__NOTOC__ Year 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. The year is associated with the first manned landing on the Moon (Apollo 11).

Events

January

January 2

* Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch purchases the largest selling British Sunday newspaper, ''The News of the World''.

* People's Democracy begins a march from Belfast to Derry, Northern Ireland in support of civil rights.

* Ohio State defeats USC in the Rose Bowl to win the national title for the 1968 season.

January 5 – The Soviet Union launches ''Venera 5'' toward Venus.

January 6 – The final passenger train traverses the Waverley Line, which subsequently closed to passengers.

January 10

* Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) damage property and assault occupants in the Bogside in Derry. In response, residents erect barricades and establish Free Derry.

* The Soviet Union launches ''Venera 6'' toward Venus.

January 12

* Super Bowl III: The New York Jets of the American Football League defeat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts of the National Football League 16–7.

* Led Zeppelin I, Led Zeppelin's first studio recorded album, is released.

* Martial law is declared in Madrid, the University is closed and over 300 students are arrested.

January 14

* An explosion aboard the USS ''Enterprise'' near Hawaii kills 27 and injures 314.

* The Soviet Union launches ''Soyuz 4''.

January 15 – The Soviet Union launches ''Soyuz 5'', which docked with Soyuz 4 for a transfer of crew.

January 16 – Student Jan Palach sets himself on fire in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia; 3 days later he dies.

January 18 – In Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian displays the art of Winslow Homer for 6 weeks.

January 20

Richard Milhous Nixon succeeds Lyndon Baines Johnson as the 37th President of the United States of America.

* After 147 years, the last issue of ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is published.

January 26 – Elvis Presley steps into American Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, recording "Long Black Limousine" thus beginning the recording of what becomes his landmark comeback sessions for the albums ''From Elvis in Memphis'' and ''Back in Memphis''. The sessions yield the popular and critically acclaimed singles "Suspicious Minds," "In the Ghetto" and "Kentucky Rain."

January 27

* Fourteen men, nine of them Jews, are executed in Baghdad for spying for Israel.

* Reverend Ian Paisley, hardline Protestant leader in Northern Ireland, is jailed for 3 months for illegal assembly.

* The present-day Hetch Hetchy Moccasin Powerhouse, rated at 100,000 KVA, is completed and placed in operation.

January 28 – A blow-out on Union Oil's Platform spills 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil into a channel and onto the beaches of Santa Barbara County in Southern California inspiring Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson to organize the first Earth Day in 1970

January 30 – The Beatles give their last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records. The impromptu concert was broken up by the police.

February

February 2

* Two cosmonauts transfer from Soyuz 5 to Soyuz 4 via a spacewalk while the two craft are docked together, the first time such a transfer takes place. The two spacecraft undock. Soyuz 4 will reenter Earth's atmosphere and land February 17 while Soyuz 5 will have a hard landing February 18.

* Ten paintings are defaced in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

February 4 – In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is elected Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.

February 5 – A huge oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California closes the city's harbor.

February 7 – The original Hetch Hetchy Moccasin Powerhouse is removed from service.

February 8 – The last issue of ''The Saturday Evening Post'' hits magazine stands.

February 9 – The Boeing 747 makes its maiden flight.

February 13 – FLQ terrorists bomb the Stock Exchange in Montreal, Quebec.

February 14 – Pope Paul VI issues a motu proprio deleting many names from the Roman calendar of saints (including Valentine, who was celebrated on that day).

February 17 – Aquanaut Berry L. Cannon dies of carbon dioxide poisoning while attempting to repair the SEALAB III habitat off San Clemente Island, California.

February 24

* The ''Mariner 6'' Mars probe is launched.

* ''Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District'': The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the First Amendment applies to public schools.

March

March 2

* In Toulouse, France the first Concorde test flight is conducted.

* Soviet and Chinese forces clash at a border outpost on the Ussuri River.

March 3

* In a Los Angeles, California court, Sirhan Sirhan admits that he killed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.

* Apollo program: NASA launches ''Apollo 9'' (James McDivitt, David Scott, Rusty Schweickart) to test the lunar module.

March 10

* In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. (he later retracts his guilty plea).

* The novel ''The Godfather (novel)'' by Mario Puzo is published.

March 13 – Apollo program: ''Apollo 9'' returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.

March 17

* The Longhope, Orkney lifeboat in Scotland is lost; the entire crew of 8 die.

* Golda Meir becomes the first female prime minister of Israel.

March 18 – Operation Breakfast, the secret bombing of Cambodia, begins.

March 19

* British paratroopers and Marines land on the island of Anguilla.

A tall TV-mast at Emley Moor, UK, collapses due to ice build-up.

March 22 – The landmark art exhibition ''When Attitudes become Form'', curated by Harald Szeemann opens at the Kunsthalle Bern in Bern, Switzerland.

March 28 – Former United States General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower dies after a long illness in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C..

March 29 – The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 is held in Madrid, and results in four co-winners, with 18 votes each, from Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and France.

April

April 1 – The Hawker Siddeley Harrier enters service with the Royal Air Force.

April 4 – Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart.

April 9

* The Harvard University Administration Building is seized by close to 300 students, mostly members of the Students for a Democratic Society. Before the takeover ends, 45 will be injured and 184 arrested.

* Fermín Monasterio Pérez is killed by the ETA in Biscay, Spain, being the 4th victim in the name of Basque nationalism.

April 13 – Queensland: The Brisbane Tramways end service after 84 years of operation.

April 15 – The EC-121 shootdown incident: North Korea shoots down the aircraft over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 on board.

April 20

* British troops arrive in Northern Ireland to reinforce the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

* A grassroots movement of Berkeley community members seizes an empty lot owned by the University of California to begin the formation of "People's Park".

April 22 – Robin Knox-Johnston becomes the first person to sail around the world solo without stopping.

April 24 – Recently formed British Leyland launches their first new model, the Austin Maxi in Portugal .

April 28 – Charles de Gaulle steps down as president of France after suffering defeat in a referendum the day before.

May

May 10

* Zip to Zap, a harbinger of the Woodstock Concert, ends with the dispersal and eviction of youth and young adults at Zap, North Dakota by the National Guard.

* The Battle of Dong Ap Bia, also known as Hamburger Hill, begins during the Vietnam War.

May 13 – May 13 Incident: Race riots occur in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

May 14 – Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi visits Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

May 15 – An American teenager known as 'Robert R.' dies in St. Louis, Missouri, of a baffling medical condition. In 1984 it will be identified as the first confirmed case of HIV/AIDS in North America.

May 16 – Venera program: ''Venera 5'', a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.

May 17 – Venera program: Soviet probe ''Venera 6'' begins to descend into Venus' atmosphere, sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure.

May 18 – Apollo program: ''Apollo 10'' (Tom Stafford, Gene Cernan, John Young) is launched, on the full dress-rehearsal for the Moon landing.

May 20 – United States National Guard helicopters spray skin-stinging powder on anti-war protesters in California.

May 21 – ''Rosariazo'': Civil unrest breaks out in Rosario, Argentina, following the death of a 15-year-old student.

May 22 – Apollo program: ''Apollo 10'''s lunar module flies to within 15,400 m of the Moon's surface.

May 25 – ''Midnight Cowboy'', an X-rated, oscar winning John Schlesinger film, debuts.

May 26

* Andean Pact (Andean Group) established.

* Apollo program: ''Apollo 10'' returns to Earth, after a successful 8-day test of all the components needed for the upcoming first manned Moon landing.

May 26–June 2 – John Lennon and Yoko Ono conduct their Bed-In at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec.

May 29

* ''Cordobazo'': A general strike and civil unrest break out in Córdoba, Argentina.

* Guided tours begin at the Kremlin and other government sites in Moscow.

May 30 – Riots in Curaçao mark the start of an Afro-Caribbean civil rights movement on the island.

June

June 3 – While operating at sea on SEATO maneuvers, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS ''Melbourne'' accidentally rammed and sliced in two the American destroyer USS ''Frank E. Evans'' in the South China Sea, killing 74 American seamen.

June 5 – An international communist conference begins in Moscow.

June 7 – The rock supergroup Blind Faith play its debut gig in front of 100,000 people in London's Hyde Park.

June 8 – U.S. President Richard Nixon and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu meet at Midway Island. Nixon announces that 25,000 U.S. troops will be withdrawn by September.

June 18–June 22 – The National Convention of the Students for a Democratic Society, held in Chicago, collapses, and the Weatherman faction seizes control of the SDS National Office. Thereafter, any activity run from the National Office or bearing the name of SDS is Weatherman-controlled.

June 20 – Georges Pompidou is elected President of France.

June 22

* The Cuyahoga River fire helps spur an avalanche of water pollution control activities resulting in the Clean Water Act, Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and the creation of the federal Environmental Protection Agency

* Judy Garland dies of drug overdose in her London home

June 23 – Warren E. Burger is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States by retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren.

June 24 – The United Kingdom and Rhodesia sever diplomatic ties.

June 28 – The Stonewall riots in New York City mark the start of the modern gay rights movement in the U.S.

July

July 1 – Charles, Prince of Wales, is invested with his title at Caernarfon.

July 4 – Michael Mageau and Darlene Ferrin are shot at Blue Rock Springs in California. They are the second (known) victims of the Zodiac Killer. Mageau survives the attack while Ferrin was pronounced dead-on-arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital - Richmond.

July 5 – Tom Mboya, Kenyan Minister of Development, is assassinated.

July 7 – French is made equal to English throughout the Canadian national government.

July 8 – Vietnam War: The very first U.S. troop withdrawals are made.

July 10 – Donald Crowhurst's trimaran ''Teignmouth Electron'' is found drifting and unoccupied. It is assumed that Crowhurst might have committed suicide.

July 14

* Football War: After Honduras loses a soccer game against El Salvador, rioting breaks out in Honduras against Salvadoran migrant workers. Of the 300,000 Salvadoran workers in Honduras, tens of thousands are expelled, prompting a brief Salvadoran invasion of Honduras. The OAS works out a cease-fire on July 18, which takes effect on July 20.

* Act of Free Choice commenced in Merauke, West Irian.

July 16 – Apollo program: ''Apollo 11'' (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins) lifts off toward the first landing on the Moon.

July 17 – The New York Times publicly takes back the ridicule of the rocket scientist Robert H. Goddard published in 13 Jan 1920 that spaceflight is impossible.

July 18 – Chappaquiddick incident – Edward M. Kennedy drives off a bridge on his way home from a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts. Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign aide to his brother, dies in the early morning hours of July 19 in the submerged car.

July 19

* Gloria Diaz wins the Miss Universe Pageant, with the Philippines receiving its first title.

* John Fairfax lands in Hollywood Beach, Florida near Miami and becomes the first person to row across an ocean solo, after 180 days spent at sea on board 25' ocean rowboat 'Britannia' (left Gran Canaria on January 20, 1969).

July 20 – Apollo program: The lunar module ''Eagle'' lands on the lunar surface. An estimated 500 million people worldwide watch in awe as Neil Armstrong takes his historic first steps on the Moon at 02:56 UTC, the largest television audience for a live broadcast at that time.

July 24

* The ''Apollo 11'' astronauts return from the first successful Moon landing, and are placed in biological isolation for several days, on the chance they may have brought back lunar germs. The airless lunar environment is later determined to preclude microscopic life.

* The Soviet Union returns Gerald Brooke to the United Kingdom in exchange for spies Peter and Helen Kroger (Morris and Lona Cohen).

July 25 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine, stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This starts the "Vietnamization" of the war.

July 26 – The New York Chapter of the Young Lords was founded

July 30 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam, meeting with President Nguyen Van Thieu and U.S. military commanders.

July 31 – The halfpenny ceases to be legal tender in the UK.

August

August 4 – Vietnam War: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, U.S. representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace negotiations. They eventually fail since both sides cannot agree to any terms.

August 5 – Mariner program: ''Mariner 7'' makes its closest fly-by of Mars (3,524 kilometers).

August 8

* The Beatles at 11:30 have photographer Iain Macmillan take their photo on a zebra crossing on Abbey Road.

* A fire breaks out in the Bannerman's Castle in the Hudson River; most of the roof collapses and crashes down to the lower levels.

August 9

* The Haunted Mansion attraction opens at Disneyland California. Later versions opened in Florida, Tokyo and Paris.

* Members of a cult belived led by Charles Manson murder Sharon Tate, (who was eight months pregnant), and her friends: Folgers coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, and Hollywood hairstylist Jay Sebring at the home of Tate and her husband, Roman Polanski, in Los Angeles, California. Also killed was Steven Parent, leaving from a visit to the Polanskis' caretaker. More than 100 stab wounds are found on the victims, except for Parent, who had been shot almost as soon as the Manson Family entered the property.

