Janis Eddy Fink had begun writing poetry when she was eight and singing when she was twelve.

[6] Changing her name to "Janis Ian" after the middle name of her brother, she began to perform in New York folk clubs in her teens and made her first recording, "Baby I've Been Thinking" in September 1965.

[6] Ian signed with Verve Records in 1966 and released the single – retitled as "Society's Child" – in September 1966.

It slowly caught on and peaked at number 14 in the United States in July 1967.

[9] Contemporary reviewers, notably Loraine Alterman of the Detroit Free Press,[3] generally praised Ian's lyrical talent but some such as Peter Johnson of the Los Angeles Times said that the record's lyrical strengths were countered by Ian's fundamental musical weaknesses such as a thin voice.