Jimi Hendrix: Recording Sessions (10/22/68 to 12/15/69)

Jimi Hendrix Recording Sessions: 10/22/68 to 12/15/69

The Jimi Hendrix Experience released three albums in 1967 and 1968 before breaking up. Hendrix would finally release Band of Gypsys in 1970, but there was a wealth of unreleased material in between. This page highlights those songs recorded durin that era that would eventually see the light of day on various posthumous releases. Tracks: Click on a song title for more details including recording date, chart data, and album appearances. Look Over Yonder Peace in Mississippi Here He Comes (Lover Man) Gloria Electric Church Red House Sunshine of Your Love Crying Blue Rain The Star-Spangled Banner Let Me Move You Georgia Blues Trash Man Midnight Lullaby for the Summer Hear My Train A Comin’ (aka “Hear My Train”) Ships Passing Through the Night Mannish Boy Crash Landing Things I Used to Do Jam 292 (aka “Jelly 292”) Villanova Junction Blues Easy Blues Izabella $20 Fine Woodstock Jungle Born Under a Bad Sign Spotify Playlist Here’s my Jimi Hendrix: Recording Sessions (10/22/68 to 12/15/69) playlist at Spotify for the above songs. The Songs Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.

Look Over Yonder Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 10/22/68 at TTG Studios in Hollywood, California Released: Rainbow Bridge (soundtrack, 1971), South Saturn Delta (1997) Peak: 33 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.91 streaming About the Song: This song was originally considered for Axis: Bold As Love. It is a reworked version of “Mr. Bad Luck,” a song dating back to Hendrix’s days as Jimmy James. “It’s a high-energy opener from the Experience with Hendrix coaxing a playful riff. The falsetto backing vocals raise the excitement, and the drop in intensity near the close helps to keep the attention.” ES-110

Peace in Mississippi Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 10/24/68 at TTG Studios in Hollywood, California Released: Crash Landing (1975) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.54 streaming About the Song: This is “a rollicking instrumental that makes the title seem ironic.” ES-89 “The piece is partly Hendrix’s response to egregious racism – mush publisher Bumps Blackwell had told Hendrix of the time when he’d worked for Little Richard and had sent out a black employee in a convertible to buy sandwiches. The employee was brought back by the police, but when a white employee explained the situation, the were…told to keep the black people out of Clarksdale, Mississippi. Upon hearing this, Hendrix changed the title of the track from ‘Peace Alone’ to ‘Peace in Mississippi.’ It’s both a hopeful cut and a most powerful and eloquent riposte to hatred.” ES-89

Here He Comes (Lover Man) Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 10/29/68 at TTG Studios in Hollywood, California; 2/16/69 at Olympic Studios; 12/15/69; 12/18/69 or 12/19/69 at Baggy’s in New York City Released: South Saturn Delta (1997), The Baggy’s Rehearsal Sessions (2002), Both Sides of the Sky (2018) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 21.06 streaming About the Song: This was “one of Hendrix’s favourite tracks.” ES-110 He “kept returning to this song but never found what he sought” ES-128 performing “it with all of his bands from The Experience onwards” ES-110 but “no definitive version was made.” ES-128 “Numerous live renditions of Lover Man have been released following Hendrix’s death.” WK “Hendrix is the lover quitting the house before being caught by his lover’s other man. It’s a rollicking blues…that was inspired by B.B. King’s fertile ‘Rock Me Baby’” ES-121 and “Lover Man.” ES-110 “It’s a fiery piece with an effortlessy controlled solo that segues into the Batman theme, adding a sly humour and again merging the ‘mojo man’ of the blues with the cartoon superhero. This is continued towards the end, when there’s a shift, and a new riff emerges, seeming to announce the lover man cometh.” ES-128

Gloria Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Van Morrison Recorded: 10/29/68 at TTG Studios in Hollywood, California Released: July 1978 (single), The Essential (compilation, 1978) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming About the Song: “This is a riotous and raucous version of Them’s ‘Gloria’…flaunting an unrestrained live atmosphere…blending garage rock and blues to create a simply thrilling noise.” ES-88 “Hendrix amplifies the implied naughtiness and goes on to describe his time with Gloria as ‘freaking, smoking and joking.’” ES-88

Electric Church Red House Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 10/29/68 at TTG Studios in Hollywood Released: Blues (1994) Peak: 31 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.82 streaming About the Song: This features Lee Michaels (best known for the 1971 hit “Do You Know What I Mean”) on organ. The song is a composite of two separate jams at TTG Studios.