August 10 – The Manson Family kills Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, wealthy Los Angeles businesspeople.

August 12 – Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside.

August 13 – Serious border clashes occur between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.

August 14 – British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland following the 3-day Battle of the Bogside.

August 15–August 18 – The Woodstock Festival is held in upstate New York, featuring some of the top rock musicians of the era.

August 17 – Category 5 Hurricane Camille, the most powerful tropical cyclonic system at landfall in history, hits the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing US$1.5 billion in damage (1969 dollars).

August 20 – Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is established in Florissant, CO, USA

August 21 – Australian Denis Michael Rohan sets the Al-Aqsa Mosque on fire.

September

September 1 – A coup in Libya ousts King Idris, and brings Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi to power.

September 2

* The first automatic teller machine in the United States is installed in Rockville Centre, New York.

* Ho Chi Minh, former president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam dies.

September 5 – My Lai Massacre: Lieutenant William Calley is charged with 6 counts of premeditated murder, for the deaths of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai.

September 6 – TV series H.R. Pufnstuf debuts on NBC

September 9 – Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 DC-9 collides in flight with a Piper PA-28, and crashes near Fairland, Indiana killing all 83 persons in both aircraft.

September 20 – The very last Warner Bros. cartoon of the original theatrical Looney Tunes series is released: ''Injun Trouble''.

September 22–September 25 – An Islamic conference in Rabat, Morocco, following the al-Aqsa Mosque fire (August 21), condemns the Israeli claim of ownership of Jerusalem.

September 23 – ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'' directed by George Roy Hill and starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford opens to limited release in the U.S.

September 24 – The ''Chicago Eight'' trial begins in Chicago, Illinois.

September 25 – Organisation of the Islamic Conference founded.

September 26

* The Beatles release their ''Abbey Road'' album, receiving critical praise and enormous commercial success.

* ''The Brady Bunch'' premieres on ABC.

September 28 – The Social Democrats and the Free Democrats receive a majority of votes in the German parliamentary elections, and decide to form a common government.

October

October 1

* In Sweden, Olof Palme is elected Labour Party leader, replacing Tage Erlander as prime minister on October 14.

* The Beijing Subway begins operation.

October 2 – A 1.2 megaton thermonuclear device is tested at Amchitka Island, Alaska. This test is code-named Project Milrow, the 11th test of the Operation Mandrel 1969–1970 underground nuclear test series. This test is known as a "calibration shot" to test if the island is fit for larger underground nuclear detonations.

October 5 – ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' first airs on BBC One.

October 9–October 12 – Days of Rage: In Chicago, the United States National Guard is called in to control demonstrations involving the radical Weathermen, in connection with the "Chicago Eight" Trial.

October 15 – Vietnam War: Hundreds of thousands of people take part in Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam demonstrations across the United States.

October 16 – The "miracle" New York Mets win the World Series, beating the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles 4 games to 1.

October 17

* Willard S. Boyle and George Smith invent the CCD at Bell Laboratories (30 years later, this technology is widely used in digital cameras).

* Fourteen black athletes are kicked off the University of Wyoming football team for wearing black armbands into their coach's office.

October 21

* Willy Brandt becomes Chancellor of West Germany.

* General Siad Barre comes to power in Somalia in a coup, 6 days after the assassination of President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke.

October 29 – The first message is sent over ARPANET, the forerunner of the internet.

October 31 – Wal-Mart incorporates as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

November

November 3

* Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon addresses the nation on television and radio, asking the "silent majority" to join him in solidarity with the Vietnam War effort, and to support his policies. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew denounces the President's critics as 'an effete corps of impudent snobs' and 'nattering nabobs of negativism'.

* Süleyman Demirel of AP forms the new government of Turkey (31st government)

November 9 – A group of Amerindians, led by Richard Oakes, seizes Alcatraz Island for 19 months, inspiring a wave of renewed Indian pride and government reform.

November 10 – ''Sesame Street'' premieres on the National Educational Television (NET) network.

November 12 – Vietnam War – My Lai Massacre: Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the My Lai story.

November 14 – Apollo program: NASA launches ''Apollo 12'' (Pete Conrad, Richard Gordon, Alan Bean), the second manned mission to the Moon.

November 15

* Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS ''Gato'' in the Barents Sea.

* Vietnam War: In Washington, DC, 250,000–500,000 protesters stage a peaceful demonstration against the war, including a symbolic "March Against Death".

* Regular colour television broadcasts begin on BBC1 and ITV in UK.

* Dave Thomas opens his first restaurant in a former steakhouse on a cold, snowy Saturday in downtown Columbus, Ohio. He names the chain ''Wendy's'' after his 8-year-old daughter Melinda Lou (nicknamed Wendy by her siblings).

November 17 – Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki, to begin the SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.

November 19

* Apollo program: ''Apollo 12'' astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum ("Ocean of Storms"), becoming the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon.

* Soccer great Pelé scores his 1,000th goal.

November 20

* Vietnam War: ''The Plain Dealer'' publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.

* Richard Oakes returns with 90 followers and offers to buy Alcatraz for $24 (he leaves the island January 1970).

November 21

* U.S. President Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Sato agree in Washington, D.C. to the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. Under the terms of the agreement, the U.S. retains rights to military bases on the island, but they must be nuclear-free.

* The first ARPANET link is established (the progenitor of the global Internet).

* The United States Senate votes down the Supreme Court nomination of Clement Haynsworth, the first such rejection since 1930.

November 24 – Apollo program: The ''Apollo 12'' spacecraft splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to the Moon.

November 25 – John Lennon returns his MBE medal to protest the British government's support of the U.S. war in Vietnam.

December

December 1 – Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II (on January 4, 1970, the ''New York Times'' will run a long article, "Statisticians Charge Draft Lottery Was Not Random").

December 2 – The Boeing 747 jumbo jet makes its debut. It carries 191 people, most of them reporters and photographers, from Seattle, Washington, to New York City.

December 4 – Black Panther Party members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are shot dead in their sleep during a raid by 14 Chicago police officers.

December 6 – The Altamont Free Concert is held at the Altamont Speedway in northern California. Hosted by the Rolling Stones, it is an attempt at a "Woodstock West" and is best known for the uproar of violence that occurred. It is viewed by many as the "end of the sixties."

December 12 – The Piazza Fontana bombing in Italy (Strage di Piazza Fontana) takes place. A U.S. Navy officer and C.I.A. agent called David Carrett is later investigated for possible involvement.

December 28 – The Young Lords took over the First Spanish Methodist Church in East Harlem.

December 30 – The Linwood bank robbery leaves two police officers dead.

December 31 – The date you are commonly given when a computer's time is set to 0 in seconds. Start of the Unix Epoch.

Date unknown

Common African, Malagasy and Mauritian Organization (OCAMM) (Organisation Commune Africaine Malgache et Mauricienne).

The first Gap store opens, in San Francisco.

Reported as being the year the first strain of the AIDS virus (HIV) migrates to the United States via Haiti.

Summer sees the invention of Unix under the potential name "Unics" (after Multics).

Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull publish their book ''The Peter Principle: why things always go wrong'' in New York.

Women are allowed membership into the Future Farmers of America (now the National FFA Organization).

Long John Silver's restaurant chain opens first store in Lexington, Kentucky.

Births

January–February

January 1

* Regina Kent, Hong Kong actress (d.1999)

* Sophie Okonedo, Academy Award nominated British actress

January 2

* Dean Francis Alfar, Filipino author

* Christy Turlington, American fashion model

* Tommy Morrison, American boxer

January 3

* Michael Schumacher, German race car driver

January 5 – Marilyn Manson, American rock musician

January 8 – Jeff Abercrombie, American rock musician (Fuel)

January 13 – Stephen Hendry, British snooker player

January 14

* Jason Bateman, American actor

* David Grohl, American rock drummer and composer (Nirvana, Foo Fighters)

January 15 – Meret Becker, German actress and musician

January 16

* Roy Jones Jr., American boxer

* Per "Dead" Yngve Ohlin, Norwegian vocalist (d. 1991)

January 17

* Lukas Moodysson, Swedish film director

* DJ Tiesto, Dutch trance DJ

January 18 – David "Batista" Bautista, American professional wrestler

January 20 – Patrick K. Kroupa, American writer, hacker

January 22 – John Linton Roberson, American cartoonist and writer

January 27 – Cornelius, Japanese rock musician, singer and producer (Flipper's Guitar)

January 29 – hyde, Japanese rock musician, singer and guitarist

February 1 – Gabriel Batistuta, Argentine footballer

February 3 – Retief Goosen, South African golfer

February 5 – Bobby Brown, American singer

February 9 – Ian Eagle, American sports announcer

February 11 – Jennifer Aniston, American actress

February 12

* Hong Myung-Bo, South Korean footballer

* Brad Werenka, Canadian ice-hockey player

February 13 – Ahlam, Arabic singer

February 15 – Fulvio Valbusa, Italian cross-country skier

February 19 – Burton C. Bell, American rock vocalist/lyricist

February 20

* Keiji Takayama, Japanese professional wrestler

February 21 – Petra Kronberger, Austrian alpine skier

February 23

* Michael Campbell, New Zealand golfer

* Marc Wauters, Belgian cyclist

February 24 – Christine Ng, Hong Kong actress

February 28 – Robert Sean Leonard, American actor

March–April

March 1

* Javier Bardem, Spanish actor

* Litefoot, Native American actor

* Dafydd Ieuan, Welsh rock drummer (Super Furry Animals)

March 4

* Chaz Bono, American actor and advocate of gay rights

* Jason Townsend, American artist and record producer

* Patrick Roach, Canadian actor

* Annie Shizuka Inoh, Taiwanese actress

March 7 – Todd Williams, American long-distance runner

March 10 – Paget Brewster, American actress

March 11

* Soraya, Colombian singer and multi-instrumentalist (d. 2006)

* Terrence Howard, American actor

March 15

* Timo Kotipelto, Finnish musician

* Yutaka Take, Japanese jockey

March 17 – Alexander McQueen, British fashion designer (d. 2010)

March 18 – Vassily Ivanchuk, Ukrainian chess grandmaster

March 19

* Patrick Tam, Hong Kong actor

* Connor Trinneer, American actor

March 20 – Kenneth Keith Kallenbach, American comedian (d. 2008)

March 21

* Ali Daei, Iranian football player

* Jaya, Filipino pop singer

March 24 – Stephan Eberharter, Austrian alpine skier

March 27 – Pauley Perrette, American actress

March 28 – Rodney Atkins, America country music singer-songwriter

April 1 – Fadl Shaker, Lebanese singer

April 3 – Lance Storm, Canadian professional wrestler

April 6

* Bret Boone, American baseball player

* Paul Rudd, American actor

April 9 – Debbie Schlussel, Political commentator & film critic

April 10 – Billy Jayne, American actor

April 11

* Cerys Matthews, Welsh singer

* Chisato Moritaka, Japanese singer

April 17 – Henry Ian Cusick, Peruvian actor

April 19

* Shannon Lee, Chinese-American actress

* Susan Polgar, Hungarian chess player

April 22 – Dion Dublin, English footballer

April 25

* Joe Buck, American baseball and football broadcaster

* Vanessa Beecroft, Italian artist

* Renée Zellweger, American actress

May–June

May 2 – Brian Lara, West Indian cricketer

May 3 – Daryl F. Mallett, American author and actor

May 4

* Micah Aivazoff, Canadian ice hockey player

* Christina Billotte, American Musician

May 6 – Jim Magilton, Northern Irish footballer

May 7 – Eagle Eye Cherry, Swedish-born musician

May 9 – Amber, Dutch musician

May 10 – Dennis Bergkamp, Dutch soccer player

May 11 – Sheila Davalloo, Iranian-American criminal

May 12 – Kevin Nalty, American YouTube comedian

May 13

* Nikos Aliagas, French-born television host

* Brian Carroll (a.k.a. Buckethead), American guitarist

May 14 – Cate Blanchett, Australian actress

May 15

* Hideki Irabu, Japanese baseball player (d. 2011)

* Emmitt Smith, American football player

* Asalah Nasri, Syrian singer

May 16

* David Boreanaz, American actor

* Tracey Gold, American actress

* Steve Lewis, American athlete

May 18 – Martika, American singer

May 21 – Georgiy R. Gongadze, Ukrainian journalist (d. 2000)

May 25 – Stacy London, American fashion consultant and media personality.

