For more than three decades, Smash Hits has been the sonic textbook for Jimi Hendrix 101. Released during his all-too-brief lifetime, Smash Hits has long been acknowledged as the best compilation to succinctly feature all of the classic recordings of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, from "Purple Haze" to "Foxey Lady." Now 1969's Smash Hits becomes the first mid- priced CD release ever issued under the banner of Experience Hendrix, the company formed in 1995 by his surviving relatives. In addition, beginning with Smash Hits, the Hendrix catalog now joins those of numerous other superstar artists successfully managed by Universal Music Enterprises (UME).

Smash Hits (Experience Hendrix/MCA/UME), released August 20, 2002, will be issued in both the CD format and in a special limited edition vinyl package (10,000 numbered albums). Both editions restore the original cover art and their respective 12-selection track listing. Smash Hits was first issued in the United Kingdom in 1968. The album compiled popular singles such as "Purple Haze" and "The Wind Cries Mary" with such non-album b-sides as "The Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice. The U.S. version, originally issued one year later in 1969, featured four different tracks and provided American audiences with their first opportunity to hear such unforgettable classics as "Red House" and "Stone Free".

There were only three Jimi Hendrix Experience albums released during the guitarist's lifetime. From both the U.S. and U.K. versions of Are You Experienced (1967), one of the most stunning debuts in rock history and a definitive album of the psychedelic era, Smash Hits rightfully culls "Foxey Lady," "Manic Depression," "Purple Haze," "Red House," "Hey Joe," "Stone Free," "The Wind Cries Mary," "Can You See Me," "Fire" and "Remember."

The Experience trio of Hendrix, drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding then returned to the studio for Axis: Bold As Love (1967) before releasing Electric Ladyland (1968), represented on Smash Hits by "Crosstown Traffic" and Hendrix's timeless cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower." The latter is the album's only selection produced by Hendrix rather than Chas Chandler, and "All Along The Watchtower" with "Hey Joe" are the only songs not penned by him.

Hendrix was the most innovative and incendiary (literally and figuratively) guitar player who ever lived. Yet an entire generation has come and gone, and a new one born, since he tragically departed the stage in 1970 at the age of just 27. With the reissue of Smash Hits, those generations can now experience on one midline album the signature songs by the greatest guitarist of all time.

{ END }