Personnel: Jimi Hendrix (vocals, kazoo, piano, bass); Dave Mason (acoustic guitar); Noel Redding (bass, background vocals); Mitch Mitchell (drums); The Breakaways (vocals). Recorded between October 23, 1966 & January 21, 1968. The first good Jimi Hendrix collection, and one of the all time great best-of collections by any artist, SMASH HITS serves as a concise introduction to the Seattle guitar master's genius. Though far from a representative overview of Hendrix's career (AXIS: BOLD AS LOVE isn't represented, and 10 of the 12 tracks are from either the U.S. or U.K. versions of ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?), the collection is sequenced like a regular album, and in this respect may be the Experience's most consistently satisfying record. These are the Hendrix tunes that have recieved the most media exposure over the years, from the primal blues-rock stomp of "Purple Haze" and "Foxey Lady" to the electrified murder ballad "Hey Joe" and the redefined Dylan tune "All Along the Watchtower. SMASH HITS has something in common with great Beatles records like RUBBER SOUL and REVOLVER; each song stands on its own as a fully formed progressive statement, yet the whole is greater than the sum of its uniformly excellent parts.