May 26 – Musetta Vander, South African actress

June 4

* Rob Huebel, American comedian

* Eugene Chung, Korean-American Football Player

* Takako Minekawa, Japanese musician, composer and writer

June 7 – Kim Rhodes, American actress

June 8 – J.P. Manoux, American actor

June 11 – Steven Drozd, American rock drummer (The Flaming Lips)

June 12 – Zsolt Daczi, Hungarian rock guitarist (d. 2007)

June 14

* Steffi Graf, German tennis player

* MC Ren, American rapper (N.W.A)

June 15

* Oliver Kahn, German football goalkeeper

* Ice Cube, American rapper and actor

* Maurice Odumbe, Kenyan cricketer

June 17 – Paul Tergat, Kenyan athlete

June 18 – Pål Pot Pamparius, Norwegian rock guitarist and keyboardist (Turbonegro)

June 20 – Paulo Bento, Portuguese football player and coach

June 23 – Fernanda Ribeiro, Portuguese long-distance runner

June 24 – Sissel Kyrkjebø, Norwegian singer

June 25

* Matt Gallant, American television host

* Storm Large, American singer and actor

* Zim Zum, American guitarist

June 29

* Ilan Mitchell-Smith, American actor

* Toru Hashimoto, Japanese local governor

June 30 – Sanath Jayasuriya, Sri Lankan cricketer

July–August

July 4 – Jordan Sonnenblick, American teacher and American novelist

July 5 – John LeClair, American hockey player

July 7

* Sylke Otto, German luger

* Joe Sakic, Canadian hockey player

July 8 – Sugizo, Japanese guitarist and singer

July 10 – Gale Harold, American actor

July 11 – David Tao, Taiwanese singer-songwriter

July 18 – Masanori Murakawa, Japanese professional wrestler

July 20 – Josh Holloway, American actor

July 21 – Godfrey, American comedian and actor

July 22 – Despina Vandi, Greek singer

July 24 – Jennifer Lopez, American actress and singer

July 26 – Tanni Grey-Thompson, British Paralympian

July 27 – Triple H (aka Paul Levesque), American professional wrestler

July 30 – Mandakini (aka Yasmeen Joseph), Indian Bollywood actress

August 2

* Fernando Couto, Portuguese footballer

* Jan Axel Blomberg, Norwegian drummer

August 4 – Max Cavalera, Brazilian musician and singer (Soulfly)

August 5 – Graham Elwood, American comedian and game show host

August 6 – Elliott Smith, American musician (d. 2003)

August 8

* Faye Wong, Hong Kong singer and actress

* Dick Togo, Japanese professional wrestler

August 9 – Troy Percival, American baseball player

August 10 – Brian Drummond, Canadian voice actor

August 11

* Vanderlei de Lima, Brazilian long-distance runner

* Ashley Jensen, British actress

August 13 – Midori Ito, Japanese figure skater

August 15

* Kevin Cheng, Hong Kong television actor and singer

* Justin Broadrick, British musician

August 18

* Edward Norton, American actor

* Christian Slater, American actor

August 19

* Matthew Perry, Canadian actor

* Nate Dogg, American rapper (d. 2011)

* Clay Walker, American singer

August 25 – Cameron Mathison, Canadian-born actor

August 28 – Jack Black, American actor and musician

August 29

* Joe Swail, Northern Irish snooker player

* Lucero, Mexican singer and actress

September–October

September 2

* Cedric "K-Ci" Hailey, American singer

* Dave Naz, American photographer

September 3 – Robert Karlsson, Swedish golfer

September 5 – Dweezil Zappa, American actor and musician

September 7 – Diane Farr, American actress

September 9

* Rachel Hunter, New Zealand model and actress

* Constance Marie, American actress

September 10 – Ai Jing, Chinese singer

September 12

* Ángel Cabrera, Argentine golfer

* Shigeki Maruyama, Japanese golfer

September 13 – Shane Warne, Australian cricketer

September 14 – Bong Joon-ho, South Korean screenwriter and film director

September 17 – Ken Doherty, Irish snooker player

September 19 – Michael Symon, American chef and television personality

September 23

* Mahir Çağrı, Turkish Internet celebrity

* Michelle Thomas, American actress (d. 1998)

September 24

* DeVante Swing, American music producer

* Shawn "Clown" Crahan, American rock percussionist (Slipknot, Dirty Little Rabbits)

September 25

* Yves Amyot, Québécois actor

* Hansie Cronje, South African cricketer (d. 2002)

* Hal Sparks, American actor and comedian

* Heather Stewart-Whyte, British model

* Catherine Zeta-Jones, Welsh actress

September 26

* Victor N'Gembo-Mouanda, Congolese author

* Paul Warhurst, English football player

October 1 – Igor Ulanov, Russian hockey player

October 2

* Mitch English, American actor and television host

* Jun Akiyama, Japanese professional wrestler

October 3 – Gwen Stefani, American rock singer (No Doubt)

October 5 – Elizabeth Azcona Bocock, Honduran politician

October 6

* Adrienne Armstrong, American wife of Billie Joe Armstrong of ''Green Day''

* Ogün Temizkanoğlu, Turkish football player

October 7

* Benny Chan Muk-Sing, Hong Kong film director

* Benny Chan Ho Man, Hong Kong actor

October 8 – Julia Ann, American porn actress

October 9 – Polly Jean Harvey, British singer-songwriter

October 10 – Brett Favre, American football player

October 13

* Nancy Kerrigan, American figure skater

* Rhett Akins, American country singer

October 14 – David Strickland, American actor (d. 1999)

October 17

* Ernie Els, South African golfer

* Jesus Angel Garcia, Spanish race walker

* Nancy Sullivan, American actress

October 19 – Trey Parker, American television producer

October 20

* Juan González, American baseball player

* Laurie Daley, Australian rugby league player

October 21

* Michael Hancock, Australian rugby league footballer

* Angela Vincent, Australian actress

October 24 – Peter Dolving, Swedish musician

October 25

* Josef Beranek, Czech ice hockey player

* Alex Webster, American bassist

* Oleg Salenko, Russian football player

October 29 – Ha Hee-ra, Korean actress

October 30 – Clay Enos, American photographer

November–December

November 2 – Reginald Arvizu (aka Fieldy Snuts), American bassist

November 4

* Sean "Diddy" Combs, American rapper

* Matthew McConaughey, American actor

November 7

* Michelle Clunie, American actress

* Hélène Grimaud, French pianist

* Bryant H. McGill, American poet

November 8 – Roxana Zal, American actress

November 9 – Allison Wolfe, American musician

November 10

* Jens Lehmann, German football player

* Ellen Pompeo, American actress

* Faustino Asprilla, Colombian football player

November 11 – Carson Kressley, American fashion expert

November 12

* Heinz-Christian Strache, Austrian politician

* Johnny Gosch, American child kidnap victim

November 13 – Gerard Butler, Scottish actor

November 17

* Jean-Michel Saive, Belgian table tennis player

* Ryotaro Okiayu, Japanese seiyu (voice actor)

November 18

* Sam Cassell, American basketball player

* Kathleen Van Brempt, Belgian politician

* Ahmed Helmy, Egyptian actor

November 19 – Ertuğrul Sağlam, Turkish football coach and former player

November 20 – AQi Fzono, Japanese composer

November 21 – Ken Griffey, Jr., American baseball player

November 23 – Robin Padilla, Filipino actor

November 24 – David Adeang, Nauruan politician

November 28 – Lexington Steele, American actor and film director

November 29

* Chris Baker, American race car driver

* Pierre van Hooijdonk, Dutch footballer

* Mariano Rivera, Panamanian Major League Baseball player

* Kasey Keller, American Major League Soccer player

December 4 – Jay-Z, American rapper

December 7 – Suhail A. Khan, American activist

December 8 – Kerry Earnhardt, American race car driver

December 11

* Sean Grande, American basketball announcer

* Viswanathan Anand, Indian chess Grandmaster

December 14 – Archie Kao, Chinese-American film and television actor

December 15 – Rick Law, American illustrator and producer

December 16 – Michelle Smith, Irish swimmer

December 17 – Chuck Liddell, American mixed martial arts fighter

December 18

* Irvin Duguid, Scottish rock keyboard player (Stiltskin)

* Joe Randa, American Major League Baseball player and radio talk-show host

* Mille Petrozza, German-Italian rock vocalist and guitarist (Kreator)

December 19

* Kristy Swanson, American actress

* Richard Hammond, British TV presenter

* Lauren Sánchez, American news anchor

* Villano IV, Mexican wrestler

December 21

* Julie Delpy, French actress

* Magnus Samuelsson, Swedish bodybuilder and former World's Strongest Man

December 23

* Martha Byrne, American actress and singer

* Rob Pelinka, American sports agent

December 28 – Linus Torvalds, Finnish computer programmer

December 29 – George Fisher, (aka "CorpseGrinder"), American musician

December 30 – Jason Kay, English singer (Jamiroquai)

December 31

* Dominik Diamond, Scottish presenter and newspaper columnist

* Lance Reddick, American actor

Deaths

January–March

January 1 – Barton MacLane, American actor (b. 1902)

January 2 – Gilbert Miller(''aka Gilbert Heron'') American theatrical producer (b. 1884)

January 3 – Howard McNear, American actor (b. 1905)

January 4 – Violet and Daisy Hilton, English conjoined twin actresses (b. 1908)

January 8 – Albert Hill, British athlete (b. 1889)

January 16 – Vernon Duke, Russian-American songwriter (b. 1903)

January 19 – Jan Palach, Czech student protester (suicide) (b. 1948)

January 25 – Irene Castle, English dancer (b. 1893)

January 27 – Charles Winninger, American actor (b. 1884)

January 29 – Allen Dulles, American director of the Central Intelligence Agency (b. 1893)

January 30 – Georges Pire, Belgian monk, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1910)

January 31 – Meher Baba, Indian spiritual master (b. 1894)

February 2 – Boris Karloff, English actor (b. 1887)

February 3 – Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambican FRELIMO leader (assassinated) (b. 1920)

February 4 – Thelma Ritter, American actress (b. 1905)

February 5 – Conrad Hilton, Jr., American heir and socialite (b. 1926)

February 9 – Gabby Hayes, American actor (b. 1885)

February 12 – Paltiel Daykan, Russian-born Israeli jurist (b. 1885)

February 13 – Florence Mary Taylor, Australia's first female architect (b. 1879)

February 15 – Pee Wee Russell, American jazz musician (b. 1906)

February 20 – Ernest Ansermet, Swiss conductor (b. 1883)

February 23 – King Saud of Saudi Arabia (b. 1902)

February 26

* Levi Eshkol, Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1895)

* Karl Jaspers, German psychiatrist and philosopher (b. 1883)

February 27 – John Boles, American actor (b. 1895)

March 4 – Nicholas Schenck, Russian-born film empresario (b. 1881)

March 9 – Charles Brackett, American novelist and screenwriter (b. 1892)

March 11 – John Wyndham, British author (b. 1903)

March 14 – Ben Shahn, Lithuanian-born American artist (b. 1898)

March 18 – Barbara Bates, American actress (b. 1925)

March 20 – Henri Longchambon, French politician (b. 1896)

March 21 – Pinky Higgins, American baseball player and manager (b. 1909)

March 25

* Billy Cotton, British entertainer & bandleader (b. 1899)

* Max Eastman, American writer (b. 1883)

* Alan Mowbray, English actor (b. 1896)

March 26

* John Kennedy Toole, American author (b. 1937)

* B. Traven, German writer

March 28 – Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States (b. 1890)

April–June

April 5 – Shelby Storck, American television producer (b. 1917)

April 6 – Gabriel Chevallier, French writer (b. 1895)

April 7 – Rómulo Gallegos, Venezuelan president and writer (b. 1884)

April 15 – Ain-Ervin Mere, Estonian Nazi (b. 1903)

April 26 – Morihei Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist and founder of aikido (b. 1883)

May 1 – Ella Logan, American actress (b. 1913)

May 2 – Franz von Papen, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1879)

May 3 – Karl Freund, German cinematographer (b. 1890)

May 4 – Osbert Sitwell, English writer (b. 1892)

May 14

* Enid Bennett, American actress (b. 1893)

* Frederick Lane, Australian swimmer (b. 1888)

May 15 – Robert R., American HIV/AIDS victim (b. 1953)

May 19 – Coleman Hawkins, American musician (b. 1904)

May 23 – Jimmy McHugh, American composer (b. 1894)

May 24 – Mitzi Green, American actress (b. 1920)

May 27 – Jeffrey Hunter, American actor (b. 1926)

May 28 – Rhys Williams, Welsh actor (b. 1897)

June 1 – Ivar Ballangrud, Norwegian Olympic speed skater (b. 1904)

June 2 – Leo Gorcey, American boxer (b. 1917)

June 4 – Rafael Osuna, Mexican tennis champion (b. 1938)

June 8 – Robert Taylor, American actor (b. 1911)

