What song did Jimi Hendrix play live the most?
You can guarantee that most modern rock fans would have traded their soul for the chance to see the icon that was Jimi Hendrix play live. For the lucky few who did, it was bound to have been a mind-blowing experience; in just the relatively few short years that his main career spanned, the still practically adolescent Hendrix shot from obscurity to being the greatest guitarist in rock and roll. Punters were tripping over themselves to get into the room to see it all happen because they knew Hendrix would put on a show.
Although Hendrix hailed from the heights of Seattle, the UK can of course lay claim to discovering the guitar God’s greatness as his leap to London was where he first tasted chart success. Later, naturally, the Americans claimed him back – but it wasn’t before the Brits had plentifully lapped him up, alongside his band The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
On stages all over the world from Woodstock to the Isle of Wight, Hendrix shredded his six string with a stroke of genius – but as the statistics show, there were some songs that got the go-around more than the others did.
As it turns out, he had two particular favourite on-stage screamers – ‘Foxy Lady’ and ‘Purple Haze’, both by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. These songs were played in equal parts no less than 35 times each over the course of Hendrix’s concerting career, closely followed behind by ‘Voodoo Child (Slight Return)’ being pipped to the post just slightly, with 34 plays apiece.
Did Jimi Hendrix songs ever win an award?
Neither the two most played songs, nor any of Hendrix’s releases won awards, however. ‘Purple Haze’, released back in 1967, was one of his inaugural breakout hits in the UK, and is pretty unanimously considered now to be one of the greatest guitar songs of all time, was, however, inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
‘Foxy Lady’, in a similar vein, featured on the debut record Are You Experienced from the same year, and though initially did not chart all that successfully, has since climbed the ranks to sit among Hendrix’s top masterpieces. It’s really no wonder that he played it so much.
How many albums did Jimi Hendrix release?
In the respect that Hendrix’s career was short-lived – he only released four albums; three with The Experience and one with Band of Gypsys – and only ever had a single taste of a record at the top of the charts, his setlists were also peppered with a range of iconic covers. His most played was the John Stafford Smith and Francis Scott Key version of the national anthem ‘The Star Spangled Banner’, at 25 times played, while a select lucky few got to witness songs he only ever spun out once, not limited to ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ by The Beatles and ‘Morrison’s Lament’, naturally originally from Jim Morrison himself.
All of this shows that though Jimi Hendrix wasn’t here for long, he used that time to burn brighter than any other. His iconic gigs are their own special nuggets of revered musical history, each one significant in their own way for what he brought to the table every night. You might have been treated to one of his selective covers or got an old favourite like ‘Purple Haze’, but either way, there’s no doubt you would have left that concert with your life having been forever changed.
