Hey Joe

 

58 years ago today, Jimi Hendrix recorded Hey Joe, his first single, which was to make him famous worldwide. It reached top positions in all European charts, but flopped in the United States. 

As it's one of the most covered songs, I'd like to take the opportunity to list some of them here. Willy DeVille did a very good version transporting the blues into a Tex-Mex mariachi sound.

Patti Smith chose this song in 1977 for her first EP and has almost completely alienated the song with Tom Verlaine on guitar.

Wilson Pickett has proven that Hey Joe can also work as a soul number.

There were always artists who tried to render the song in their own language. One of them was Wolle Kriwanek, an artist from my area who never rose above the status of a local great and recorded it as blues sung in Swabian in the early 1980's.

Johnny Hallyday, a French rock 'n' roll and pop artist did the same in the 70's.

Deep Purple covered this song in their very early days and have given the song a bombastic organ sound. 

I know that there are many other versions, but this will suffice for now.