June 13 – Martita Hunt, British actress (b. 1900)

June 16 – Harold Alexander, British WWII Field Marshal (b. 1891)

June 19 – Natalie Talmadge, American actress (b. 1898)

June 21 – Maureen Connolly, American tennis player (b. 1934)

June 22 – Judy Garland, American actress and singer (b. 1922)

June 29 – Moise Tshombe, Congolese politician (b. 1919)

July–September

July 3 – Brian Jones, British rock musician (The Rolling Stones) (b. 1942)

July 5

* Ben Alexander, American actor (b. 1911)

* Walter Gropius, German architect (b. 1883)

* Lambert Hillyer, American film director (b. 1889)

* Leo McCarey, American film director (b. 1898)

July 7 – Gladys Swarthout, American opera singer (b. 1900)

July 15 – Peter van Eyck, German-American actor (b. 1911)

July 18

* Mary Jo Kopechne, American campaign aide to U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy (b. 1940)

* Barbara Pepper, American actress (b. 1915)

July 20 – Cathy Wayne, pop entertainer, first Australian woman killed in Vietnam War (b. 1949)

July 24 – Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist (b. 1904)

July 25 – Otto Dix, German painter (b. 1891)

July 26

* Frank Loesser, American songwriter (b. 1910)

* Raymond Walburn, American actor (b. 1887)

July 28 – Ramón Grau, Cuban president (b. 1882)

August 6 – Theodor W. Adorno, German sociologist and philosopher (b. 1903)

August 9

* Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)

* Jay Sebring, American celebrity hair stylist (murdered) (b. 1933)

* Sharon Tate, American actress (murdered) (b. 1943)

* Abigail Folger, American socialite, Folgers Coffee heiress, and social worker (murdered) (b. 1943)

August 14 – Leonard Woolf, English writer (b. 1880)

August 17

* Otto Stern, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)

* Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German-American architect (b. 1886)

August 18 – Mildred Davis, American actress (b. 1901)

August 20 – Dudley D. Watkins, Scottish illustrator for D.C. Thomson & Co. Best known for Oor Wullie, The Broons, The Dandy, The Beano, and The Topper. (b. 1907)

August 25 – Harry Hammond Hess, American geologist and United States Navy officer in World War II (b. 1906)

August 27

* Ivy Compton-Burnett, English novelist (b. 1884)

* Erika Mann, German writer (b. 1905)

August 31 – Rocky Marciano, American boxer (b. 1923)

September 2 – Ho Chi Minh, President of Vietnam (b. 1890)

September 3 – John Lester, American cricketer (b. 1871)

September 6 – Arthur Friedenreich, Brazilian footballer (b. 1892)

September 7 – Gavin Maxwell, Scottish naturalist and author (b. 1914)

September 8 – Bud Collyer, American radio and television personality (b. 1908)

September 19 – Rex Ingram, American actor (b. 1895)

October–December

October 4 – Natalino Otto, Italian singer (b. 1912)

October 6 – Walter Hagen, American golf champion (b. 1892)

October 7 – Ture Nerman, Swedish politician (b. 1886)

October 8 – Eduardo Ciannelli, Italian actor and singer (b. 1889)

October 12 – Sonja Henie, Norwegian figure skater (b. 1912)

October 14 – August Sang, Estonian poet and literary translator (b. 1914)

October 15

* Abdirashid Ali Shermarke, President of Somalia, assassinated (b. 1919)

* Rod La Rocque, American actor (b. 1896)

October 21

* Jack Kerouac, American author (b. 1922)

* Waclaw Sierpinski, Polish mathematician (b. 1882)

October 30 – Pops Foster, American musician (b. 1892)

November 5 – Lloyd Corrigan, American actor (b. 1900)

November 12 – William F. Friedman, American cryptanalyst (b. 1891)

November 15

* Roy D'Arcy, American actor (b. 1894)

* Iskander Mirza, first President of Pakistan (b. 1899)

November 18 – Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., American politician (b. 1888)

November 28 – Roy Barcroft, American actor (b. 1902)

December 2 – José María Arguedas, Peruvian novelist, poet, and anthropologist (b. 1911).

December 3 – Ruth White, American actress (b. 1914)

December 4

* Fred Hampton, American Black Panther (shot by police) (b. 1948)

* Mark Clark, American Black Panther (shot by police) (b. 1947)

* Hugh Oswald Short, aviation pioneer & Short Brothers CEO (b. 1883)

December 5 – Princess Alice of Battenberg (b. 1885)

December 6 – Meredith Hunter, Altamont Free Concert attendee, stabbed and kicked to death (b. 1951)

December 7 – Eric Portman, English actor (b. 1901)

December 12 – Magic Sam, American musician (b. 1937)

December 13

* Raymond A. Spruance, American admiral and ambassador (b. 1886)

* Spencer Williams, American actor (b. 1893)

December 22 – Josef von Sternberg, Austrian film director (b. 1894)

Nobel Prizes

Physics – Murray Gell-Mann

Chemistry – Derek Harold Richard Barton, Odd Hassel

Medicine – Max Delbrück, Alfred Hershey, Salvador Luria

Literature – Samuel Beckett

Peace – International Labour Organization

Economics – Ragnar Frisch, Jan Tinbergen

References

1969: The Year Everything Changed by Rob Kirkpatrick. Skyhorse Publishing, 2009. ISBN 978-1-60239-366-0.

1969 – Headlines A report from Rich Lamb of WCBS Newsradio 880 (WCBS-AM New York) Part of WCBS 880's celebration of 40 years of newsradio.

1969 – The Year in Sound An Audiofile produced by Lou Zambrana of WCBS Newsradio 880 (WCBS-AM New York) Part of WCBS 880's celebration of 40 years of newsradio.

''1969: The Year Everything Changed'' – YouTube video

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name	Harry Nilsson
background	solo_singer
birth name	Harry Edward Nilsson III
alias	Nilsson
birth date	June 15, 1941Brooklyn, New York,
death date	January 15, 1994Agoura Hills, California,
instrument	Piano, vocals, keyboards, guitar, harmonica
genre	RockPopRock and roll
occupation	Singer-songwriter
years active	1958–1994
label	Tower RecordsRCA VictorMercury Records
website	}}

Harry Edward Nilsson III (June 15, 1941 – January 15, 1994) was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson and is known for the hit singles "Without You", "Everybody's Talkin'" and "Coconut", and for songs appearing in numerous movies and television shows.

He was awarded Grammys for two of his recordings; best male contemporary vocal in 1969 for "Everybody's Talkin'", the theme song to the Academy Award-winning movie ''Midnight Cowboy'', and best male pop vocal in 1972 for "Without You".

Life and career

Early years

Nilsson was born in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, New York, in 1941. His paternal grandparents were Swedish circus performers and dancers, especially known for their "aerial ballet" (which is the title of one of Nilsson's albums). His father, Harry Edward Nilsson, Jr., abandoned the family three years later. An autobiographical reference to this is found in the opening to Nilsson's song "1941":

:Well, in 1941, the happy father had a son :And in 1944, the father walked right out the door

Nilsson's "Daddy's Song", and "Cuddly Toy" recorded by The Monkees, also refer to this period.

Nilsson grew up with his mother Bette and his younger half-sister. His younger half-brother Drake was left with family or friends during their moves between California and New York, sometimes living with a succession of relatives and stepfathers. His Uncle John, a mechanic in San Bernardino, California, helped Nilsson improve his vocal and musical abilities.

He had a half-brother and a half-sister through their mother. He also had three half-sisters and one half-brother through his father.

Due to the poor financial situation of his family, Nilsson worked from an early age, including a job at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles. When the Paramount closed, Nilsson applied for a job at a bank, falsely stating he was a high school graduate on his application (he only completed ninth grade). He had an aptitude for computers, which were beginning to be employed by banks at the time. He performed so well that the bank retained him after discovering the lie about his education. He worked on bank computers at night, and in the daytime pursued his songwriting and singing career.

Musical beginnings

As early as 1958, Nilsson was intrigued by emerging forms of popular music, especially rhythm and blues artists like Ray Charles. He had made early attempts at performing while he was working at the Paramount, forming a vocal duo with his friend Jerry Smith and singing close harmonies in the style of the Everly Brothers. The manager at a favorite hangout gave Nilsson a plastic ukulele, which he learned to play, and he later learned to play the guitar and piano. In the 2010 documentary ''Who is Harry Nilsson? (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)'', Nilsson recalled that when he could not remember lyrics or parts of the melodies to popular songs, he created his own, which led to writing original songs.

Uncle John's singing lessons, along with Nilsson's natural talent, helped when he got a job singing demos for songwriter Scott Turner in 1960. Turner paid Nilsson five dollars for each track they recorded. (When Nilsson became famous, Turner decided to release these early recordings, and contacted Nilsson to work out a fair payment. Nilsson replied that he had already been paid — five dollars a track.).

In 1963, Nilsson began to have some early success as a songwriter, working with John Marascalco on a song for Little Richard. Upon hearing Nilsson sing, Little Richard reportedly remarked: "My! You sing ''good'' for a white boy!" Marascalco also financed some independent singles by Nilsson. One, "Baa Baa Blacksheep", was released under the pseudonym "Bo Pete" to some small local airplay. Another recording, "Donna, I Understand", convinced Mercury Records to offer Nilsson a contract, and release recordings by him under the name "Johnny Niles."

In 1964, Nilsson worked with Phil Spector, writing three songs with him. He also established a relationship with songwriter and publisher Perry Botkin, Jr., who began to find a market for Nilsson's songs. Botkin also gave Nilsson a key to his office, providing another place to write after hours.

Nilsson's recording contract was picked up by Tower Records, which in 1966 released the first singles actually credited to him by name, as well as the debut album ''Spotlight on Nilsson''. None of Nilsson's Tower releases charted or gained much critical attention, although his songs were being recorded by Glen Campbell, Fred Astaire, The Shangri-Las, The Yardbirds, and others. Despite his growing success, Nilsson remained on the night shift at the bank.

Signing with RCA Victor

Nilsson signed with RCA Victor in 1966 and released an album the following year, ''Pandemonium Shadow Show'', which was a critical (if not commercial) success. Music industry insiders were impressed both with the songwriting and with Nilsson's pure-toned, multi-octave vocals. One such insider was Beatles press officer Derek Taylor, who bought an entire box of copies of the album to share this new sound with others. With a major-label release, and continued songwriting success (most notably with The Monkees, who had a hit with Nilsson's "Cuddly Toy" after meeting him through their producer Chip Douglas), Nilsson finally felt secure enough in the music business to quit his job with the bank. Monkees member Micky Dolenz maintained a close friendship until Nilsson's death in 1994.

Some of the albums from Derek Taylor's box eventually ended up with the Beatles themselves, who quickly became Nilsson fans. This may have been helped by the track "You Can't Do That", in which Nilsson covered one Beatles song but added 22 others in the multi-tracked background vocals. When John Lennon and Paul McCartney held a press conference in 1968 to announce the formation of Apple Corps, John was asked to name his favorite American artist. He replied, "Nilsson". Paul was then asked to name his favorite American group. He replied, "Nilsson".

Aided by the Beatles' praise, "You Can't Do That" became a minor hit in the U.S., and a top 10 hit in Canada.

When RCA had asked if there was anything special he wanted as a signing premium, Nilsson asked for his own office at RCA, being used to working out of one. In the weeks after the Apple press conference, Nilsson's office phone began ringing constantly, with offers and requests for interviews and inquiries about his performing schedule. Nilsson usually answered the calls himself, surprising the callers, and answered questions candidly. (He recalled years later the flow of a typical conversation: "When did you play last?" "I didn't." "Where have you played before?" "I haven't." "When will you be playing next?" "I don't.") Nilsson acquired a manager, who steered him into a handful of TV guest appearances, and a brief run of stage performances in Europe set up by RCA. He disliked the experiences he had, though, and decided to stick to the recording studio. He later admitted this was a huge mistake on his part.

Once John Lennon called and praised ''Pandemonium Shadow Show'', which he had listened to in a 36-hour marathon. Paul McCartney called the following day, also expressing his admiration]. Eventually a message came, inviting him to London to meet the Beatles, watch them at work, and possibly sign with Apple Corps.

''Pandemonium Shadow Show'' was followed in 1968 by ''Aerial Ballet'', an album that included Nilsson's rendition of Fred Neil's song "Everybody's Talkin'". A minor U.S. hit at the time of release (and a top 40 hit in Canada), the song would become extremely popular a year later when it was featured in the film ''Midnight Cowboy'', and it would earn Nilsson his first Grammy Award. The song would also become Nilsson's first U.S. top 10 hit, reaching #6, and his first Canadian #1.