Sunshine of Your Love Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton, Pete Brown Recorded: 2/16/69 at Olympic Studios Released: Valleys of Neptune (2010) Peak: 24 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 5.30 streaming About the Song: “In 1969, Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love was a concert staple of the Experience, and Hendrix maneuvers through this classic with the meticulousness of a surgeon, his play ranging from bold and brash to restrained and intricate.” MM Hendrix’s “most subversive moments often revolve around his reconstructing/deconstructing others’ work, and this interpretation ranks high amongst them.” ES-120 It “opens with a fast take on the famous riff, with some splashier drums before moving into a loose section where the rhythm alters to a samba…There’s a superb bass solo as Hendrix damps his strings behind it, before the drums return with an almost military-style fill; the track builds until Hendrix’s guitar is once again blazing into an ascending run between arriving at the central riff; now fattened with some trills and lambent notes between.” ES-121 Read more about the original Cream song here.

Crying Blue Rain Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 2/16/69 at Olympic Studios Released: Valleys of Neptune (2010) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.32 streaming About the Song: “Crying Blue Rain” is “an atmospheric piece showing that The Experience were far from moribund at this time.” ES-122 It is “a cool riposte to the heat of ‘Lullaby for the Summer.’ Strictly speaking, Hendrix sings a little, but it’s merely ‘yeah yeah’ here and there.” ES-122 “Opening a little similarly to ‘Voodoo Chile,’ the rhythm then shifts to something more syncopated that creates a sense of anticipation. The guitar tone is fatter, matched by Mitchell’s fills creating the sibilance of wheels through water. The tempo abruptly increases in the second half, and the backing struggle to lock in with this, the drums stammering and lagging somewhat.” ES-122

The Star-Spangled Banner Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Francis Scott Key Recorded: studio: 3/18/69 at the Record Plant in New York City Released: 10/23/71 (B side of “Dolly Dagger”), Rainbow Bridge (soundtrack, 1971), Ultimate Hendrix (compilation, 1992), Experience Hendrix (compilation, 1997) Peak: 6 CL, 2 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.58 streaming About the Song: The national anthem took on a protest spirit when track and field athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave the black-power salute while standing on the winners’ podium at the 1968 Olympics. “The anthem was no longer a simple message of unthinking patriotism but a way of holding a nation to account.” ES-89 Jimi Hendrix gave one of the most memorable performances of “The Star-Spangled Banner” with his instrumental interpretation to close out the Woodstock festival in August 1969. “A morning-after victory song was almost perfect for the last bleary hours of Woodstock.” ES-90 It has become “a defining artefact of the 20th century.” ES-91 Read more about the song here.

Let Me Move You Jimi Hendrix with Lonnie Youngblood

Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 3/18/69 at Record Plant Studios Released: People, Hell and Angels (2013) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.62 streaming About the Song: “This is an exciting collaboration showing that Hendrix could be a tour de force – even when not being the main man, and even when someone else was singing a song he’d written. Here, Lonnie Youngblood takes the vocal, but it doesn’t suffer like some of the Band of Gypsys cuts where Hendrix skates on the edge of anonymity. There’s a thick sound to this one-off band, in which Hendrix’s guitar seems to cry even louder. Hank Anderson is on bass, with John Winfield on organ, and drummer Jimmi Mayes of the Starliters and later Marvin Gaye’s backing band.” ES-124 “The group was assembled as a kind of celebration because they were able to work on a 16-track for the first time. There’s certainly something triumphant about it.” ES-124

Georgia Blues Jimi Hendrix with Lonnie Youngblood

Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 3/19/69 Released: Both Sides of the Sky (2018) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 8.26 streaming About the Song: “Opening with slinking bass and sauntering licks, this is a casually cool blues with Lonnie Youngblood from Curtis Knight and the Squires on vocals, grieving for a lost love. Hendrix’s guitar weeps, wails and whimpers throughout this standout track.” ES-131 Youngblood recounts his misery and asks for help from his mama and God, as his little girl and all of his friends have let him down. Albeit, they are the most cliched of blues lyrics but are given a resonance and pathos through the superior backing. Jimmi Mayes of the Starliters is on drums, with the Squires’ Hank Anderson…on bass and John Winfield on organ.” ES-131 “Admittedly, Youngblood’s saxophone is sometimes a little ill-conceived, and its quacking tone ruptures the atmosphere, but in the main, its rancorous whimper is woeful. It also highlights how tasteful Hendrix’s improvisations are and how elastic his tone is.” ES-131

