course, isn’t the only album to be released after an artist’s death.  In honor of her wonderful life, here are nine posthumously released albums everyone should own.

• Janis Joplin – ‘Pearl’

  Share

  From the opening track of “Move Over” to the closing of “Get It While You Can,” this 'Pearl' is a diamond of an album.

• Otis Redding – ‘The Dock of the Bay’

  Share

  Two months after Redding’s death via plane crash, we received this stellar album.  And that title track?  Simply a classic!

• Gregg Allman – ‘Southern Blood’

  Share

  The most recent posthumous release on this list, Allman’s 'Southern Blood' was released four months after his passing. The album was made up of mostly cover songs but featured one original track with “My Only True Friend” that Allman wrote with Scott Sharrard.
• John Lennon and Yoko Ono – ‘Milk and Honey’

  Share

  Completed by Ono, 'Milk and Honey' was Lennon’s final studio release and came out four years after Lennon was murdered. The album featured the hit single “Nobody Told Me,” which was originally written for Ringo Starr to be included on his 1981 solo album 'Stop and Smell the Roses', but he ended up not recording the track.

• Marvin Gaye – ‘Dream of a Lifetime’

  Share

  Gaye’s first posthumous release came out a year after his murder and featured the single “Sanctified Lady,” which hit number two on the Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart.

• Johnny Cash – ‘American V:  A Hundred Highways’

  Share

  The fifth installment of Cash’s American series, it became Cash’s first number one album in 37 years and featured one of the most haunting, cool versions of “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” that you’ll ever hear. 
• George Harrison – ‘Brainwashed’

  Share

  Harrison’s final studio album came out about a year after he died and features tracks dating back to the late 1980’s.  It was completed by close friend Jeff Lynne and son, Dhani Harrison.

• Gram Parsons – ‘Grievous Angel’

  Share

  Gram Parsons was only 26 when he died via an overdose of morphine and alcohol.  Four months later, his second solo album 'Grievous Angel' was released forever reminding fans what could have been.

• Roy Orbison – ‘Mystery Girl’

  Share

  Like Redding, Orbison’s 'Mystery Girl' was released two months after his heart attack death and featured the hit single “You Got It.”