''Aerial Ballet'' also contained Nilsson's version of his own composition, "One", which was later taken to the top 5 of the U.S. charts by Three Dog Night. Nilsson was also commissioned at this time to write and perform the theme song for the ABC television series ''The Courtship of Eddie's Father''. The result, "Best Friend", was very popular, but Nilsson never released the song on record; an alternative version, "Girlfriend", did appear on the 1995 ''Personal Best'' anthology. Late in 1968, The Monkees' notorious experimental film ''Head'' premiered, featuring a memorable song-and-dance sequence with Davy Jones and Toni Basil performing Nilsson's composition "Daddy's Song." (This is followed by Frank Zappa's cameo as "The Critic," who dismisses the 1920s-style tune as "pretty white.")

With the success of Nilsson's RCA recordings, Tower re-issued or re-packaged many of their early Nilsson recordings in various formats. All of these re-issues failed to chart, including a 1969 single "Good Times".

Chart success

Nilsson's next album, ''Harry'' (1969), was his first to hit the charts, and also provided a Top 40 single with "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City" (written as a contender for the theme to ''Midnight Cowboy''), used in the Sophia Loren movie ''La Mortadella'' (1971) (U.S. title: ''Lady Liberty''). While the album still presented Nilsson as primarily a songwriter, his astute choice of cover material included, this time, a song by a then-little-known composer named Randy Newman, "Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear." Nilsson was so impressed with Newman's talent that he devoted his entire next album to Newman compositions, with Newman himself playing piano behind Nilsson's multi-tracked vocals. The result, ''Nilsson Sings Newman'' (1970), was commercially disappointing but was named Record of the Year by ''Stereo Review'' magazine and provided momentum to Newman's career.

Nilsson's next project was an animated film, ''The Point!'', created with animation director Fred Wolf, and broadcast on ABC television on February 2, 1971, as an "ABC Movie of the Week". Nilsson's album of songs from ''The Point!'' was well received, and it spawned a hit single, "Me and My Arrow".

Later that year, Nilsson went to England with producer Richard Perry to record what became the most successful album of his career. ''Nilsson Schmilsson'' yielded three very stylistically different hit singles. The first was a cover of Badfinger's song "Without You" (by Pete Ham and Tom Evans), featuring a highly emotional arrangement and soaring vocals to match, a performance that was rewarded with Nilsson's second Grammy Award.

The second single was "Coconut", a novelty calypso number featuring three characters (the narrator, the sister, and the doctor) all sung in different voices by Nilsson. The song is best remembered for its chorus lyric, "Put de lime in de coconut, and drink 'em both up." Also notable is that the entire song is played using one chord, C 7th. "Coconut" was featured in Episode 81 (October 25, 1973) of The Flip Wilson Show. The song has since been featured in many other films and commercials. It was also used in a comedy skit on ''The Muppet Show'', which featured Kermit the Frog in a hospital bed. The song was also used during the end credits of Quentin Tarantino's ''Reservoir Dogs''. George Carlin also made reference to "Coconut" in the live recording of "Occupation: Foole" dated 1973, singing "Put de lime in de coconut, de lemon in de Tidy Bowl." It also featured in the FOX television series Bones, episode "The Hole in The Heart"; is said to be the favorite song of a character killed in the episode and is sung by the remaining characters as they load his coffin into a hearse for transport home to England.

The third single, "Jump into the Fire", was raucous, screaming rock and roll, including a drum solo by Derek and the Dominos' Jim Gordon and a bass detuning by Herbie Flowers. The song was used during the "Sunday, May 11, 1980", sequence in the 1990 film ''Goodfellas'' - and also in the 2006 film A Good Year.

Nilsson followed quickly with ''Son of Schmilsson'' (1972), released while its predecessor was still in the charts. Besides the problem of competing with himself, Nilsson's decision to give free rein to his bawdiness and bluntness on this release alienated some of his earlier, more conservative fan base. With lyrics like "I sang my balls off for you, baby", "Roll the world over / And give her a kiss and a feel", and the notorious "You're breaking my heart / You're tearing it apart / So fuck you"- a reference to his ongoing divorce, Nilsson had traveled far afield from his earlier work. Still, the album reached 12 in the US Hot 100 and the single "Spaceman" was a Top 40 hit. However, the follow-up single "Remember (Christmas)" stalled at #53. A third single, the tongue-in-cheek C&W; send up "Joy", was issued on RCA's country imprint Green and credited to Buck Earle, but it failed to chart.

Maverick

Nilsson's disregard for commercialism in favor of artistic satisfaction showed itself in his next release, ''A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night'' (1973). Performing a selection of pop standards by the likes of Berlin, Kalmar and Ruby, Nilsson sang in front of an orchestra arranged and conducted by veteran Gordon Jenkins in sessions produced by Derek Taylor. This musical endeavor did not do well commercially. The session was filmed, and broadcast as a television special by the BBC in the UK.

1973 found Nilsson back in California, and when John Lennon moved there during his separation from Yoko Ono, the two musicians rekindled their earlier friendship. Lennon was intent upon producing Nilsson's next album, much to Nilsson's delight. However, their time together in California became known much more for heavy drinking and drug use than it did for musical collaboration. In a widely publicized incident, they were ejected from the Troubadour nightclub in West Hollywood for drunken heckling of the Smothers Brothers. Both men also caused property damage during binges, with Lennon trashing a bedroom in Lou Adler's house, and Nilsson throwing a bottle through a thirty-foot-high hotel window.

To make matters worse, Nilsson ruptured a vocal cord during the sessions for this album, but he hid the injury due to fear that Lennon would call a halt to the production. The resulting album was ''Pussy Cats''. In an effort to clean up, Lennon, Nilsson and Ringo Starr first rented a house together, then Lennon and Nilsson left for New York.

After the relative failure of his latest two albums, RCA Records considered dropping Nilsson's contract. In a show of friendship, Lennon accompanied Nilsson to negotiations, and both intimated to RCA that Lennon and Starr might want to sign with them, once their Apple Records contracts with EMI expired in 1975, but would not be interested if Nilsson were no longer with the label. RCA took the hint and re-signed Nilsson (adding a bonus clause, to apply to each new album completed), but neither Lennon nor Starr signed with RCA.

Nilsson's voice had mostly recovered by his next release, ''Duit on Mon Dei'' (1975), but neither it nor its follow-ups, ''Sandman'' and ''...That's the Way It Is'' (both 1976) met with chart success. Finally, Nilsson recorded what he later considered to be his favorite album, 1977's ''Knnillssonn''. With his voice strong again, and his songs exploring musical territory reminiscent of ''Harry'' or ''The Point!'', Nilsson anticipated ''Knnillssonn'' to be a comeback album. RCA seemed to agree, and promised Nilsson a substantial marketing campaign for the album. However, the death of Elvis Presley caused RCA to ignore everything except meeting demand for Presley's back catalog, and the promised marketing push never happened. This, combined with RCA releasing a ''Nilsson Greatest Hits'' collection without consulting him, prompted Nilsson to leave the label.

London flat

Nilsson's 1970s London flat at Flat #12, 9 Curzon Street on the edge of Mayfair, was a two-bedroom apartment decorated by the design company that ex-Beatle Ringo Starr and Robin Cruikshank owned at that time. Nilsson cumulatively spent several years at the flat, which was located near Apple Records, the Playboy Club, Tramps disco and the homes of friends and business associates. Nilsson's work and interests took him to the U.S. for extended periods, and while he was away he lent his place to numerous musician friends. During one of his absences, ex-Mamas and Papas singer Cass Elliot and a few members of her tour group stayed at the flat while she performed solo at the London Palladium, headlining with her Torch Songs and "Don't Call Me Mama Anymore." Following a strenuous performance with encores, Elliot returned to the flat to relax and sleep and was discovered in one of the bedrooms, dead of heart failure, on July 29, 1974.

On September 7, 1978, The Who's drummer Keith Moon returned to the same room in the flat after a night out, and died from an overdose of Clomethiazole, a prescribed anti-alcohol drug. Nilsson, distraught over another friend's death in his flat, and having little need for the property, sold it to Moon's bandmate Pete Townshend and consolidated his life in Los Angeles.

Winding down

Nilsson's musical work after leaving RCA Victor was sporadic. He wrote a musical, ''Zapata'', with Perry Botkin, Jr., libretto by Allan Katz, which was produced and directed by longtime friend Bert Convy. The show was mounted at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut, but never had another production. He wrote all the songs for Robert Altman's movie-musical ''Popeye'' (1980), the score of which met with unfavorable reviews. Nilsson's ''Popeye'' compositions included several songs that were representative of Nilsson's acclaimed "Point" era, such as "Everything is Food" and "Sweethaven". The song "He Needs Me" featured years later in the film, Punch-Drunk Love. Nilsson recorded one more album, ''Flash Harry'', co-produced by Bruce Robb and Steve Cropper, which was released in the UK but not in the U.S. However, Nilsson increasingly began referring to himself as a "retired musician".

Nilsson was profoundly affected by the death of John Lennon on December 8, 1980. He joined the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and overcame his preference for privacy to make appearances for gun control fundraising. He began to appear at Beatlefest conventions and he would get on stage with the Beatlefest house band "Liverpool" to either sing some of his own songs or "Give Peace a Chance."

After a long hiatus from the studio, Nilsson started recording sporadically once again in the mid to late 1980s. Most of these recordings were commissioned songs for movies or television shows. One notable exception was his work on a Yoko Ono Lennon tribute album, ''Every Man Has A Woman'' (1984) (Polydor); another was a cover of "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" recorded for Hal Willner's 1988 tribute album ''Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films''. Nilsson donated his performance royalties from the song to the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.

In 1985 Nilsson set up a production company, Hawkeye, to oversee various film, TV and multimedia projects he was involved in. He appointed his friend, satirist and screenwriter Terry Southern, as one of the principals. They collaborated on a number of screenplays including ''Obits'' (a Citizen Kane-style story about a journalist investigating an obituary notice) and ''The Telephone'', a comedy about an unhinged unemployed actor.

''The Telephone'' was virtually the only Hawkeye project that made it to the screen. It had been written with Robin Williams in mind but he turned it down; comedian-actress Whoopi Goldberg then signed on, with Southern's friend Rip Torn directing, but the project was troubled. Torn battled with Goldberg, who interfered in the production and constantly digressed from the script during shooting, and Torn was forced to plead with her to perform takes that stuck to the screenplay. Torn, Southern and Nilsson put together their own version of the film, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival in early 1988, but it was overtaken by the "official" version from the studio, and this version premiered to poor reviews in late January 1988. The project reportedly had some later success when adapted as a theatre piece in Germany.

In 1990, Hawkeye foundered and Nilsson found himself in a dire financial situation after it was discovered that his financial adviser Cindy Sims had embezzled all the funds he had earned as a recording artist. The Nilssons were left with $300 in the bank and a mountain of debt, while Sims served less than two years and was released from prison in 1994 without making restitution.

In 1991, the Disney CD ''For Our Children'', a compilation of children's music performed by celebrities to benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, included Nilsson's original composition "Blanket for a Sail," recorded at the Shandaliza Recording Studio in Los Angeles.

Nilsson made his last concert appearance September 1, 1992, when he joined Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band on stage at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada to sing "Without You" with Todd Rundgren handling the high notes. Afterwards, an emotional Ringo Starr embraced Nilsson on stage.

Death

Nilsson suffered a massive heart attack in 1993. After surviving that, he began pressing his old label, RCA, to release a boxed-set retrospective of his career, and resumed recording, attempting to complete one final album. He finished the vocal tracks for the album with producer Mark Hudson, who still retains the tapes of that session.

On January 15, 1994, Nilsson died of heart failure in his Agoura Hills, California, home. According to his wife, they had been watching ''Enchanted April'', and the last thing he told her before she fell asleep was, "I love you so much."

In 1995, the 2-CD anthology he worked on with RCA, ''Personal Best'', was released.

Legacy

Nilsson is the subject of a 2006 documentary, ''Who is Harry Nilsson? (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)'' produced by David Leaf and John Schienfeld. The film was screened in 2006 at the Seattle International Film Festival and the Santa Barbara Film Festival. In August 2006, the film received its Los Angeles premiere when it was screened at the 7th Annual Mods & Rockers Film Festival followed by a panel discussion about Nilsson featuring the filmmakers and two friends of Nilsson, producer Richard Perry and attorney/executive producer Lee Blackman.

The filmmakers re-edited the film with found rare footage of Nilsson, further interviews, and family photographs, and finally released it on September 17, 2010 at selected theaters in the United States. A DVD, including additional footage not in the theatrical release, was released on October 26, 2010.

