Despite his numerous live performances, including as guitarist for Curtis Knight & The Squires, Seattle-born Jimi Hendrix remained an unsuccessful amateur musician in his home country for a long time in the 1960s. Linda Keith, girlfriend of Keith Richards at the time, invited former Animals bassist Chas Chandler, who was trying to establish himself as a producer and manager of new talent, to a Hendrix gig in New York's Greenwich Village. Impressed by his breathtaking guitar playing, he persuaded him to come to England. There, in London in October 1966, he brought him together with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell. The power trio The Jimi Hendrix Experience was born. Despite a limited budget, the musicians spent five months, from 23 October 1966 to 4 April 1967, in two studios recording their debut album Are You Experienced.

It was released in May in the UK and was also the first release on the new British record label Track. And it was an instant smash hit! The groundbreaking first LP reached number 2 in the charts behind the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's album. After his legendary performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in June, it was then successfully released in America (with a modified track list) in August, reaching number 5 in the charts and staying there for 105 weeks. Two more albums (Axis: Bold As Love and Electric Ladyland) followed before he recorded his fourth and final LP with his Band Of Gypsys before his untimely death. As one of the essential rock albums that divided music history into the time before and after him, the English mono first pressing is at the top of collectors' wish lists worldwide.