Some of the fascinating details, including the confusion and disputed claims by those claiming to have originally written the song are included in commentary which can be found here.
The Leaves were the first and only group to place this song on the Billboard Top 40 charts, reaching #31 in 1966. This uptempo version is unlikely to sound familiar to anyone who wasn’t around listening to Top 40 music at the time. Here is a performance of the song by The Leaves…
Here is the immortal cover version by Jimi Hendrix, as performed in 1969 at Woodstock. Here is an excerpt from the youtube article about “Hey Joe”…
Released in December 1966, Hendrix’s version became a huge hit, entering the UK top ten in January 1967 and peaking at #6.[43] The single was released in the United States on May 1, 1967 with the B-side “51st Anniversary” but failed to chart.[44] “Hey Joe”, as recorded by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, remains the best known version of the song[6] and is listed as #198 on Rolling Stone magazine’s The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[45] In 2009 it was named the 22nd greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1.[46] “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 hadn’t yet left the festival, cheered for an encore.[47]
To say that Hendrix made this song his own would be an understatement…
That said, I would contend that if it hadn’t been for Hendrix’ version of this song, the following rendition by Deep Purple would represent the gold standard…
My brother and I just got back from seeing a great bar band muscle its way through a country-fried take of “Wish You Were Here” and a disco-infernalicious swipe at “Miss You.” It was glorious, and I’d say that even if I weren’t really drunk.
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Some of the fascinating details, including the confusion and disputed claims by those claiming to have originally written the song are included in commentary which can be found here.
The Leaves were the first and only group to place this song on the Billboard Top 40 charts, reaching #31 in 1966. This uptempo version is unlikely to sound familiar to anyone who wasn’t around listening to Top 40 music at the time. Here is a performance of the song by The Leaves…
Here is the immortal cover version by Jimi Hendrix, as performed in 1969 at Woodstock. Here is an excerpt from the youtube article about “Hey Joe”…
To say that Hendrix made this song his own would be an understatement…
That said, I would contend that if it hadn’t been for Hendrix’ version of this song, the following rendition by Deep Purple would represent the gold standard…
My brother and I just got back from seeing a great bar band muscle its way through a country-fried take of “Wish You Were Here” and a disco-infernalicious swipe at “Miss You.” It was glorious, and I’d say that even if I weren’t really drunk.
escapism on the brain….
woke up singing these mashed up together….