, Nilsson's final album, tentatively titled ''Papa's Got a Brown New Robe'' (produced by Mark Hudson) has not been released, though several demos from the album are available on promotional CDs and online.

The musical ''Everyday Rapture'' features three songs by Nilsson.

Nilsson was survived by his third wife, Una (née O'Keeffe), and their six children (Annie, Beau, Ben, Kief, Olivia, Oscar), his son Zachary Nine Nilsson from his marriage to Diane Clatworthy, and one grandson (Caleb). He was married to Sandy Maganiello (1964–1966), Diane Clatworthy (1969–1974) and Una O'Keeffe (1976–1994).

Awards and nominations

Nilsson won two Grammy Awards. He received several more Grammy nominations for the album ''Nilsson Schmilsson''.

The ''New York Post'' rated Nilsson's cover of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talking" #51 on their list of the 100 Best Cover Songs of All Time.

Discography

Tribute albums

''Nilsson by Tipton'' (1970, Warner Bros. Records), Although it may not be considered a tribute, it featured George Tipton conducting instrumental versions of 11 Nilsson songs.

''For The Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson'' (1995, MusicMasters/BMG), featured Nilsson's songs performed by Ringo Starr, Stevie Nicks, Richard Barone, Brian Wilson, Aimee Mann, Fred Schneider, and others, with proceeds benefitting the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.

''"Pussy Cats" Starring The Walkmen''. The whole of the ''Pussy Cats'' album covered by The Walkmen.

''I'll Never Leave You: A Tribute to Harry Nilsson'' (2005 Wood Records). A percentage of profits from sales of the CD went to benefit Amnesty International.

# Peter Dizozza: "Without Her" # Hilary Levitt: "Down" # Shank: "Jump Into the Fire" # OrimaR2 featuring NitWiT: "I'd Rather Be Dead" # The Neshama Alma Band: "Ambush" # Buzzsaw and the Shavings: "Best Friend" # Matt Kinnison: "Coconut" # LAM: "Driving Along" # Johnny J with Vorgus: "Spaceman" # Mary Jane: "Me And My Arrow" # MWF: "I'll Never Leave You" # Lolwolf: "Black Sails In The Moonlight" # Charles Fyant: "The Moonbeam Song" # Pinkie: "One" # Linda Draper and Brian Wurschum: "The Lottery Song" # David Spero Peligro: "It's a Jungle Out There" # an additional track by The Spaceheaters. "Doris, Buzz and Friends" by John Krane (2008 Cloverbelly Records). Although no Nilsson tracks were featured, the digital version of this album paid tribute to the famous Nilsson Schmilsson album cover, and the robe worn by Krane in the cover photograph actually belonged to Harry Nilsson.

Filmography

''Note: this section is for songs Nilsson recorded specifically for film and television projects, as well as his few acting roles. Later use of Nilsson recordings are listed in the next section.''

''Skidoo'' (1968) songs written and performed, soundtrack music composer, actor (bit role)

''The Ghost & Mrs. Muir'' (1969 TV Series) acted and sang—He appeared in the episode "The Music Maker", and his character name was Tim Seagirt. He sang "Without Her" and "If Only I Could Touch Your Hand."

''The Courtship of Eddie's Father'' (TV series, 1969–1972) theme song written and performed, incidental music

''Midnight Cowboy'' (1969) new version of "Everybody's Talkin'" performed

''Jenny'' (1970) song "Waiting" written and performed

''The Point!'' (1971) story, all songs written and performed

''Son of Dracula'' (1974) actor (lead role), all songs performed

''The World's Greatest Lover'' (1978) song "Ain't It Kinda Wonderful" performed

''In God We Tru$t'' (1980) new version of "Good For God" performed

''Popeye'' (1980) all songs written, except "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man"

''Handgun'' (1983) song "Lay Down Your Arms" written and performed

''First Impressions'', (TV series, 1988) theme song co-written, performed

''Camp Candy'' (TV series, animated, 1989–1991) theme song written, and performed with John Candy

''The Fisher King'' (1991) song "How About You" performed

''Me, Myself, and I'' (1992) song "Me, Myself and I" written and performed

In film and television

''The Monkees'' (1967, 2nd season) - "Cuddly Toy" (cover version by The Monkees)

''Head'' (1968) - "Daddy's Song" (cover version by The Monkees)

''The Ghost & Mrs. Muir (TV series)'' 1969 - "Without Her" and fragments of other songs

''Midnight Cowboy'' (1969) - "Everybody's Talkin'"

''Dusty and Sweets McGee'' (1971) - "Don't Leave Me"

''La Mortadella'' (1971) - "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City"

''The Muppet Show'' (1979, episode 410) - "Coconut"

''All That Jazz'' (1979) - "Perfect Day"

''Real Life'' (1979) - "Jump Into the Fire"

''Porridge'' (film version, 1979) - "Without You"

''Zärtliche Chaoten II'' (1988) - "Without You"

''Only Fools And Horses The Jolly Boys' Outing (1989) - "Everybody's Talkin'"

''Private School for Girls'' (1983) - "You're Breakin' My Heart"

''Goodfellas'' (1990) - "Jump Into the Fire"

''Reservoir Dogs'' (1992) - "Coconut"

''Caroline'' (animated short, 1993) - "Caroline"

''Forrest Gump'' (1994) - "Everybody's Talkin'"

''Duckman'' (1994 episode) - "Best Friend"

''Casino'' (1995) - "Without You"

''Seinfeld'' (1995 episode) - "Everybody's Talkin'"

''Beverly Hills, 90210'' (1995 episode) - "Remember"

''The Craft'' (1996) - "Jump Into The Fire"(covered by Tripping Daisy)

''Angel on My Shoulder'' (1997)

''Contact'' (1997) - "Spaceman"

''Ellen Foster'' (1997) - "Remember"

''The Ice Storm'' (1997) - "Coconut"

''Practical Magic'' (1998) - "Coconut"

''You've Got Mail'' (1998) - "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City", "Remember", "The Puppy Song", "Over The Rainbow"

''Dick'' (1999) - "Coconut"

''Futurama - Brannigan Begin Again'' (1999) - "Everybody's Talkin"

''Magnolia'' (1999) - "One" (Aimee Mann's cover version opens with a sample from Cuddly Toy)

''High Fidelity'' (2000) - "The Moonbeam Song"

''Bridget Jones' Diary'' (2001) - "Without You"

''Riding in Cars with Boys'' (2001) - "Everything's Got 'Em", "Me And My Arrow"

''Black Books'' - "Everybody's Talkin'"

''Punch-Drunk Love'' (2002) - "He Needs Me" (Shelley Duvall's version from ''Popeye'')

''The Rules of Attraction'' (2002) - "Without You"

''Shanghai Knights'' (2003) - "One"

''Good Boy!'' (2003) - "The Puppy Song"

''Daddy Day Care'' (2003) - Jeff Garlin entertains the kids with "Coconut"

''That '70s Show'' (2004) - "Best Friend"

''Around the Bend'' (2004) - "Daddy's Song"

''The Girl Next Door'' (2004) - "Jump Into the Fire"

''House'' (2004) - "One"

''Max & Paddy's Road To Nowhere'' (UK) (2004, Series 1, episode 2) - "Everybody's Talkin'"

''Coke with Lime Ad'' (2005) - altered version of "Coconut"

''Breakfast on Pluto'' (2005) - "Me And My Arrow", "You're Breakin' My Heart", "The Moonbeam Song"

''Beyond Our Control'' (1967–1986) - "Remember" Closing theme for the series

''Little Man'' (2006) - "Best Friend"

''Crank'' (2006) - "Everybody's Talkin'"

''Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan'' (2006) - "Everybody's Talkin'"

''Rob & Big'' (2006) - "Best Friend"

''American Dad'' (2006 episode 2.08) - "Everybody's Talkin'"

''A Good Year'' (2007) - "How Can I Be Sure Of You" "Jump Into The Fire", "Gotta Get Up"

''Unison TV Advert'' (2007) - "One"

''DigitalUK TV Advert'' (2007) - "Everybody's Talkin'"

''My Name is Earl'' (2008 episode) - "Me And My Arrow"

''Life on Mars'' (2008 episode) - "Spaceman"

''Confessions Of A Shopaholic'' (2009) - "Don't Forget Me" (covered by Macy Gray)

''44 Inch Chest'' (2009) - "Without You"

''You Don't Know Jack (film)'' (2010) - "Early in the Morning"

''Bones (TV series)'', 2011) = "Coconut"

''Red Dog (film)'', 2011) = "Jump Into The Fire"

References

External links

For The Love Of Harry (rare recordings, articles, videos, photos)

The Harry Nilsson Web Pages: A Little Touch of Schmilsson on the Net

RareHarry: Email discussion group covering rare Harry Nilsson audio and video recordings

Harry Nilsson Discography/Bibliography

Podcast featuring Harry Nilsson

"One Last Touch of Nilsson" by Dawn Eden (''Goldmine'' magazine, April 29, 1994)

Bruce Robb (producer)

Category:1941 births Category:1994 deaths Category:American male singers Category:American pianists Category:American rock guitarists Category:Songwriters from New York Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:Disease-related deaths in California Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Musicians from New York City Category:People from Brooklyn Category:American musicians of Swedish descent

ca:Harry Nilsson de:Harry Nilsson es:Harry Nilsson fa:هری نیلسون fr:Harry Nilsson it:Harry Nilsson he:הארי נילסון nl:Harry Nilsson ja:ハリー・ニルソン no:Harry Nilsson nn:Harry Nilsson pl:Harry Nilsson pt:Harry Nilsson ro:Harry Nilsson ru:Нилссон, Гарри simple:Harry Nilsson fi:Harry Nilsson sv:Harry Nilsson uk:Гаррі Нілссон

name	Gary Speed
fullname	Gary Andrew Speed
dateofbirth	September 08, 1969
dateofdeath	November 27, 2011
cityofbirth	Mancot
countryofbirth	Wales
cityofdeath	Huntington
countryofdeath	England
height
position	Midfielder
youthyears1	?–1988
youthclubs1	Leeds United
years1	1988–1996
years2	1996–1998
years3	1998–2004
years4	2004–2008
years5	2008–2010
clubs1	Leeds United
clubs2	Everton
clubs3	Newcastle United
clubs4	Bolton Wanderers
clubs5	Sheffield United
caps1	248
caps2	58
caps3	213
caps4	121
caps5	37
goals1	39
goals2	15
goals3	29
goals4	14
goals5	6
totalcaps	677
totalgoals	103
nationalyears2	1990–2004
nationalteam1	Wales U21
nationalteam2	Wales
nationalcaps1	3
nationalcaps2	85
nationalgoals1	0
nationalgoals2	7
manageryears1	2010
managerclubs1	Sheffield United
manageryears2	2010–2011
managerclubs2	Wales }}

Gary Andrew Speed, MBE (8 September 1969 – 27 November 2011) was a Welsh football player and manager. He was captain of the Wales national football team until he retired from international football in 2004 and he remains the most capped outfield player for Wales and the second overall, having appeared 85 times at senior level between 1990 and 2004.

Speed played professionally for Leeds United, Everton, Newcastle United, Bolton Wanderers and Sheffield United. Rarely troubled by injury or suspension, he held the record for the most appearances in the FA Premier League at 535, until it was surpassed by David James.

Speed was appointed manager of Sheffield United in 2010, but he left the club after a few months in December 2010 to manage the Wales national football team.

Speed's death was announced by the Football Association of Wales on 27 November 2011. Throughout the day many tributes came out for him from various figures in football as well as many national figures in Wales and the rest of the United Kingdom.

Personal life

Born in Mancot, Wales, Speed attended Hawarden High School as a child. He supported Everton as a youngster. Speed was married to Louise from 1996 until his death. The couple had two children, Tommy and Eddie. Speed was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours.

Playing style and reputation

Speed was a versatile player who could play in left midfield, central midfield, and also at left-back. He possessed great tactical awareness, and could both create and score goals. Regularly a captain, he was said by his teammates to to have been an 'inspirational figure' who led by example and demanded the best from those around him.

He was well known as a 'consummate professional' both on and off the field. He was not blessed with exceptional talent at a young age, but instead developed his technique through many hours of hard work on the training field. He had a reputation as an extremely fit footballer who looked after his body. He had a modern approach to diet and fitness, a rare quality amongst players of his generation. His level of fitness allowed him to avoid injury and to continue playing until the age of 39; he rarely missed a game.

He also had a reputation as a friendly and supportive person, who cared for and took an interest in the lives of the people around him; his 'nice guy' persona made him a popular and well respected figure amongst his peers.

