October 23, 1966
The Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded their first single, “Hey Joe,” two weeks after their live debut, at De Lane Lea Studios in London. The song had already been recorded by the Byrds, Love, the Standells, and many other bands, but folk artist Tim Rose’s version had inspired Hendrix’s down-tempo arrangement. Some accounts credit the slower version of the song by the British band The Creation as being the inspiration for Hendrix’s version, as Chandler and Hendrix had seen them perform after Hendrix had arrived in the UK, though The Creation’s version was not released until after Hendrix’s. Hendrix was so shy about his voice that manager Chandler even hired a female vocal group, the Breakaways, for backup. “Hey Joe” became the Experience’s first UK chart entry, rising to #6, and it wasn’t released in the US until the beginning of May the following year as the B-side to “51st Anniversary,” which failed to chart. It was also the last song played at the 1969 Woodstock Festival, in which Hendrix performed the song after the crowd of 80,000 cheered for an encore.