On this day in 1967, The Jimi Hendrix Experience finish recording Are You Experienced 

Hendrix began working as a musician in 1962 after being discharged from the US Army, forming a band called the King Kasuals, as well as working as a backing musician for various artists such as Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson and Ike & Tina Turner. By 1964 however, he felt he had artistically outgrown the circuit and left to join the backing band for the Isley Brothers, the I.B. Specials and then Little Richard’s touring band the Upsetters later in the year. Over the next few years he continued bouncing between bands and working as a background musician until 1966, when he became friends with the Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham and Animals manager Chas Chandler, who soon signed on as his manager and recruited Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell to form The Jimi Hendrix Experience. 

After a string of successful shows in late 1966, the band was signed to Track Records, formed by managers of The Who and booked several studio sessions where they recorded their first material. Over the next five months Are You Experienced was recorded in sixteen recording sessions across three London studios in between tours of Europe. Upon completion, the album was mixed throughout April of 1967 and released on May 12th to immediate fanfare. Within seven months of release, over one million copies had been sold, and the album peaked at number 5 on the US Billboard Top LPs and number two on the UK charts. Critics heaped praise on the work, with almost all major publications giving it five stars or 10/10 scores, praising it’s originality, artistic integrity and the excitement and energy.

Since it’s release, Are You Experienced has become one of the most significant releases of the rock era. It’s commonly touted as one of the best debut albums of all time, as well as one of the greatest in general, appearing at number 3 on Rolling Stone’s Best Debut Albums of All Time and number 30 on their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It is considered to have changed the limits of guitar playing, and is credited with helping establish psychedelic music, becoming one of the definitive releases of the genre. In 1999 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and in 2005 was chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry, which selects recordings that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”