The Styrous® Viewfinder: 101 Reel-to-Reel Tapes 99: Jimi Hendrix Experience ~ Smash Hits

reel-to-reel tape box cover spine

In addition to my 20,000 Vinyl LP collection I'm selling, I have reel-to-reel, pre-recorded tapes for sale. If interested, contact me by email please, not by a comment.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience ~ Smash Hits, reel-to-reel tape, was for sale on eBay. I have others for sale on eBay now (see links below).

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It is truly amazing that a group/man who only made three studio albums, two in 1967 and one in 1968, should have made such a profound impact on the world of rock.

All three of the band's studio albums, Are You Experienced (1967), Axis: Bold as Love (1967) and Electric Ladyland (1968), were featured in the top 100 of the Rolling Stone list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, at positions 15, 82 and 54 respectively.

Lead singer and song writer, Jimi Hendrix, is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as "arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music".

Jimi Hendrix Experience ~ Smash Hits

reel-to-reel tape box cover

cover photo by Ed Thrasher

photo of tape box by Styrous©

The Jimi Hendrix Experience was an English-American rock band that formed in Westminster, London, in September 1966. Composed of singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jimi Hendrix, bassist and backing vocalist Noel Redding, and drummer Mitch Mitchell, the band was active until June 1969. During this time they released those three successful studio albums. After Redding left the band in mid-1969, Hendrix and Mitchell continued to work together on other projects.

Jimi Hendrix Experience ~ Smash Hits

reel-to-reel tape box back

art direction & photos by Ed Thrasher

photo of tape box back by Styrous©

Hendrix was born Johnny Allen Hendrix on November 27, 1942, in Seattle, Washington, of African American descent, with Irish and Cherokee ancestors. In 1946, his parents changed his name to James Marshall Hendrix. He began playing guitar at the age of 15. In 1961, he enlisted in the US Army and was granted an honorable discharge the following year. He moved to Clarksville, Tennessee, and began playing gigs on the chitlin' circuit, earning a place in the Isley Brothers' backing band and later with Little Richard, with whom he continued to work through mid-1965. He then played with Curtis Knight and the Squires before moving to England in late 1966 after being discovered by Linda Keith, who in turn interested bassist Chas Chandler of the Animals in becoming his first manager.

Hendrix achieved fame in the US after his performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and in 1968 his third and final studio album, Electric Ladyland, reached number one in the US. The double LP was Hendrix's most commercially successful release and his first and only number one album. The world's highest-paid performer, he headlined the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 before his accidental death from barbiturate-related asphyxia on September 18, 1970, at the age of 27.

Jimi Hendrix Experience ~ Smash Hits

reel-to-reel tape box back detail

art direction & photos by Ed Thrasher

detail photo by Styrous©

Hendrix was inspired musically by American rock and roll and electric blues. He favored overdriven amplifiers with high volume and gain, and was instrumental in developing the previously undesirable technique of guitar amplifier feedback. He helped to popularize the use of a wah-wah pedal in mainstream rock, and was the first artist to use stereophonic phasing effects in music recordings. Holly George-Warren of Rolling Stone commented: "Hendrix pioneered the use of the instrument as an electronic sound source. Players before him had experimented with feedback and distortion, but Hendrix turned those effects and others into a controlled, fluid vocabulary every bit as personal as the blues with which he began."

Jimi Hendrix & Lithofayne Pridgon

photographer unknown

According to Chris Campion of The Guardian, Lithofayne Pridgon was the unacknowledged inspiration behind the song Foxy Lady by Hendrix.

"She has held some of the most charismatic and talented performers of their day in her sway, and befriended many others – a roll call that includes Jackie Wilson, Marvin Gaye, Sly Stone, Ike Turner and James Brown. She was also Etta James’s best friend." - Chris Campion - Sunday 22 March 2015 05.00 EDT

Jimi Hendrix Experience ~ Smash Hits

reel-to-reel tape box spine details

detail photos by Styrous©

Smash Hits is a compilation of singles by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and the very first compilation album for Jimi Hendrix, released in mono in the United Kingdom in 1968 on Track Records 612004, and a year later in stereo in the United States on Reprise Records, catalogue 2276. It peaked at number four on the British album chart and number six on the Billboard 200, and has been certified double platinum by the RIAA.

Jimi Hendrix Experience ~ Smash Hits

reel-to-reel tape

photo by Styrous©

Hendrix was the recipient of several music awards during his lifetime and posthumously. In 1967, readers of Melody Maker voted him the Pop Musician of the Year, and in 1968, Billboard named him the Artist of the Year and Rolling Stone declared him the Performer of the Year. Disc and Music Echo honored him with the World Top Musician of 1969 and in 1970, Guitar Player named him the Rock Guitarist of the Year. The Jimi Hendrix Experience was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. Rolling Stone ranked the band's three studio albums, Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love, and Electric Ladyland, among the 100 greatest albums of all time, and they ranked Hendrix as the greatest guitarist and the sixth greatest artist of all time.

Jimi Hendrix Experience ~ Smash Hits

reel-to-reel tape detail

detail photo by Styrous©

Noel Redding was found dead in his home in Ireland on May 11, 2003. Will Scally produced and directed the DVD The Redding Experience (MNVDISCS), on which Redding discusses the history of the band in detail.
While touring in the US, Mitch Mitchell was found dead on November 12, 2008 in his room at the Benson Hotel in Portland, Oregon. He was the last surviving member of the original Jimi Hendrix Experience, while Billy Cox remains the only surviving additional member.