Smash Hits [Import]

Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jimi Hendrix | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 18, 2007)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Universal
• ASIN: B000SFP64C
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #792,968 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Painstakingly restored to its original 1969 format, Smash Hits includes timeless classics like "Purple Haze," "Hey Joe," "Red House," "Fire," plus 8 more hit songs. This digitally remastered, deluxe package features the original three-photo cover image created by Dezo Hoffman plus a stunning 12-page booklet featuring several previously unpublished images of Jimi, Mitch, and Noel dressed as cowboys from the Warner Brothers' film studios in early 1969. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars If Only True Believers Were In Charge of These Reissues, April 7, 2009

By 

Jim Gray (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Smash Hits (Eco) (Rpkg) (Audio CD)

Back in the late 60s and early 70s, one of the joys of finding British import LPs was the discovery of tracks that were not available in the USA; after all, much of the music we loved was doled out to us in a haphazard, thoughtless manner by the middle-aged music industry hacks who had no love nor respect for our tastes.
The UK Hendrix Smash Hits import LP was a treasure trove of unheard songs, such as Highway Chile and 51st Anniversary, but with no info given as to their origin. It was left to later fan/biographers to disclose that they were his earliest British singles that didn't make it onto Are You Experienced.
The US version of Smash Hits offered only a few of those rarities, going instead for a more predictable combination of the first and third Experience albums, plus Red House, a different take of which appeared on the very different UK debut album.
What is so disappointing and aggravating about this CD reissue is that all you get is the old US LP version, at a time when compilers who really care go to the trouble of combining different versions into a definitive collection and rounding up shamefully neglected B-sides; throwing a couple of tiny photo out-takes into the CD booklet does not make this a bargain. I expected so much more from the current gatekeepers, Experience Hendrix, who control and supervise all such reissues.
(They do deserve credit for putting some of these early tracks out in stereo for the first time, but for no good reason, they sat on Laughing Sam's Dice far too long and finally slopped it onto the South Saturn Delta compilation.)
Had I or any other True Believer been given this assignment, the definitive full version Smash Hits CD would have collected these tracks (with the UK-only tracks marked with an asterisk):

Purple Haze
Fire
The Wind Cries Mary
Can You See Me
*51st Anniversary
Hey Joe
All Along the Watchtower
Stone Free
Crosstown Traffic
*The Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice
Manic Depression
*Highway Chile
Remember
Red House
*Burning of the Midnight Lamp
Foxy Lady

and, for good measure, the other take of Red House from the UK debut LP, as a bonus track.
These 16 (or 17) tracks, combining both LP versions, would really do this title justice, unlike the current slapdash product. (Perhaps they can correct this in the next series of Hendrix re-re-re-re-re-re-remasters...)
Okay, Indolent Gatekeepers, you can go back to sleep now.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The UK version of Jimi Hendrix Experience's Smash Hits, December 19, 2002

By 

Ish (Far East Troy, WI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Smash Hits (Audio CD)

Originally released in April 1968. This Album featured most of the songs from the experience's debut album "Are You Experienced?" then released in England on May 1967. This was the first "greatest hits" album released during in which the band were still together as the original experience. Soon after Noel Redding left the band, Hendrix released the U.S. version in July 1969. Consisting of nothing from Axis: Bold As Love and only one track from Electric Ladyland, this UK listing is still in my opinion the better of the two. Red House, Remember, All Along The Watchtower, and Crosstown Traffic are not incuded in the track listing of this compilation. Instead 51st Anniversary, Highway Chile, Burning Of The Midnight Lamp, and The Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice are included. Burning Of The Midnight Lamp is truly one of the best songs written by Jimi Hendrix,in which the lyrics run deep with emotion. The Stars is an outlandish track consisting of excellent guitar solo's throughout, this was Jimi's first song in which he used a Wah Wah pedal. Frank Zappa is also featured on this track helping with the vocal for the "Milky Way Express." The new digitally remastering is worth the value of this mini lp cd.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth It Just for "Stars That Play with Laughing Sam's Dice", April 6, 2010

By 

David N. Dirickson (Tulsa, OK United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Smash Hits (Audio CD)

Many Hendrix freaks may be wondering, "Why should I buy this remastered Smash Hits? I already own 10 copies of all these tunes." Please note that this is the import version with a slightly different track listing than the US version. More specifically, it features the original MONO single mix of "Stars That Play...", which beats the pants off the lousy stereo mix currently available on 'South Saturn Delta'. And if you ask me, you can't own too many copies of these songs anyway.