Club career

Leeds United

Speed began his career with Leeds United as a trainee, signing a professional contract on 13 June 1988. He made his first team debut when he was aged 19. He went on to play a key role as they won the Football League First Division championship title in 1992 as part of a midfield that also comprised Gordon Strachan, Gary McAllister and David Batty. Speed featured in the 1996 Football League Cup Final defeat by Aston Villa.

Everton

Speed moved to Everton in 1996, for a fee of £3.5 million. He scored on his debut versus Newcastle United on 17 August 1996. He was installed as captain of the club by then manager Howard Kendall prior to the 1997–98 FA Premier League season.

He left the club in controversial circumstances and the reasons were never revealed. He told the ''Liverpool Echo'': "You know why I’m leaving, but I can’t explain myself publicly because it would damage the good name of Everton Football Club and I’m not prepared to do that."

Newcastle United

Speed was club captain at Everton, but moved to Newcastle United in 1998 for a fee of £5.5 million, in controversial circumstances. Speed featured in the club's FA Cup Final defeats by Arsenal in 1998 and by Manchester United in 1999. He also played in the UEFA Champions League with Newcastle in the 2002–03 season.

Newcastle's manager, Sir Bobby Robson, was sorry to see Speed leave the club, and acknowledged that he would do very well for Bolton Wanderers.

Bolton Wanderers

Speed moved to Bolton Wanderers on a two-year deal in a £750,000 switch from Newcastle United in July 2004. He became the first player to make 500 Premier League appearances when he played in Bolton's 4–0 victory over West Ham United in December 2006.

On 1 May 2007, Speed was named as the first team coach for Bolton after Sam Allardyce stepped down from his job as manager. However, in October he left the coaching job and returned to being just a player with the club. Conflicting reports of the incident claimed then manager Sammy Lee relieved him of his duties to concentrate on playing but Speed, in an interview with the Bolton News, claimed he chose to step down.

Speed scored a header for Bolton against Reading on 25 August 2007, making him, at the time, the only player to have scored in every Premiership season to date. Ryan Giggs later matched this achievement on 20 October 2007, and passed it on 8 February 2009. It had been reported in December 2007 that Speed was a target for Derby County, but it was confirmed on 24 December 2007 that he would join Sheffield United on loan on 1 January 2008, with a view to a permanent move for a fee of about £250,000.

Sheffield United

Speed made his first team debut on the day of his transfer – being named in the starting eleven for a 0–0 away draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers on New Year's Day 2008. He played regularly for the rest of the season and deputised as captain when Chris Morgan was unavailable. Having seen his penalty parried Speed netted the rebound to score his first goal for the Blades in a victory over Coventry in March of that year. He went on to finish the season on three goals for the Blades, scoring both goals in a 2–1 home victory over Bristol City in the penultimate game of the 2007–08 season. In an interview with BBC Wales on 10 May 2008, Speed hinted that the 2008–09 season may be his last playing before moving into coaching or management but stated that he had not yet made up his mind.

Speed started the next season as a regular fixture in the Blades midfield but succumbed to a back injury in November. Despite undergoing surgery to correct the problem he failed to regain his fitness and missed the rest of the season, concentrating instead on a coaching role at the club. In June 2009, he was approached by Swansea City with regards to taking on the managerial role left vacant by Roberto Martinez.

At the end of October 2009, Speed stated that "'I'm 40, I haven't played for a year and you can take what you want from that. I'm not missing playing because I'm enjoying the other side so much", although he revealed he was still in training, in preparation for running the 2010 London Marathon in aid of the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, the cancer charity founded by Speed's former Newcastle manager, who had died on 31 July 2009 after a long battle against the illness.

Speed finally announced his retirement from playing in his 41st year, but agreed to remain at Sheffield United for at least one more season as a coach. Despite this he was again registered as a player and was named on the bench for the first round League Cup game against Hartlepool United at the outset of the following season.

International career

Speed was capped by Wales at youth and under-21 levels, earning three caps for the latter. He had been capped for Wales 85 times, second in the all-time list only to Neville Southall and is currently ranked sixth by members of the general public in the Best Welsh Football Players list. He retired from international football in 2004 after the side's 3–2 defeat to Poland in a 2006 World Cup qualifier. His first appearance for the national side had come on 20 May 1990 in a 1–0 friendly win against Costa Rica at Ninian Park.

After his retirement from international football, he was recommended by both the former manager Mark Hughes and fellow Welsh midfielder Robbie Savage as a future Welsh national team manager.

Managerial career

With the 2010–11 season only three games old Sheffield United manager Kevin Blackwell was sacked with Speed being confirmed as the club's new manager on a three year contract a few days later. On 21 October 2010, Speed was given a one game touchline ban and a £2,000 fine by the Football Association for his unsupportive behaviour at the home fixture against Watford on 2 October 2010. On 11 December 2010, Speed was linked with the vacant Wales manager job. Sheffield United confirmed that they had given Speed permission to talk to the Football Association of Wales over the vacant position. He was confirmed as the new Welsh national team manager on 14 December 2010, succeeding John Toshack who stepped down in September 2010, Sheffield United released him from his contract after compensation was paid by the FAW.

Speed's first game as Wales manager was 8 February 2011 against the Republic of Ireland in the inaugural Nations Cup, which Ireland won 3–0. Speed's first competitive match was the Euro 2012 qualifier at home to England which Wales lost 2–0. In August 2011 Wales attained their lowest ever FIFA ranking of 117th. This was followed by a 2–1 home win against Montenegro, a 1–0 away loss to England, a 2–0 home win against Switzerlandand a 1–0 away win against Bulgaria. Consequently in October 2011, Wales were ranked 45th in the world by FIFA. Speed's last game as manager of Wales was on 12 November 2011, a 4–1 win against Norway.

Death

On 27 November 2011, the Football Association of Wales announced that Speed had died. ''The Telegraph'' and ''ITN'' reported that Speed had died of suicide by hanging at his home in Huntington, Cheshire. Cheshire Constabulary announced that they were not treating Speed's death as suspicious. Friends reported their shock at the news; Speed had appeared as a guest on BBC One's ''Football Focus'' only hours before his death.

Tributes

On the day of Speed's death football was said to have "united in grief and to pay tribute to him". The news was first announced by the Football Association of Wales and they extended their sympathies and condolences to Speed's family. Throughout the day similar messages were released from many people within football as well as national figures in Wales and the rest of the United Kingdom. Prime Minister David Cameron and Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband both released messages conveying their sadness at Speed's death as well as their condolences to his family. First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones released a similar message, as did Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan and Welsh Conservative Party leader Andrew RT Davies. A huge number of tributes from across football came in throughout the day for Speed. Close friends and former team-mates such as Robbie Savage, Ryan Giggs, Simon Grayson, Alan Shearer and John Hartson all expressed their deep sorrow at his death.

The match between Aston Villa and Swansea City, held only hours after Speed's death was announced, was dedicated to his memory. A minutes silence was to be held before the match. However, the fans applauded instead and sang Speed's name. Several players who played in the match had been severely affected by the news. Four Welsh internationals played in the match; Ashley Williams, Neil Taylor and Joe Allen, of Swansea, all played under Speed for Wales and Allen in particular was said to be struggling with the news. James Collins was the other Welsh international and he had also played with Speed at international level. Collins' Villa team mates Shay Given and Jermaine Jenas had both played with Speed at Newcastle United and both were very badly affected by the news. Given openly wept during and after the minutes applause. Both managers, Alex McLeish and Brendan Rodgers paid tribute to Speed. Rodgers, who had spoken to Speed a lot since he had become Wales manager, said that the game had lost a legend while Neil Taylor said that he hoped Wales could qualify for the 2014 World Cup to honour him.

Along with this match, several others saw tributes toward Speed. The only other Premier League match played that day was between Liverpool and Manchester City. Craig Bellamy was withdrawn from Liverpool's squad by Kenny Dalglish as he was too affected by news of his former teammate, at club as well as country, to play. Dalglish himself had managed Speed and expressed his sadness at the news. Saying that he thought Speed was a great footballer but also a great person. Another of Speed's former team mates, Hugo Viana paid tribute to him. The Portugese international was another who had played alongside Speed at Newcastle. After his team, Braga, had lost 3–2 to Porto Viana displayed a shirt reading "Gary Rest in Peace"

Internationally, FIFA President Joseph Blatter paid tribute to Gary Speed as "a model professional and a fantastic ambassador for the game". Both the FIFA and Welsh flags at FIFA's headquarters were at half mast as a mark of respect.

Honours

Club

;Leeds United

Football League First Division champions: 1991–92

FA Charity Shield winners: 1992

League Cup finalists: 1996

Football League Second Division champions: 1989–90

;Newcastle United

FA Cup finalists: 1998, 1999

UEFA Intertoto Cup finalists: 2001

Premier League Asia Trophy finalists: 2003

;Bolton Wanderers

League Cup finalists: 2004

Premier League Asia Trophy winners: 2005

Individual

PFA Team of the Year: 1993

Premier League 10 Seasons Awards (1992–93 to 2001–02): Most Appearances (352)

International goals

Stadionul Republican 6 September 1995 29 March 1997 2 September 2000 20 November 2002 29 March 2003 4 September 2004

# !! Date !! Venue !! Opponent !! Result !! Competition !! Scored
1	12 October 1994	Republican Stadium, Chisinau ||		2–3	UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying>1996 European Cup qualification	1
2	|	Cardiff Arms Park>National Stadium, Cardiff		1–0	UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying>1996 European Cup qualification	1
3	|	Cardiff Arms Park>National Stadium, Cardiff		1–2	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification>1998 World Cup qualification	1
4	|	Dynama Stadium (Minsk)>Dynama Stadium, Minsk		2–1	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification>2002 World Cup qualification	1
5	|	Tofig Bahramov Stadium, Baku		2–0	UEFA Euro 2004 qualification>2004 European Cup qualification	1
6	|	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff		4–0	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification>2006 World Cup qualification	1
7	|	Tofig Bahramov Stadium, Baku		1–1	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification>2006 World Cup qualification	1

Career statistics

Playing statistics

{|border=1 cellpadding=6 cellspacing=2 style="background: ivory; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; clear:center" |+ Club performance |- !rowspan="2"|Club !rowspan="2"|Division !rowspan="2"|Season(s) !colspan="2"|League !colspan="2"|FA Cup !colspan="2"|League Cup !colspan="2"|Other !colspan="2"|Total |- !Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals |- |rowspan="1" align=center valign=top|Leeds United |First Division / Premier League |1988–89 to 1995–96 |align="center"|248 |align="center"|39 |align="center"|21 |align="center"|5 |align="center"|26 |align="center"|11 |align="center"|17 |align="center"|2 |align="center"|312 |align="center"|57 |- |rowspan="1" align=center valign=top|Everton |Premier League |1996–97 to 1997–98 |align="center"|58 |align="center"|15 |align="center"|2 |align="center"|1 |align="center"|5 |align="center"|1 |align="center"|0 |align="center"|0 |align="center"|65 |align="center"|17 |- |rowspan="1" align=center valign=top|Newcastle United |Premier League |1997–98 to 2003–04 |align="center"|213 |align="center"|29 |align="center"|22 |align="center"|5 |align="center"|11 |align="center"|1 |align="center"|38 |align="center"|5 |align="center"|284 |align="center"|40 |- |rowspan="1" align=center valign=top|Bolton Wanderers |Premier League |2004–05 to 2007–08 |align="center"|121 |align="center"|14 |align="center"|6 |align="center"|0 |align="center"|4 |align="center"|0 |align="center"|8 |align="center"|0 |align="center"|139 |align="center"|14 |- |rowspan="1" align=center valign=top|Sheffield United |Championship |2007–08 to 2009–10 |align="center"|37 |align="center"|6 |align="center"|2 |align="center"|0 |align="center"|1 |align="center"|0 |align="center"|0 |align="center"|0 |align="center"|40 |align="center"|6 |- |colspan=3|Career totals |align="center"|677 |align="center"|103 |align="center"|53 |align="center"|11 |align="center"|47 |align="center"|13 |align="center"|63 |align="center"|7 |align="center"|840 |align="center"|134 |- |}

Managerial statistics

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
!G!!W!!D!!L!!GF!!GA!!GD!!Win %
align=left
align=left
Total

References

External links

International career details

Newcastle United career details

Category:1969 births Category:People from Flintshire Category:2011 deaths Category:Suicides by hanging in England Category:Association football players who committed suicide Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire Category:Welsh footballers Category:Wales youth international footballers Category:Wales under-21 international footballers Category:Wales international footballers Category:Association football midfielders Category:Association football utility players Category:Leeds United A.F.C. players Category:Everton F.C. players Category:Newcastle United F.C. players Category:Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Category:Bolton Wanderers F.C. non-playing staff Category:Sheffield United F.C. players Category:Premier League players Category:The Football League players Category:Welsh football managers Category:Sheffield United F.C. managers Category:Wales national football team managers Category:The Football League managers

ar:غاري سبيد bg:Гари Спийд cy:Gary Speed da:Gary Speed de:Gary Speed et:Gary Speed es:Gary Speed fr:Gary Speed ga:Gary Speed gd:Gary Speed gl:Gary Speed it:Gary Speed he:גארי ספיד lv:Garijs Spīds hu:Gary Speed ms:Gary Speed nl:Gary Speed ja:ガリー・スピード no:Gary Speed pl:Gary Speed pt:Gary Speed ru:Спид, Гэри fi:Gary Speed sv:Gary Speed vi:Gary Speed zh:加里·斯皮德

Name	Jimi Hendrix
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Johnny Allen Hendrix, renamed James Marshall Hendrix
Born	November 27, 1942Seattle, Washington, US
Died	September 18, 1970Kensington, London, England
Instrument	Guitar, vocals, bass, keyboards, percussion, flute
Genre	Psychedelic rock, hard rock, blues rock, acid rock, funk rock
Occupation	Singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer, recording studio owner
Years active	1963–1970
Label	RSVP, Track, Barclay, Polydor, Repsrise, Capitol, MCA
Associated acts	Little Richard, The Isley Brothers, The Blue Flames, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Gypsy Sun and Rainbows, Band of Gypsys, Curtis Knight
Website	www.jimihendrix.com
Notable instruments	Fender StratocasterGibson Flying VGibson SG }}

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter. He is widely considered to be the greatest guitarist in musical history, and one of the most influential musicians of his era across a range of genres.

