If you walk into any guitar shop today, you’ll hear it. That scratchy, percussive wah-wah intro to "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)." It’s basically the law. But here’s the weird part: most people talking about Jimi Hendrix top hits actually have no idea how those songs performed when he was alive. We treat him like this chart-topping pop god, but the reality was a lot more "starving artist turns London upside down" than "Billboard #1 darling."
Honestly, Hendrix was a bit of a commercial underdog in his home country. In the United States, he only had one single ever crack the Top 40. Just one. That’s a wild stat for a guy whose face is on every dorm room poster in existence. While he was burning guitars at Monterey and redefining what a Fender Stratocaster could do, the American charts were mostly ignoring him.
The Chart Stats That Don't Make Sense
Let’s look at the actual numbers. If we’re strictly talking about the Billboard Hot 100, the list of Jimi Hendrix top hits is surprisingly short.
"All Along the Watchtower" peaked at No. 20. That was his high-water mark. Songs you probably think were massive radio hits—"Purple Haze," "Foxey Lady," "The Wind Cries Mary"—never even touched the Top 40 in the U.S. during his lifetime. It’s kind of a head-scratcher. Across the pond in the UK, it was a totally different vibe. Londoners "got" him immediately. "Purple Haze" shot to No. 3 there. "Hey Joe" hit No. 5. He was a legitimate pop star in England while he was still an "underground" curiosity back in the States.
It wasn't until after his death in 1970 that "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" finally hit No. 1 in the UK.
The "Purple Haze" Misconception
Everyone thinks they know what "Purple Haze" is about. You’ve heard the rumors. People swear it’s a direct tribute to a specific type of LSD.
Jimi, however, usually told a different story. He claimed it was inspired by a dream where he was walking under the sea. A purple haze surrounded him. He got lost. Jesus saved him. In early drafts, the song was actually titled "Purple Haze – Jesus Saves." He was also a massive sci-fi nerd. Biographers like Harry Shapiro point toward Philip José Farmer’s 1966 novel Night of Light, which features a disorienting "purplish haze" on a distant planet.
Musically, the song is a masterclass in tension. That opening interval? It’s a tritone—the "Diabolus in Musica" or the Devil’s Interval. It was banned in medieval church music because it sounded too dissonant and "evil." Jimi just used it to kick off a revolution.
Then there’s the famous "mondegreen."
"'Scuse me while I kiss the sky."
Thousands of people still hear it as "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy." Jimi knew. He used to joke about it on stage, sometimes pointing at his drummer Mitch Mitchell or bassist Noel Redding during the line just to mess with the crowd.
The Accidental Masterpiece of "The Wind Cries Mary"
This song is basically the opposite of the distorted, screaming Hendrix most people expect. It’s clean. It’s soulful. It’s also the result of a domestic dispute over lumpy mashed potatoes.
Seriously.
Jimi got into a massive fight with his girlfriend, Kathy Etchingham (her middle name was Mary). She threw some pots and pans. She stormed out. Jimi sat down and wrote the song while he was alone in the apartment. By the time she came back the next day, he had finished one of the most beautiful ballads in rock history.
They recorded it in about 20 minutes. It was at the tail end of the "Fire" sessions at Olympic Studios. They had a little time left over, Jimi showed the band the chords, and they nailed it in a few takes. The version you hear on the radio is that raw, immediate capture. They tried to "fix" it later with more polished takes, but they all sounded sterile.
Why "All Along the Watchtower" Matters
You can’t talk about Jimi Hendrix top hits without Bob Dylan.
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Dylan wrote it, but Hendrix owned it. He was obsessed with Dylan’s John Wesley Harding album. When he went into the studio to record his version, it was a chaotic mess. Noel Redding actually walked out of the session because he was frustrated with Jimi’s perfectionism. Jimi ended up playing the bass parts himself.
Even Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones showed up to play percussion, though he was reportedly so wasted he couldn't hit the instruments right. They ended up burying his contribution in the mix.
The result? A song so powerful that Bob Dylan himself eventually started playing it like Jimi. Dylan once said that when he sings it, he feels like it’s a tribute to Hendrix. That’s the ultimate validation. It’s a rare case where the cover version becomes the definitive blueprint for the original creator.
Little Wing: The 145-Second Giant
It’s crazy how short "Little Wing" is. It’s only 2 minutes and 25 seconds long.
It feels like it should be this sprawling, ten-minute epic, but it just drifts in and out like a ghost. Jimi used a Leslie speaker—usually reserved for organs—to get that "jelly bread" guitar tone. He also played a glockenspiel on the track. He just saw it sitting in the studio and decided it needed to be there.
It’s one of the most difficult songs for guitarists to get right because it blends rhythm and lead playing so seamlessly. You aren't just playing chords; you're playing a melody inside the chords. It’s why guys like Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan felt the need to cover it. They were trying to decode the DNA of what Jimi was doing.
The Actionable Legacy
If you want to actually understand Hendrix beyond the "Greatest Hits" surface, you have to change how you listen. Stop looking for the "singles" and start looking for the studio experiments.
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- Listen to "Voodoo Chile" (the long one): Not the "Slight Return" version. The 15-minute blues jam with Steve Winwood. It shows the raw, unedited Jimi.
- Watch the Monterey Pop Festival footage: Specifically the "Wild Thing" performance. You need to see how he used the guitar as a physical prop to understand why the audio sounds the way it does.
- Compare "Watchtower" versions: Listen to Dylan’s 1967 original and then Jimi’s 1968 version back-to-back. Notice how Jimi didn't just add distortion; he restructured the entire atmosphere of the song.
The reality is that Jimi Hendrix top hits weren't meant to be hits. They were snapshots of a guy who was moving faster than the industry could keep up with. He wasn't trying to win the Billboard charts; he was trying to find a sound that didn't exist yet. Most of us are still just catching up.