Are You Experienced?

Are You Experienced is the debut album by English/American rock band The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Released in 1967, it was the first LP for Track Records. The album highlighted Jimi Hendrix’s R&B-based, psychedelic, distortion- and feedback-laden electric guitar playing, and launched him as a major new international star. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it #15 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

In 2005 Are You Experienced was selected for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress in the United States.

History

After arriving in England in 1966, Hendrix formed The Jimi Hendrix Experience with Mitch Mitchell on drums and Noel Redding on bass. The group signed with Track Records, newly formed by The Who’s managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp. The group’s debut single appeared on Polydor Records, because Track was not yet operational. This group released three Top 10 hit UK singles produced by Chas Chandler: “Hey Joe”/”Stone Free” (December 1966), “Purple Haze”/”51st Anniversary” (March 1967, the first release by the new Track Records label, on a special white label) and “The Wind Cries Mary”/”Highway Chile” (May 1967). During the making of these singles, The Jimi Hendrix Experience also cut the tracks that became their debut album, which Chandler also produced with the Olympic Studios engineer Eddie Kramer (some tracks were recorded with engineers Dave Siddle at De Lane Lea and Mike Ross at CBS studios).