Trash Man Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 2/14/69 at Olympic Studios; 4/3/69 at Olmstead Studios in New York Released: Midnight Lightning (1975) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.39 streaming About the Song: “A sort of ‘Purple Haze’ without the psychedelic trappings, this is an electrifying instrumental with some wild but simultaneously controlled guitar, and a shift in the second half to a dreamier refrain and slower tempo.” ES-122

Midnight Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 4/3/69 at Olmstead Studios Released: War Heroes (1972), South Saturn Delta (1997) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.84 streaming About the Song: This is “a brooding track…with a lighter middle section, as if caught between night and day. It was previously called ‘Midnight Lightning,’ hinting at this blending of light and dark. The guitar tone has a forked, flashing feel about it, and The Experience provide an implacable backing, with Redding’s bass a gloomy cloud behind the streaking riffs.” ES-113

Lullaby for the Summer Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 4/7/69 at the Record Plant Released: Valleys of Neptune (2010) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.73 streaming About the Song: “The Experience recorded this embryonic version of ‘Ezy Ryder’ in New York. At this point it’s an instrumental that takes some inspiration from ‘Fire’ in terms of its rhythm as well as the call and response between bass and guitar with Redding’s bass looking ahead to Billy Cox’s work in Band of Gypsys.” ES-121 “It’s notable for the guitar distortion…which is getting closer in parts to the synth sound from the studio version of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ The track is a fruitful blend of R&B rhythms and phrasing, with a range of rock trilling and bending on the lead guitar licks that thread over one another in true Hendrix fashion.” ES-122

Hear My Train A Comin’ (aka “Hear My Train”) Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: studio: 4/7/69 and 4/9/69 at the Record Plant; live: 1/1/70 at Fillmore East in New York City; live: 5/30/1970 at Berkeley Community Theatre in Berkeley, California Released: Band of Gypsys (1970), Rainbow Bridge (soundtrack, 1971), Aug. ’73 (single), Midnight Lightning (1975), Blues (1994), Valleys of Neptune (2010), People, Hell and Angels (2013), Both Sides of the Sky (2018) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 40.62 streaming About the Song: “The bluesy Hear My Train A Comin’,” MM is “a concert favorite turned in with studio precision.” JZ “The first studio release…was a heavily-edited recording on 1975’s Midnight Lightning, while a live version was originally featured on Rainbow Bridge (and later Blues) and an acoustic version on Blues.” WK “Most listeners will already be familiar with the 12-string acoustic version of this song, but being plugged in and backed here by a full band allows Hendrix the amplitude to reach additional emotional levels both vocally and on guitar.” MM The Experience had worked on the track but the first in-studio recording was from the first recording session by the Band of Gypsys. ES-124 “Its atmosphere is cooly controlled, sounding like a blues classic that has already been around for at least a decade.” ES-128

Ships Passing Through the Night Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 4/14/69 at the Record Plant Released: Valleys of Neptune (2010) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.72 streaming About the Song: “This embryonic version of ‘Night Bird Flying’ was lost for a time but is a very interesting discovery.” ES-121 It “is captivating in its own right. It also shows that Hendrix could probably have taken The Experience sound further.” ES-121 “The tempo is slower here, with a feeling of The Move’s ‘Brontosaurus’ in the bass riff, and some sudden pauses and shifts in rhythm not troubling the rhythm section at all. Different guitar licks pass each other like those ships.” ES-121

Mannish Boy Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Muddy Waters, Mel London, Ellas McDaniel Recorded: 4/22/69 Released: Blues (1994), Both Sides of the Sky (2018) Peak: 28 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 20.81 streaming About the Song: “As Charles Shaar Murray pointed out, Muddy Waters’ ‘Mannish Boy’ from 155 is much more than a macho brag, with the racist overtone of the term ‘boy’ being implicitly addressed here. Waters built on Bo Diddley’s ‘I’m a Man’ (also from 1955) with both songs spelling out their humanity – M, A, N – regardless of race.” ES-127 “This shift from sexual bragging and innuendo is an acknowledgement of the halted potential of people of colour. Furthermore, Waters also adds that he’s ‘a rolling stone,’ in defiance of vagrancy laws. Not that Waters eschews the libidinous completely, and he would sometimes enhance the song’s performance by using a beer bottle as a phallus.” ES-128 “Hendrix’s version is certainly an adult interpretation, with a change to the tempo that lends a self-assured power. Indeed, this is a poised performance; it isn’t at all obvious that it’s from the Gypsy’s first session, with a strongly controlled vocal from Hendrix and some unironic falsetto that adds a pure joy to his proclamation.” ES-128

