| Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix | |
| Type: | greatest |
| Artist: | Jimi Hendrix |
| Cover: | BestofHendrix.jpg |
| Recorded: | October 1966 – October 1970 |
| Genre: | Rock |
| Length: | 73:32 |
| Label: | MCA - Legacy (2010 reissue) |
| Compiler: |
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| Prev Title: | First Rays of the New Rising Sun |
| Prev Year: | 1997 |
| Next Title: | South Saturn Delta |
| Next Year: | 1997 |
Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix is a compilation album of songs by American rock musician Jimi Hendrix, released in 1997 by MCA and reissued in 2010 by Legacy Recordings. The single compact disc collects 20 songs spanning his career, from his first recordings with the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1966 to his last with Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell in 1970.
Experience Hendrix is the first comprehensive collection of Hendrix's songs overseen by Experience Hendrix, a family company that took over management of his recording legacy in 1997. Fifteen songs with the Experience band are included, as well as five with Hendrix's later backing musicians. No songs from the Band of Gypsys lineup with Buddy Miles are included.[1] Experience Hendrix replaces the best-selling 1992 compilation The Ultimate Experience, which features a similar track list but contains fewer songs from posthumous releases.
In a review for AllMusic, Bruce Eder gave the compilation four out of five stars.[2] He felt that the collection "just misses being the perfect single-CD Jimi Hendrix anthology": while the compilation includes some of Hendrix's noteworthy later work, it lacks several songs from his earlier Smash Hits compilation.[2]
The album reached number 18 on the UK Albums Chart,[3] number 133 on the US Billboard 200,[4] and number 34 on the Canadian RPM chart.[5] It was ranked number 187 on Nielsen Soundscan's Canadian Top 200 Albums of 2002.[6] In 2006, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified it as "2× platinum" for shipping two million copies.[7]
The titles and running times are taken from the original Experience Hendrix CD US release.[8] Other releases may show different information. Entries under "Original release" are for both the US and UK, unless otherwise indicated.
Bonus disc
The album was also released in a two-CD limited edition. The bonus disc contains eight tracks, taken from The Jimi Hendrix Experience box set (2000).[9]
Personnel information is taken from the original Experience Hendrix CD US release;[8] other releases may show different information.