ON THIS DATE (48 YEARS AGO) December 16, 1966: The Jimi Hendrix Experience: “Hey Joe” b/w Stone Free (Polydor 56.139) 45 single is released in the UK. Hey Joe is an American popular song from the 1960s that has become a rock standard and as such, has been performed in a multitude of musical styles by hundreds of different artists since it was first written. Hey Joe tells the story of a man who is on the run and planning to head to Mexico after shooting his wife. However, diverse credits and claims have led to confusion as to the songs true authorship and genesis. The earliest known commercial recording of the song is the late 1965 single by the Los Angeles garage band, The Leaves, who also had the first hit version of the song with a re-recording in 1966. Released in December 1966, Hendrixs version became a hit in the United Kingdom, entering the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart in January 1967 and peaking at #6. The single was released in the United States on May 1, 1967 with the B-side 51st Anniversary but failed to chart. Hey Joe, as recorded by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, remains the best known version of the song and is listed as #201 on Rolling Stone magazines The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2009 it was named the 22nd greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1. Hey Joe was the last song Jimi Hendrix performed at the Woodstock festival in 1969 and as such, it was also the final song of the whole festival. The song was performed after the crowd, comprising the 80,000 who hadnt yet left the festival, cheered for an encore. Folk rock singer Tim Rose’s slower version of the song (recorded in 1966 and claimed to be Roses arrangement of a wholly traditional song) inspired the first single by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. The ex-bassist for The Animals, Chas Chandler, who was now focusing on managing other acts, had also seen Rose performing the song at the Cafe Wha? in New York City and was looking for an artist to record a rock version of Hey Joe. Chandler discovered Jimi Hendrix, who had also been playing at the Cafe Wha? in 1966 and performing an arrangement of Hey Joe inspired by Roses rendition. Chandler decided to take Hendrix with him to England in September 1966, where he would subsequently turn the guitarist into a star. Tim Rose re-recorded Hey Joe in the 1990s, re-titling it Blue Steel .44 and again claimed the song as his own arrangement of a traditional song. Some accounts credit the slower version of the song by the British band The Creation as being the inspiration for Hendrixs version; Chandler and Hendrix saw them perform the song after Jimi arrived in the UK, although The Creations version was not released until after Hendrixs. It is unclear if the members of The Creation had heard Tim Roses version. Jimi Hendrix
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 02:30:32 +0000
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