57 years ago this week back in 1967...The Jimi Hendrix Experience released their classic track "Hey Joe" as a single. It appeared on their debut record "Are You Experienced" which was also released later on in May, 1967. The song went all the way to #6 on The UK singles chart in 1967...but amazingly failed to chart in the U.S at the time... The actual origin of the song "Hey Joe" is somewhat murky. There are claims that the song dates back to 1953. However...The song was officially registered for copyright in the U.S. in 1962 by musician Billy Roberts. In 1965...The Leaves...a psychedelic rock/garage rock band based in California released the first known version of the song. In 1966...The song was recorded by folk/rock artist Tim Rose and it actually received some Top 40 radio airplay in the U.S. at the time. The Los Angeles psychedelic rock band Love also recorded a version of the song as did The Byrds. However...Retrospectively...The Jimi Hendrix version has become the dominant version over the years. To this day...It is in regular rotation on most Classic Rock radio stations including Q101.7...and was recently listed at #201 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time.