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In this episode of Classic Rock Album Olympics music historians Gary Wenstrup and Robert Rodriguez discuss the songs that win their gold, silver and bronze medals from Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced.
Medal Winners
The Wind Cries Mary
Are You Experienced?
Fire
Hey Joe
Purple Haze
Bonus Tracks
Incense & Peppermints – Strawberry Alarm Clock
Ruby Tuesday – Rolling Stones
The Real Me – Who
Hey Joe – Tim Rose
Down By The River – Neil Young
Oh Woman, Oh Why – Paul McCartney
Come And Get It – Badfinger
Little Wing – Derek And The Dominos
Red House – Jimi
Remember – Jimi
51st Anniversary – Jimi
Are You Experienced VH1 Classic video
Green Door – Jim Lowe
Released in the United States in 1967, the album introduced American audiences to The Jimi Hendrix Experience and instantly redefined what a rock music could sound like. The album showcases Hendrix’s unique blend of blues roots, psychedelic experimentation, and innovative and explosive guitar tones. Are You Experienced expanded the vocabulary of rock music. Its use of feedback, studio effects, and genre-blending songwriting helped shape psychedelic rock, hard rock, and future guitar-driven music for decades to come.
The U.S. version of the album differs from the original UK release by replacing three album tracks with the band’s breakthrough singles, creating a punchier, hit-driven sequence tailored for the American market.
The album peaked at #5 on the Billboard charts and includes “Purple Haze” – one of Hendrix’s signature recordings that became a defining anthem of psychedelic rock, “Hey Joe” – a reimagined folk standard that helped break Hendrix internationally and “The Wind Cries Mary” – a melodic counterpoint to the album’s heavier tracks, highlighting Hendrix’s lyrical and emotional range.
Besides Jimi, the band included Noel Redding – bass guitar, backing vocals and Mitch Mitchell – drums, backing vocals. The album was produced by ex-Animal bass player Chas Chandler.
