Jimi Hendrix

"The Wind Cries Mary" is a song written by Jimi Hendrix and issued by the Jimi Hendrix Experience as the band's third single on May 5, 1967. It reached no. 6 in the UK Charts. The track is an example of psychedelic blues-rock, as the song is in the key of F major, with a guitar solo primarily involving the F major pentatonic scale. Today, it is #379 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. It has been covered by musicians such as Jamie Cullum, John Mayer, Xavier Rudd, Richie Sambora, Sting, Popa Chubby, Pat Boone and Caron Wheeler. In the United States, the song was first released as the b-side to the "Purple Haze" single in June 1967 and later appeared on the August 1967 American version of the album Are You Experienced, where three tracks were deleted from the British LP version to make way for the band's three singles issued in the United Kingdom to that time. The song was recorded at the end of the "Fire" sessions. It is said to have been inspired when Hendrix and his then girlfriend, Kathy Etchingham, had an argument over her cooking; after she stormed out of their apartment, Hendrix wrote "The Wind Cries Mary", as Mary was Etchingham's middle name. Another possible inspiration could be the poem 'To Mary' by the English poet John Clare. Kathy has said that many of the Dylanesque lyrics describe the test card that appeared at the end of BBC television transmissions at that time. However, this is probably a mistake on Kathy's part as that particular testcard was not first broadcast until July 1967, while the song had been written long before that. Billy Cox, who was the bassist for the Band of Gypsys and long-time friend of Hendrix has stated Curtis Mayfield's influence on the song. "'The Wind Cries Mary' was a riff that was influenced by Curtis Mayfield, who was a big influence for Jimi." "The Wind Cries Mary" and "Highway Chile" were re-released in 1983, on The Singles Album compilation.