9 Facts You May or May Not Know About Jimi Hendrix’s Debut Album
Classic Albums Live performs The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s album, Are You Experienced

1. The Jimi Hendrix album Are You Experienced was released 50 years ago, in 1967.
2. The album is listed at #15 on Rolling Stone’s list of Top 500 Albums of all time.
3. It reached number 5 on the UK charts and attained double-platinum status in 1967.
4. The initial releases of the British and American versions of the album differed substantially. For starters, “Purple Haze” wasn’t even on the UK version.
5. Hendrix came to the US by way of the Fab Four and a group sometimes referred to as the Pre-Fab Four: Beatle Paul McCartney got Hendrix to the Monterey Pop Festival, where Monkee Micky Dolenz saw him and asked his show’s producers if Hendrix could open for their upcoming tour.
6. And so it was: in 1967, Jimi Hendrix became the opening act for The Monkees.
7. Hendrix only opened for a short time: requests to headline his own concert were coming in.
8. Reporter Keith Altham, “a kind of embedded reporter with the Hendrix London entourage,” came up with the idea of setting Hendrix’s guitar on fire.
9. Rolling Stone lists Hendrix as the 6th greatest artist of all time, just after Chuck Berry, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, and The Beatles (at #1).
Here is a behind the scene video of recording Are You Experienced?:

Classic Albums Live will be performing The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s debut album, Are You Experienced, “Note for Note, Cut for Cut” on our mainstage in April. Get your tickets now.