(Credits: Far Out / Experience Hendrix / Sony Music Entertainment)
Tue 2 December 2025 18:30, UK
The music industry is a lot of things, but a meritocracy is not one of them. There are, of course, those elusive few artists who manage to strike that balance between commercial success and artistic genius, but, on the whole, the pop charts rarely provide a home to musical revolutionaries like Jimi Hendrix.
Armed with that battered, burned white Stratocaster and a mind practically brimming with psychedelic inspiration, Hendrix carved out a reputation for himself among the most prolific and revolutionary artists of the 1960s counterculture. In the wake of his output, everybody from Eric Clapton to Paul McCartney bowed down to the guitarist’s overwhelming genius, but that didn’t necessarily mean the music-buying public was falling over themselves to follow suit.
Throughout the history of popular music, the charts have rarely reflected the greatest masterpieces of their time. While not wishing to cast scorn upon the Great British public and their music-buying habits, it is worth remembering that in 1969 – the year of Woodstock, countercultural rebellion, and The Beatles’ ‘Get Back’ – the best-selling single was ‘Sugar, Sugar’, by the cartoon band The Archies.
With that rather depressing fact in mind, Jimi Hendrix’s lack of commercial hits makes a little bit more sense. As it turns out, the masses weren’t quite as interested in his psychedelic mastery as audiences today are, preferring instead to opt for the kind of middle-of-the-road pop guff that has populated the charts since their very inception.
That being said, commercial success didn’t completely escape Hendrix’s now-beloved discography. Although in his native US, the guitarist’s highest-charting effort was his version of Bob Dylan’s ‘All Along The Watchtower’, which peaked at number 20 in 1968 – in the midst of The Beatles’ record-breaking run on the top spot with ‘Hey Jude’ – he fared a lot better on the other side of the Atlantic.
So, how many number ones did Jimi Hendrix have?
It was, after all, in the United Kingdom where Hendrix made his first major mark on the music industry, having been discovered by Chas Chandler and thrust into the centre of London’s rock and roll rebellion. ‘Hey Joe’ was his first hit in old Blighty, peaking at number six, while ‘Purple Haze’ managed to go even further, reaching number three but being kept from going any higher by the collective efforts of Sandie Shaw and Nancy Sinatra.
Eventually, and contrary to popular belief, Hendrix did actually reach number one in the UK, with ‘Voodoo Chile’ topping the charts in 1970, two months after his untimely death, during an admittedly barren week in pop music.
This posthumous chart-topper might have vindicated the guitarist’s output as being the pinnacle of counterculture rock, but it seems ridiculous that one of the greatest and most renowned musicians to ever grace the airwaves could die without ever having achieved a number one, particularly if, as we are told to believe, music industry success is based almost solely on chart hits.
Still, it is fair to say that Jimi Hendrix has stood the test of time much better than the vast majority of the songs which kept him from reaching any higher in the charts during his lifetime.
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