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Electric Ladyland is the third and final studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released in October 1968. A double album, it was the only record from the Experience with production solely credited to Hendrix. The band's most commercially successful release and its only number one album, it was released by Reprise Records in the United States on October 16, 1968, and by Track Records in the UK nine days later. By mid-November, it had reached number 1 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, spending two weeks there. In the UK it peaked at number 6, where it spent 12 weeks on the British charts.

Electric Ladyland includes a cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower", which became the Experience's best-selling single, reaching number six in the UK and number 20 in the United States. Although the album confounded critics upon its release, it has since been viewed as one of Hendrix's best works and one of the greatest albums of all time, being featured on various "greatest albums" lists, including Q's 2003 list of the 100 greatest albums and various editions of Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", on which it was ranked 53rd in the 2020 iteration.

Recording and production

The Experience began recording Electric Ladyland at several studios in the United States and UK between July 1967 and January 1968. Recording resumed on April 18, 1968, at the newly opened Record Plant Studios in New York City, with Chas Chandler as producer and engineers Eddie Kramer and Gary Kellgren.

Hendrix was famous for his studio perfectionism; he and drummer Mitch Mitchell recorded over 50 takes of "Gypsy Eyes" over three sessions. Hendrix was insecure about his voice and often recorded his vocals hidden behind studio screens. He sang backing vocals himself on the title track and on "Long Hot Summer Night". As recording progressed, Chandler became frustrated with Hendrix's perfectionism and his demands for repeated takes.

Hendrix allowed friends and guests to join them in the studio, which contributed to a chaotic and crowded environment in the control room and led Chandler to sever his professional relationship with Hendrix. Bassist Noel Redding recalled: "There were tons of people in the studio; you couldn't move. It was a party, not a session."

Redding, who had formed his own band in mid-1968, Fat Mattress, found it increasingly difficult to fulfill his commitments with the Experience, so Hendrix played many of the bass parts. The album's cover states that it was "produced and directed by Jimi Hendrix", which disturbed Chandler since he produced some of the songs. The double LP was the only Experience album mixed entirely in stereo.

Hendrix experimented with other combinations of musicians, including Jefferson Airplane's Jack Casady and Traffic's Steve Winwood, who played bass and organ, respectively, on the 15-minute slow-blues jam "Voodoo Chile". In March 1968, he was joined onstage at the Scene Club in New York by Jim Morrison of the Doors and in early April, Hendrix appeared at an impromptu jam with B.B. King, Al Kooper, and Elvin Bishop.

Music

According to music critic Jim DeRogatis, Electric Ladyland is "a sprawling exploration of the studio as a place to create what [Hendrix] called 'sound paintings.'" According to music journalist David Stubbs, Electric Ladyland is "undoubtedly a rock album, albeit rock on the point of evolving into something else." Uncut magazine's John Robinson said that its music reconciles the psychedelic pop of Hendrix's earlier recordings with the aggressive funk he would explore on his 1970 album Band of Gypsys. During its recording, Kramer experimented with innovative studio techniques such as backmasking, chorus effect, echo, and flanging, which AllMusic's Cub Koda said recontextualized Hendrix's psychedelic and funk sounds on the album.

Electric Ladyland is a cross-section of Hendrix's wide range of musical talent. It includes examples of several genres and styles of music: the psychedelic "Burning of the Midnight Lamp", a UK single the previous summer (1967), the extended blues jam "Voodoo Chile", the New Orleans-style R&B of Earl King's "Come On", the epic studio production of "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)", the social commentary of "House Burning Down", and the sixties-era British pop of Noel Redding's "Little Miss Strange". The album also features an electric reworking of the Bob Dylan song "All Along the Watchtower", which has been highly acclaimed by critics as well as by Dylan himself, and also "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", a staple of both radio and guitar repertoire. Rolling Stone's Holly George-Warren praised "Crosstown Traffic" for its hard rock guitar riff.

"All Along the Watchtower" became the band's top-selling single and their only US top 40 hit, peaking at number 20; it reached number five in the UK. The album also included one of Hendrix's most prominent uses of a wah-wah pedal, on "Burning of the Midnight Lamp", which reached number 18 in the UK charts.