WCSX Classic Cuts : Purple Haze

WCSX Classic Cuts

The Jimi Hendrix Experience: "Purple Haze"

The Hook: Drummer recalled that Jimi played it once on his own in the studio and then the band just went for it.

Album: Are You Experienced?

Year: 1967

Writer: Jimi Hendrix

Stats: Peaked at number-65 on the Billboard Hot 100 here, though it reached number-three in the U.K.

Background: In a 1991 interview, the late Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell shared his memories of he session that produced "Purple Haze."

In a 1991 interview, the late Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell recalled the session that produced “Purple Haze.” OC:…for it. :28

“I could be quite wrong on this, I have a feeling it was like a Boxing Day session, like the day after Christmas. I think it was Olympic Studios in London, which was a real great large room in London that The Stones were using, Traffic, every band if they could get in there. And I think that was one of the first sessions at Olympic, ‘Purple Haze,’ and Jimi had -- who knows what was on his mind? He had this riff and I think he probably played through the song first, just him on his own, and we went for it.”