Purple Haze

Produced by Chandler, it came out as a UK single on Track on 17 March 1967 with 51st Anniversary on the B-side, and in the US on Reprise on 19 June 1967 with The Wind Cries Mary on the B-side. Chandler said Hendrix wrote it in a club dressing room on 26 December 1966, after he had heard the riff at their flat. The basic track was recorded on 11 January 1967 at De Lane Lea. Mitchell recalled getting it on the third take, and Chandler said the basic track took four hours. Overdubs followed on 3 to 8 February at Olympic with Kramer, including background sounds made by playing tapes through headphones moved around a microphone. Its solo is the first use of the Octavia unit. Track wrote on the master tape box that the distortion was deliberate and not to be corrected.

It reached number three in Britain and 65 on the US Hot 100, and the UK single went gold in 2022.

In a January 1967 interview Hendrix said the song came from a dream of walking under the sea. After its release he described it as a love song, about a man so taken with a girl that he does not know what state he is in, a sort of daze. Dion covered it in 1969, reaching number 63 on the Hot 100, and the Cure covered it in 1993, reaching number two on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks. Pitchfork noted that the Stooges covered it too. It entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000, and Q ranked it the number one guitar track in 2005.

Live

Hendrix played it at Monterey, Woodstock, Berkeley, Winterland and Miami Pop, and each of his lineups released a live recording of it. Sometimes he changed the line about kissing the sky to kissing a guy, gesturing toward Mitchell.