Today in Music (1966): Jimi Hendrix “Hey Joe” released

Hey Joe The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Writer(s): Billy Roberts (see lyrics here) Recorded: October 23, 1966 Released: December 16, 1966 First Charted: December 31, 1966 Peak: 1 CL, 6 UK, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 64.38 video, 271.82 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: In 1962, Billy Roberts, “an obscure figure in the California music scene” TC copyrighted the song “Hey Joe.” However, it’s unclear who Roberts was and if that was a pseudonym. It has since been covered more than 800 times. TC “It was a big hit on the folk scene and amongst garage rock bands in the mid-‘60s,” TC recorded by the Byrds, Cher, King Curtis, Deep Purple, Love, Mothers of Invention, Wilson Pickett, Tim Rose, and the Shadows of Knight. It became “a repertoire requirement for every halfway hip high school band in the country.” DM The Leaves had the biggest hit with the song, taking it to #31 in 1966. Their version was credited to Chester Powers, which was supposedly a pen name for Dino Valentie, who was later a member of Quicksilver Messenger Service. Supposedly the Animals’ Chas Chandler was convinced to sign on as Jimi Hendrix’s manager after seeing him perform the song at New York’s Café Wha? Chandler brought Hendrix back to London where Jimi formed the Experience with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell. They’d been together three weeks when they recorded “Hey Joe” in one take. TC The story feels “tacked together from a batch of staple blues concepts – the badman, betrayed by his woman, shoots her and her boyfriend and cuts out for parts unknown.” DM Hendrix “didn’t just cover the song, he possessed it. It’s slowed down, the tempo making the undercurrent of violence in to the song’s most tangible quality.” DM” DM The lyric “is full of suppressed rage and Hendrix’s guitar is similarly holding back, but you can feel the pressure. There’s a heavy, almost ponderous feel at work, a sense of doom.” TC “ The single wasn’t a showcase for the guitar wizardry that would come to be associated with Hendrix, but it still “lays the foundation ofr one of the most incendiary careers in rock.” XFM Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Jimi Hendrix TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Page 153. DM Dave Marsh (1989). The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. New American Library: New York, NY. Pages 335-6. XFM Mike Walsh (editor) (2010). The XFM Top 1000 Songs of All Time. Elliott & Thompson Limited: London, England. Page 191. Related Links: First posted 9/19/2023.