Crash Landing Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 4/24/69 Released: Crash Landing (1975), People, Hell and Angels (2013) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.49 streaming About the Song: “This is Hendrix working through the ideas for what would become ‘Freedom.’ Some falsetto singing from him is effective. Isaac’s drumming has a nervous energy about it and it’s clear it’ll burst into something, but it’s not there yet. The organ – uncredited – bleats in to try and vary the track, but it becomes momentous.” ES-125

Things I Used to Do Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Guitar Slim Recorded: 5/7/69 Released: Both Sides of the Sky (2018) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 6.36 streaming About the Song: “Hendrix was inspired by Guitar Slim’s distortion innovations…Hendrix’s interpretation is less weary and resigned than the original and is a very grown-up, measured blues. He also includes a snippet from Bo Diddley’s ‘Before You Accuse Me.’” ES-130 “Johnny Winter joins on astute slide guitar, along with Crosby, Stills & Nash drummer Dallas Taylor.” ES-130

Jam 292 (aka “Jelly 292”) Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 5/14/69 at the Record Plant in New York City Released: Loose Ends (1974), Blues (1994) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.62 streaming About the Song: This is an uptempo jam based on Duke Ellington’s “Dooji Wooji.” It is known both as “Jam 292” (the first take of the song) and “Jelly 292” (the second take of the song.

Villanova Junction Blues Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 5/21/69 at Record Plant Studios Released: People, Hell and Angels (2013) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 2.59 streaming About the Song: “This is a snippetof the piece that Hendrix would play at Woodstock, backed by the Band of Gypsys. It’s a fragment that rounds off the [People, Hell and Angels] album almost casually for Hendrix, it was this easy.” ES-125

Easy Blues Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 5/21/69 at Record Plant Studios Released: People, Hell and Angels (2013) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 3.77 streaming About the Song: “This instrumental showcases some great playing by Cox and Mitchell’s jazz-like fills are tightly controlled, with Hendrix’s playing a squalling rhythm attack, and then behind that, some buzzing licks.” ES-124

Izabella Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 8/28/69 and 8/29/69 at the Hit Factory in New York City Released: 4/13/70 (B side of “Stepping Stone”), War Heroes (1972), First Rays of the New Rising Sun (1997), People, Hell and Angels (2013) Peak: 46 CL, 18 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 3.93 streaming About the Song: “Izabella comes from the root name Elizabeth, meaning ‘God is my oath’; a suitable switch for a song about vowing to fight on…The lyrics recount how the speaker’s ‘fighting a war’ for Izabella and the children of the world.” ES-98 The song “makes effective use of damping the strings to imply impatience, and there’s a powerfully squalling solo.” ES-98 The version on People, Hell and Angels “lacks the intensity that the lyrical content requires…However, old friend Larry Lee – who’s on rhythm guitar and would go on to play with Al Green and Albert King – had recently returned from Vietnam lending the lyrics more weight, and possibly inspiring the content in the first place.” ES-124

$20 Fine Jimi Hendrix with Stephen Stills

Writer(s): Stephen Stills Recorded: 9/30/69 Released: Both Sides of the Sky (2018) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 4.59 streaming About the Song: “A Stephen Stills composition with some effective flares of organ, this song demonstrates the band working as one. As well as Stills on vocals and organ, there’s Duane Hitchings from The Buddy Miles Express…on piano and Mitchell on drums. But, surprisingly, the weak link is Hendrix: his licks and solo are almost pedestrian, as though he’s struggling for ideas. This isn’t aided by him forgoing his usual mastery of sustain, and playing a series of short notes around some repetitive licks that can’t help but be sunk by the organ. This is rectified towards the end when the damping, scratch strumming and note bends spring alive.” ES-129 “There’s an ear-catching opening riff – a Hendrix trademark of course – with prints of ‘Under My Thumb.’…Overall, the song is fairly engaging and has a memorable chorus hook, but it fails as a Hendrix collaboration.” ES-129

