Jimi Hendrix’s Favorite Singles and LPs

A Tour of Hendrix’s Record Collection

Jimi Hendrix never took formal lessons, learned to read music, or cracked open a guitar instruction book. Yet in the course of a few years beginning in 1966, he established himself as rock’s foremost guitarist. Like most players who learn by ear, Jimi was influenced by recordings of other musicians. Thanks to the recollections of his dad and his girlfriend in London, Kathy Etchingham, we can trace the evolution of Jimi’s favorite singles and his personal album collection.

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The Seattle Singles

One of my favorite journalistic assignments was co-authoring James “Al” Hendrix’s memoir, My Son Jimi. Our interviews took place between 1995 and 1998 at Al’s home in Seattle. Early on, I asked him when Jimi’s love of music kicked in. Al responded that it was while Jimi was attending Meany Junior High in Seattle. Destitute at the time, Al had sent Jimi to stay with his brother Frank’s family, and for nearly a year Jimi shared a room with his cousin Bobby. “They had a record player,” Al explained, “and Bobby remembers that that’s when Jimi became really interested in music. Jimi liked to listen to a 45 of Elvis Presley’s ‘You Ain’t Nothing but a Hound Dog,’ and he liked Little Richards’ 45s. When he was around 14, Jimi went to an Elvis concert to see what it was all about. Jimi liked Elvis, and he sketched a picture or two of him.”

Al ambled into his bedroom, fumbled around under his bed, and came back into the living room carrying a box. He lifted the lid to reveal dozens of Jimi’s original works of art, done before his son had become a guitarist. “These are some of the few things of Jimi’s that haven’t been stolen from me,” he sighed. “I’ve been saving them ever since Jimi was a kid.” Among them was a notebook-paper sketch showing a side view of a young, rockabilly-style Elvis playing guitar. Surrounding the image were song titles in Jimi’s handwriting and spelling: “Rip It Up,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” “My Baby Left Me,” “Love Me Tender,” “Heart Break Hotel,” “Peace in the Valley,” “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Hound Dog,” “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You,” “Parilized,” “Honey Don’t,” “I’m Playing for Keeps,” “Be Bop a Lu-La,” “I Need Your Lovin’,” and “Too Much.” Most are titles of Elvis singles circa 1956 and ’57, the exceptions being Gene Vincent’s “Be-Bop-a-Lula” and Carl Perkins’ “Honey Don’t.” Given Al Hendrix’s acute poverty, it’s doubtful that Jimi actually owned any of these records, but the drawing does suggest some of the first rock music he was into.

For a few years, Al and Jimi bounced from one living situation to another, sometimes staying with relatives, other times renting rooms. They did not own a record player during this period. According to Al, Jimi showed no interest in playing music until the death of his mother, Lucille Jeter Hendrix, in 1958. Not long after her funeral, Al came home and found broom straws on the floor of the room he and Jimi shared in a Seattle boarding house. “I was sitting there making believe the broom was a guitar,” Jimi explained to his dad.