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Jimi Hendrix Record Store Day Release Announced

03/08/2016
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(BM) Legacy Recordings and Experience Hendrix L.L.C. have announced a special Record Store Day vinyl LP reissue of the Jimi Hendrix Experience's 1969 album Smash Hits. This year's Record Store Day will be taking place on April 16th. We were sent the following details:

Carefully restored from the original analog master tapes, and featuring original poster and alternate cover art, Smash Hits includes timeless classics like "Purple Haze," "Hey Joe," "Red House," "Fire," plus eight more essential tracks that showcase the eclectic genius of Jimi Hendrix, forever cementing his status as a groundbreaking guitarist, songwriter and arranger.

Released in July, 1969, Smash Hits served a few purposes. It was the Jimi Hendrix Experience's very first compilation album, originally conceived in 1968 by the group's UK label as a vehicle to compile the group's hit singles that had not yet appeared on the LP format. Jimi's original U.S. record label Reprise sought to create its own version (just as it did with the group's 1967 debut Are You Experienced combining essential songs such as "Remember" and "Can You See Me" with popular favorites such as "Purple Haze" and "All Along The Watchtower." It also introduced North American fans to his signature blues song "Red House." Recorded at De Lane Lea and Olympic Studios, the version of "Red House" that appears on Smash Hits derives from different sessions than the original take found on the UK version of Are You Experienced (recorded at CBS Studios). It was, thus, exclusive to this collection for the world at the time of release.

Smash Hits proved immensely popular upon its release. The Experience was the highest grossing touring act in the world and the album came on the heels of the group's largest ever U.S. tour. The album has since served as a critical introduction to the Hendrix canon for successive generations of fans.

This exclusive RSD version of Smash Hits will include a recreation of the poster that came with the original U.S. LP release, depicting band members Jimi Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding dressed in western attire on horseback. The photograph, taken by Grammy-winning photographer Ed Thrasher at Warner Bros. film studios in Burbank, CA in early 1969, was initially intended as cover art for the package. Ultimately, the iconic multiple photo image montage by Dezo Hoffmann was decided as the U.S. cover. For the first time ever, Thrasher's photo will finally grace the cover of Smash Hits, a mere 47 years after the plan was conceived.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Smash Hits Tracklist:
SIDE A
1) Purple Haze
2) Fire
3) The Wind Cries Mary
4) Can You See Me
5) Hey Joe
6) All Along The Watch Tower

SIDE B
1) Stone Free
2) Crosstown Traffic
3) Manic Depression
4) Remember
5) Red House
6) Foxey Lady

All tracks recorded October 1966 - August 1968

BM submitted this story.
It may be edited- Excerpted here with permission.

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