Woodstock Jimi Hendrix with Stephen Stills

Writer(s): Joni Mitchell Recorded: 9/30/69 Released: Both Sides of the Sky (2018) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 3.25 streaming About the Song: “This has Stephen Stills on vocals and organ and Hendrix on bass.” ES-131 Of course, Stills recorded the Joni Mitchell song with Crosby, Stills & Nash but “Less well known is how Hendrix was also a big fan of Joni Mitchell, even asking if he could record one of her gigs in Ottawa. Mitchell agreed and Hendrix crouched by the stage with his recorder for her entire performance.” ES-132 “The song doesn’t gain much from being reworked as a straight-up rock track – some of Stills’ phrasing suffers, and the organ jam at the end is rather dull with Hendrix’s bass cocking impatiently behind it.” ES-131 Stills said of working with Jimi, “A little wisp of a guy. Very soft-spoken…But he was funny and he taught me a great deal about playing lead…Very dear, a dear soul.” ES-132

Jungle Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix Recorded: 11/14/69 Released: Both Sides of the Sky (2018) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 38.01 streaming About the Song: “Only Hendrix and Buddy Miles appear on this initially laid-back instrumental. Rustling cymbals highlight a gently picked riff with some precise Uni-Vibe effects, and it has the feel of a nocturnal animal slinking low in the undergrowth. Miles’ drumming shifts to a more native feel before the second half picks up speed with a scratchier riff that fades out too quickly. This is another fine example of Hendrix creating evocative soundscapes that didn’t need to be delineated by lyrics.” ES-130

Born Under a Bad Sign Jimi Hendrix

Writer(s): Booker T. Jones, William Bell Recorded: 12/15/69 at Record Plant in New York City Released: Blues (1994) Peak: 29 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 18.99 streaming About the Song: This is an instrumental jam of a blues song made famous by Albert King.

Resources/References: AM Amazon.com review of Valleys of Neptune MM Matt Melis, Consequence of Sound ES Emma Stott (2022). On Track…Every Album, Every Song. Sonic Bond Publishing: United Kingdom. WK Wikipedia page for Valleys of Neptune JZ Jonathan Zwickel, The Seattle Times review of Valleys of Neptune Related DMDB Pages: First posted 7/31/2026; last updated 8/1/2026.

Sam Smith “Unholy” hit #1

Unholy Sam Smith with Kim Petras

Writer(s): Sam Smith, Kim Petras, James Napier, Ilya Salmanzadeh, Henry Walter, Blake Slatkin, Omer Fedi (see lyrics here) Released: September 22, 2022 First Charted: October 5, 2022 Peak: 11 BB, 14 BA, 14 DG, 14 ST, 16 RR, 29 AC, 11 A40, 14 UK, 14 CN, 16 AU, 30 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 1.2 UK, 5.70 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 525.85 video, 1646.94 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Singer/songwriter Sam Smith was born in 1992 in London, England. He first made a name for himself as the guest singer on Disclosure’s “Latch” (#11 UK, 2012) and Naughty Boy’s “La La La” (#1 UK, 2013). He released his first solo album, In the Lonely Hour, in 2014. The album sold 12 million copies worldwide, propelled by three #1 singles in the UK, including “Stay with Me.” 2017 saw the release of The Thrill of It All and Love Goes followed in 2020. Both reached the top 5 in the UK and U.S.. Fourth album, Gloria, came out in 2023. The album’s single, “Unholy,” gave him his sixth top-ten hit and first chart-topper in the United States. Variety’s Jem Aswad called it “one of the most musically innovative and unusual songs in years” WK top top the Billboard Hot 100. Petras was born male in 1992 in Germany. She started hormone therapy at 12, completing her gender transition four years later. At the time, she was the youngest person in the world to undergo sex affirmation surgery. SF From 2011 to 2020, she released multiple singles and EPs, but none reached any of the major U.S. or UK charts. “Unholy” was not only a breakthrough for Petras, but a triumph for the LGBQT+ community as it marked the first time an openly non-binary artist (Smith) and an openly transgender artist (Kim Petras) topped the Billboard Hot 100. It is a “sexually charged electropop, dance-pop, and synth-pop song…which marked a shift away from ballads for Smith.” WK Lyrically, it focuses on a man who cheats on his wife at a strip club, specifically The Body Shop, an infamous LA Sunset Strip club. SF Smith sings from the perspective of one of the man’s acquaintances. SF Petras sings from the perspective of the woman with whom the man cheats. SF Critics praised the song as “catchy yet unusual.” WK Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Sam Smith SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia First posted 1/7/2024; last updated 10/15/2024.

