Remembering Jimi Hendrix: Jimi Hendrix Experience Covers ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’ In 1967

Forty-seven years ago today the world lost one of the greatest guitarists ever, when Jimi Hendrix died after mixing barbituates, sleeping pills and alcohol. Jimi was just 27-years-old at the time of his death, which came just three years after the release of the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s breakthrough album, Are You Experienced.

While Jimi went on to wow the music world with two more Experience albums and his acclaimed Band Of Gypsys project, it was on the live stage where he thrived. It’s a testament to his talent and the appetite to hear Hendrix’ music that over a dozen live albums have been released posthumously. Jimi’s virtuosic talent has influenced many guitarists in the generations that followed his death.

Hendrix not only influenced many musicians, but he himself was influenced by a wide range of artists. One band of which Jimi was a fan was The Beatles. The guitarist heard Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band upon its release and less than a week later unveiled his own interpretation of the title track at the Saville Theatre in London. Paul McCartney and George Harrison happened to be in the audience and were both wowed bt Jimi’s rendition. Here’s what McCartney had to say in Barry Miles’ Many Years From Now:

It’s still obviously a shining memory for me, because I admired him so much anyway, he was so accomplished. To think that that album had meant so much to him as to actually do it by the Sunday night, three days after the release. He must have been so into it, because normally it might take a day for rehearsal and then you might wonder whether you’d put it in, but he just opened with it. It’s a pretty major compliment in anyone’s book. I put that down as one of the great honours of my career. I mean, I’m sure he wouldn’t have thought of it as an honour, I’m sure he thought it was the other way round, but to me that was like a great boost.

McCartney has gone on to tell the story numerous times at shows of his own.

Check out footage of the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “Sgt. Pepper’s” cover from late 1967:

Watch Paul McCartney tell his side of the story at a 2010 concert in Toronto:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hr6Bb0cqdM