Today in Music (1968): Van Morrison released Astral Weeks

Astral Weeks Van Morrison

Released: November 29, 1968 Charted: -- Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, -- UK, 0.5 world (includes US and UK) Genre: folk rock

Tracks: Click on a song title for more details. Astral Weeks [7:06] Beside You [5:16] Sweet Thing [4:25] Cyprus Avenue [7:00] The Way Young Lovers Do [3:18] Madame George [9:45] Ballerina [7:03] Slim Slow Slider [3:17] Total Running Time: 47:10 The Players Van Morrison (vocals, acoustic guitar) John Payne (flute, soprano saxophone on “Slim Slow Slider”) Jay Berliner (guitar) Richard Davis (double bass) Warren Smith Jr. (percussion, vibraphone) Connie Kay (drums) Larry Fallon (string arrangements, conductor, harpsichord on “Cyprus Avenue”) Barry Kornfield (acoustic guitar on “The Way Young Lovers Do”)

Rating: 4.160 out of 5.00 (average of 23 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

Van Morrison’s Beginnings The Northern Irish singer/songwriter Van Morrison got his start as “the pint-sized head thug for the ruffian R&B combo Them” EK “which achieved immortality with the garage anthem ‘Gloria.’” TL After he went solo, he released the album Blowin’ Your Mind in 1967, which produced “the irresistible singalong ‘Brown-Eyed Girl.’” TL “Bang, his record label, wanted a pop star and Morrison didn’t see himself that way.” CM Van then had “a long, now-legendary contract dispute involving the mob.” PM The label founder, Bert Berns, died from a heart attack and his wife blamed Morrison and tried to have him deported. Morrison escaped this fate by marrying his girlfriend Janet Minto. They moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts and he worked the club circuit. CQ He was heavily exposed to jazz there and “the improvisational atmosphere was the perfect musical fit for Morrison.” CQ He has said that at the time he “was broke, tired, and simply did not know what to do. He didn’t want to think about it and he wanted musicians skilled enough to just follow him.” CQ His next move was to sign with Warner Brothers Records. His new producer, Lewis Merenstein, assembled a team of jazz players and they recorded Astral Weeks in New York in just two sessions on September 25 and October 15, 1968. TB “The spontaneity and speed of its recording is part of its legend.” TB The Players Among the musicians are drummer Connie Kay, who played with the Modern Jazz Quartet; bassist Richard Davis, who worked on Eric Dolphy’s Out to Lunch; and guitarist Jay Berliner, who worked with Charles Mingus and others. EK Kay and Davis “in particular push what are actually pretty simple songs with an empathy that’s seldom seen outside jazz.” EK In addition, John Payne is on reeds and Warren Smith, Jr. on vibes. After the songs were recorded, they were overdubbed by Larry Fallon with strings and horns. “Fallon’s sympathetic violins give wings to Morrison’s voice. His tuba and trombone parts are like foghorns cutting through the mists of words.”CM According to Davis, “the Irish bard played the outline of his songs on guitar, and expected the others to follow him. He encouraged some improvisation, and to facilitate that, gave very little guidance.” TM Berliner said, “I played a lot of classical guitar on those sessions and it was very unusual to play classical guitar in that context. What stood out in my mind was the fact that he allowed us to stretch out.” TB “Much of the album drifts along without a fixed tempo, with the musicians swirling strains of folk melody or boppish riffage around Morrison’s lover-as-hero character.” TM The songs “depart from the obvious demarcations of verses, choruses, and bridges, to stretch out past the five-minute mark in five of the eight tracks.” TB The instrumentation is “unusual and sophisticated” TB and Morrison “listened to what the musicians were doing with his songs.” CM He then “improvises lyrics and phrases based on where the music is going.” CM Rock Meets Jazz “This rock monument actually draws from jazz, folk and blues to showcase Morrison’s bewitching voice.” UT In fact, this “isn’t a rock & roll album at all,” AM but “a jazz record disguised as a rock record.” JM “Accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, Morrison sings in his elastic, bluesy voice, accompanied by a jazz rhythm section.” AM “Its loose, combustible jazz sound still ranks as one of the most innovative things he’s done.” CQ “The only constant is the gentle strum of Morrison’s acoustic guitar as the nodding lull of the upright bass, horns, and I-didn’t-know-it-could-actually-be-cool jazz flute swirl around it, always on the verge of floating away, but preferring to stay in place to catch Morrison on his next musical shift.” CQ It “sounded like nothing he had done previously — and really, nothing anyone had done previously.” TL “The leap from all that to a delicate, graceful musing on romanticism is basically unprecedented.” EK “Astral Weeks is something to be unravelled, to tug at your heart and invite you to discover your soul – and the soul and deepness of feeling of others.” AD The Songwriter Astral Weeks is “a gorgeous, freewheeling meditation on life and looking forward; a kaleidoscopic, sylvan soundscape focused on images and feelings rather than a coherent narrative.” CQ Morrison’s words “are more like extended poems than lyrics, full of images and phrases that tease and provoke the imagination.” TB He creates “a beautiful sonic painting” RV and “spouts stream of consciousness lyrics like the James Joyce of music.” RV The album has been described as “achingly beautiful,” EK “an emotional outpouring cast in delicate musical structures,” AM “an ingenious orchestration of poetry and mysticism” RV and “a languid, impressionistic, utterly gorgeous song cycle.” TL “The tunes are love songs dominated by nostalgia for youth, love, and the desire for rebirth.” TM The album “loosely follows the desperate thoughts of a young man who’s consumed by an unattainable woman, its lyrics sometimes seem so loaded with meanings and allusions they make your brain hurt.” TM “You’re hearing maybe the purest audible distillation of love and loss ever pressed onto record.” PM Morrison said, “The songs are poetic stories, so the meaning is the same as always – timeless and unchanging. The songs are works of fiction that will inherently have a different meaning for different people. People take from it whatever their disposition to take from it is.” WK He also said it is “probably the most spiritually lyrical album I’ve ever done.” TB The Title “The album’s very title suggests the spiritual dimension.” TB It is “about adventures on a plane other than this one. It’s a world of dreams and half-recollected scenes and a place where the past and the present coexist.” CM Critic Lester Bangs said, Astral Weeks “is a record about people stunned by life, completely overwhelmed, stalled in their skins, their ages and selves, paralyzed by the enormity of what in one moment of vision they can comprehend.” CM “Astral” was a term “from the counter-culture’s metaphysical lexicon, most commonly associated with the phrases ‘astral projection,’ an out-of-body experience, and ‘astral plane,’ a…concept of a dimension beyond the material world ruled by emotion and imagination. The duration of an ‘astral week’ could not be measured by earthly clocks, and its quality would transcend the mundane.” TB The Singer “His vocals are constantly morphing (a practice he would take up in later live performances), sometimes crooning, sometimes clipping the words, and sometimes not even finishing sentences at all.” CQ “Morrison may have been high strung at the time, but you would never know it listening to such a dazzling and relaxed album.” CQ Astral Weeks Place in History Astral Weeks is “drastically different from anything Van the Man had tried in the past or would attempt in the future.” JG It is generally considered one of the best albums in pop music history,” AM although Morrison has dismissed such lofty praise. WK “It is one of rock’s least-likely masterworks.” TL The Warner Bros. publicity department hyped it as “the closest rock music has ever gotten to literature.” EK Nonetheless, “Astral Weeks more or less sank without a trace upon its release.” EK Detractors dismissed it as “a rambling record with a heavy jazz influence, lyrics that rival beat poets, and the average track goes on for seven minutes. It’s no wonder no one cared when it came out.” JM “It’s mostly through the critical rehabilitation of guys like Lester Bangs that this album achieved its widespread standing.” EK Astral Weeks’ “mystic poetry, spacious grooves, and romantic incantations still resonate in ways no other music can.” TL “He never made another record quite like Astral Weeks again.” EW Notes In 2008, Van Morrison performed all eight of the album’s songs live. It was recorded on November 7 and 8 at the Hollywood Bowl and released as an album the next year. The Songs Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.

Astral Weeks Van Morrison

Writer(s): Van Morrison Released: Astral Weeks (1968) Peak: 32 CL Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 49.14 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: “The title track finds Morrison at his most idyllic,” RV “launching you into an evocative, poetic song cycle depicting the euphoric dawning of a romance and its inevitable death rattle.” PM He “takes us from slipstreams and viaducts of your dreams to his lady-love doing her kid’s laundry, possibly while our hero is slumped on the couch watching Green Acres. Van has continued to do this throughout his career…but it’s never been quite as seamless” EK as it is here. The song “encompasses a lifetime in a mere five minutes, making the journey from innocence to experience with all of the heartache such a pilgrimage entails.” RV

Beside You Van Morrison

Writer(s): Van Morrison Released: Astral Weeks (1968) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 6.73 streaming About the Song: “A voice rises through the blues, a heart seeping through – ‘beside you, beside you’ – like a mantra. It stays with you, rain falls right on time. There's such devotion, emptiness, yet utter beauty expertly expressed.” AD It is a song about “the redemptive powers of sex.” JG “Beauty and soul, that’s Beside You.” AD

Sweet Thing Van Morrison

Writer(s): Van Morrison Released: 2/6/1971 (single), Astral Weeks (1968) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 110.02 streaming About the Song: Reviewer Adrian Denning says, “Sweet Thing makes me cry; ‘Sweet Thing’ makes me smile; ‘Sweet Thing’ is my post to lean upon when nothing is ever going right, everything is black…Sheer happiness comes through and again, evocative images and glorious vocals…an Morrison sings so much from the heart here, that it’s sometimes too much. Devotion to music, devotion to feeling and soul.” AD

Cyprus Avenue Van Morrison

Writer(s): Van Morrison Released: Astral Weeks (1968) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 11.75 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: Meanwhile Cyprus Avenue, with its “the whimsical harpsichord,” CQ “could serve as the theme song for obsessive romantics too nervous to speak to their muse.” RV It “seems like an impossibly magical place to be. You can be in the song and everything is real - yet glorious daydream. Romance. Imagine writing a song about a street you’re your hometown, describing it so evocatively and beautifully.” AD While the song paints “vivid pictures of childhood” CM Morrison said, “It’s not about me. It’s totally fictional. It’s put together of composites, of conversations I heard – you know, things I saw in movies, newspapers, books, whatever. It comes out as stories. That’s it.” CM

The Way Young Lovers Do Van Morrison

Writer(s): Van Morrison Released: Astral Weeks (1968) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 12.52 streaming About the Song: “The jazzy lines return, the exotic sunshine and magic is all here and the sound is fuller, with brass instruments, and the song just over three minutes long.” AD

Madame George Van Morrison

Writer(s): Van Morrison Released: Astral Weeks (1968) Peak: 31 CL Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 13.45 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: “Morrison sings of lost love, death, and nostalgia for childhood in the Celtic soul that would become his signature.” TL He crafts “stories about the people of Ireland, characters searching for the solace and companionship that eludes them.” EK “The optimistic, string-soaked Madame George” CQ “is an ode to an aging transvestite” RV which is “hypnotic and compelling instead of a three-chord drone.” EK “It’s a folk song, yet extended with subtle, very subtle jazz bass lines – flute and another extraordinary from the heart and soul vocal and lyric… ‘Madame George’ captivates so much, poetry, love and joy – sadness…A masterpiece…It could carry on all day.” AD Morrison said of this song and “Cyprus Avenue” that they “came right out. I didn’t even think about what I was writing. There are some things that you write that just come out all at once.” TB

Ballerina Van Morrison

Writer(s): Van Morrison Released: Astral Weeks (1968) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 5.33 streaming About the Song: Ballerina dated back to 1966. Morrison had even performed the song at least once with his band, Them. CM The narrator “is standing on the doorstep of the woman he loves crushed with fear and love.” CM The song “invites you to step right up, invites someone to step right up, but the imagery isn’t quite as evocative, or beautiful lyrically, as elsewhere…The sound is here, the vocal is more than here, but the heart isn’t so much here – ‘Ballerina’ is just a beautiful painting in song.” AD

Slim Slow Slider Van Morrison

Writer(s): Van Morrison Released: Astral Weeks (1968) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 5.70 streaming About the Song: The blues is expressed, yet the bass and delicate exotic nature – this strange of its own nature – of Astral Weeks is still right there all through Slim Slow Slider.” AD

Resources/References: AM AllMusic.com review by William Ruhlmann CQ Consequence.net (9/12/2022). “The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time” CM Toby Creswell & Craig Mathieson (2012). 100 Best Albums of All Time. Hardie Grant Books. Pages 32-5. AD Adrian Denning (3/30/2007). “Adrian’s Top 100 Albums, So Far” JG Jimmy Guterman (1992). The Best Rock ‘n’ Roll Records of All Time. Citadel Press Book: New York, NY. Pages 6-7. TM Tom Moon (2008). 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Workman Publishing Company, Inc.: New York, NY. Pages 523-4. PM PasteMagazine.com (6/3/2024). “The 300 Greatest Albums of All Time” EK Eric Klinger, PopMatters’ Counterbalance series (2010-2012) JM Jason Mendelsohn, PopMatters’ Counterbalance series (2010-2012) RV The Review (Oct./Nov. 2001). “The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time” by Clarke Speicher TB Thunder Bay (2005). Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. Page 107. TL Time Magazine (11/13/2006). “All-TIME 100 Albums” by Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light UT USA Today (12/5/2003). “Top 40 Albums – the USA Today Way” WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Pages: First posted 11/30/2013; last updated 9/14/2026.