After initial success in Europe with his group The Jimi Hendrix Experience, he achieved fame in the United States following his 1967 performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. Later, Hendrix headlined the iconic 1969 Woodstock Festival and the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. He often favored raw overdriven amplifiers with high gain and treble and helped develop the previously undesirable technique of guitar amplifier feedback.

Hendrix, as well as his friend Eric Clapton, popularized use of the wah-wah pedal in mainstream rock which he often used to deliver an exaggerated sense of pitch in his solos, particularly with high bends, complex guitar playing, and use of legato. As a record producer, Hendrix also broke new ground in using the recording studio as an extension of his musical ideas. He was one of the first to experiment with stereophonic phasing effects for rock recording.

Hendrix was influenced by blues artists such as B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Albert King and Elmore James, rhythm and blues and soul guitarists Curtis Mayfield and Steve Cropper, and the jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery. Hendrix (who was then known as 'Maurice James') began dressing and wearing a moustache like Little Richard when he performed and recorded in his band from March 1, 1964 through to the spring of 1965. In 1966, Hendrix stated, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice".

Hendrix won many of the most prestigious rock music awards in his lifetime, and has been posthumously awarded many more, including being inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. An English Heritage blue plaque was erected in his name on his former residence at Brook Street, London, in September 1997. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 6627 Hollywood Blvd.) was dedicated in 1994. In 2006, his debut US album, ''Are You Experienced'', was inducted into the United States National Recording Registry, and ''Rolling Stone'' named Hendrix the top guitarist on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all-time in 2003.

Biography

Early life

Born Johnny Allen Hendrix on November 27, 1942, in Seattle, Washington, the first of five children to James Allen "Al" Hendrix (10 June 1919, Vancouver, British Columbia – 17 April 2002, Renton, Washington) and Lucille Jeter (12 October 1925, Seattle, Washington – 2 February 1958, Renton, Washington).

Hendrix's ancestry was mostly African American, although he was part Cherokee, his paternal great-great grandmother being a full-blooded Cherokee from Georgia. His parents met at a dance in Seattle in 1941 when Lucille Jeter was 16. When she married Al Hendrix the next year, on March 13, 1942, she was pregnant. Since Al had been drafted into the United States Army due to World War II, he was shipped out three days later. Al Hendrix completed his basic training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, but was stationed in Alabama when his son was born. Because the commanding officer believed that he would go AWOL to Seattle in order to visit his new son, he was locked up in the stockade as a preventative measure, where he remained to receive the telegram informing him of his son's birth. The baby that would grow up to become the guitarist Jimi Hendrix was born to a father who had six fingers on each hand. Al Hendrix spent the war in the South Pacific Theater mostly in Fiji. During the three years that he was away, Lucille struggled with raising her infant son who was neglected in favor of the nightlife scene. Thus Hendrix was mostly cared for by family members and others during this period.

His father received an honorable discharge from the U.S. Army on September 1, 1945, and retrieved his son from a woman who was caring for him in Berkeley. Al legally changed his son’s name to James Marshall Hendrix in memory of his late brother, Leon Marshall Hendrix. He was known as "Buster" to friends and family, from birth. After his return, Al reunited with Lucille. He found it difficult to gain steady employment after the Second World War, and the family was impoverished. Like Lucille, Al also struggled with alcohol and the couple had frequent fights. At one point a pimp named John Page who had a history with Lucille even tried to commandeer her out of a movie theater while she was with Al. Al objected and a fight ensued, spilling out into the street. Al had been an amateur boxer and stunned the pimp with a first punch, eventually winning the brawl and they never saw the pimp again.

During the early years of Hendrix’s life, the turmoil caused by his parent's fighting would sometimes cause him to withdraw and hide in a closet in their home. They moved often, staying in cheap hotels and apartments around Seattle. Throughout his childhood Hendrix would periodically be dropped off to be cared for by relatives. This all left an imprint on him as a small child which would remain with him the rest of his life. In addition to the instability of his home life, Hendrix in later years confided to two different girlfriends that as a youth he had been sexually assaulted by a man, although he never elaborated. In one instance while he was living in Harlem, Hendrix broke down crying as his girlfriend related the sexual abuse she had suffered as a child, telling her that the same thing had happened to him.

Hendrix had two brothers, Leon and Joseph, and two sisters, Kathy and Pamela. Joseph was born with physical difficulties and was placed in foster care at age three. His two sisters were also both placed in foster care at a young age. Kathy was born blind and Pamela suffered lesser physical difficulties.

On December 17, 1951, when Hendrix was nine years old, his parents divorced. His mother developed cirrhosis of the liver and died on February 2, 1958, when the state of her liver caused her spleen to rupture. On occasion, he was placed in the care of his paternal grandmother in Vancouver, British Columbia because of the unstable household, and his brother Leon was placed in foster care temporarily. Hendrix was a shy and sensitive boy, deeply affected by the poverty and family disruption he experienced at a young age. Unusual for his era, Hendrix's high school had a relatively even ethnic mix of African, European, and Asian Americans.

First guitar

At age 15, around the time his mother died, he acquired his first acoustic guitar for US$5 from an acquaintance of his father. This guitar replaced both the broomstick he had been strumming in imitation, and a ukulele which his father had found while cleaning a garage. Hendrix learned to play by practicing for several hours a day, watching others play, getting tips from more experienced players, and listening to records. In mid-1959, his father bought Hendrix a white Supro Ozark, his first electric guitar, but there was no available amplifier. According to fellow Seattle bandmates, he learned most of his acrobatic stage moves, a major part of the blues/R&B; tradition, including playing with his teeth and behind his back, from a fellow young musician, Raleigh "Butch" Snipes, guitarist with local band The Sharps. Hendrix himself performed Chuck Berry's trademark "duck walk" on occasion. Hendrix played in a couple of local bands, occasionally playing outlying gigs in Washington State and at least once over the border in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Hendrix was particularly fond of Elvis Presley, whom he saw perform in Seattle, in 1957. Leon Hendrix claimed in an early interview that Little Richard appeared in his Central District neighborhood and shook hands with his brother, Jimi. This is unattested elsewhere and vehemently denied by his father. He also claimed that Richard was visiting his mother there at the time, when Richard's mother actually lived in Los Angeles. Hendrix's early exposure to blues music came from listening to records by Muddy Waters and B.B. King which his father owned. Another early impression came from the 1954 western ''Johnny Guitar'', in which the hero carries no gun but instead wears a guitar slung behind his back.

Hendrix's first gig was with an unnamed band in the basement of a synagogue, Seattle's Temple De Hirsch. After too much wild playing and showing off, he was fired between sets. The first formal band he played in was The Velvetones, who performed regularly at the Yesler Terrace Neighborhood House without pay. He later joined the Rocking Kings, who played professionally at such venues as the Birdland. When his guitar was stolen (after he left it backstage overnight), Al bought him a white Silvertone Danelectro. He painted it red and had "Betty Jean" emblazoned on it—the name of his high school girlfriend.

Hendrix completed junior high at Washington Junior High School with little trouble but did not graduate from Garfield High School. Later he was awarded an honorary diploma, and in the 1990s a bust of him was placed in the school library. After he became famous in the late 1960s, Hendrix told reporters that he had been expelled from Garfield by racist faculty for holding hands with a white girlfriend in study hall. Principal Frank Hanawalt says that it was simply due to poor grades and attendance problems.

In the Army

Hendrix got into trouble with the law twice for riding in stolen cars. He was given a choice between spending two years in prison or joining the Army. Hendrix chose the latter and enlisted on May 31, 1961. After completing basic training, he was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division and stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. His commanding officers and fellow soldiers considered him to be a subpar soldier: he slept while on duty, had little regard for regulations, required constant supervision, and showed no skill as a marksman. For these reasons, his commanding officers submitted a request that Hendrix be discharged from the military after he had served only one year. Hendrix did not object when the opportunity to leave arose. He would later tell reporters that he received a medical discharge after breaking his ankle during his 26th parachute jump. The rock music journalist Charles Cross contended in his biography of Hendrix, ''Room Full of Mirrors'' (2005) that Hendrix feigned being homosexual—claiming to have fallen in love with a fellow soldier—in order to be discharged, but did not produce credible evidence to support this contention.

At the base recreation center, Hendrix met fellow soldier and bass player Billy Cox, and the two forged a loyal friendship that Hendrix would call upon from April 1969 until Billy's breakdown shortly before Hendrix's death. The two would often perform with other musicians at venues both on and off the base as a loosely organized band there named the Casuals. As a celebrity in the UK, Hendrix mentioned his military service in three published interviews; one in 1967 for the film ''See My Music Talking'' (much later released under the title ''Experience''), which was intended for TV to promote his recently released ''Axis: Bold as Love'' LP, in which he spoke very briefly of his first parachuting experience: "...once you get out there everything is so quiet, all you hear is the breezes-s-s-s..." This comment has later been used to claim that he was saying that this was one of the sources of his "spacy" guitar sound. The second and third mentions of his military experience were in interviews for ''Melody Maker'' in 1967 and 1969, where he spoke of his dislike of the army. In interviews in the US, Hendrix almost never mentioned it, and when Dick Cavett brought it up in his TV interview, Hendrix's only response was to verify that he had been based at Fort Campbell.

Early career

After his Army discharge, Hendrix and Army friend Billy Cox moved to nearby Clarksville, Tennessee and undertook in earnest to earn a living with their existing band. Hendrix had already seen Butch Snipes play with his teeth in Seattle and now Alphonso 'Baby Boo' Young the other guitarist in the band, was featuring this gimmick. Not to be upstaged, it was then that Hendrix learned to play with his teeth properly, according to Hendrix himself: "... the idea of doing that came to me in a town in Tennessee. Down there you have to play with your teeth or else you get shot. There’s a trail of broken teeth all over the stage..." They played mainly in low-paying gigs at obscure venues. The band eventually moved to Nashville's Jefferson Street, the traditional heart of Nashville's black community and home to a lively rhythm and blues scene. After they moved to Nashville, upon learning there was already an established band by the name "The Casuals", they amended their name to the "King Kasuals". While in Nashville, according to Cox and Larry Lee—who replaced Alphonso Young on guitar—they were basically the house band at Club del Morocco. Hendrix and Cox shared a flat above Joyce's House of Glamor. Hendrix's girlfriend at this time was Joyce Lucas. Bill 'Hoss' Allen's memory of Hendrix's supposed participation in a session with Billy Cox in November 1962, in which he cut Hendrix's contribution due to his over-the-top playing, has now been called into question; a suggestion has been made that he may have confused this with a later 1965 session by Frank Howard and the Commanders in which Hendrix participated.

In December 1962, Hendrix visited his relatives in Vancouver, Canada, where as a child he had sometimes lived with his grandmother. It has been claimed that while there, he performed with future members of the Motown band Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, including Tommy Chong (of later Cheech & Chong fame). Chong, however, disputes this ever happened and that any such appearance is a product of Taylor's "imagination". In early 1963, Hendrix returned to the South. For the next two years, Hendrix made a living performing on a circuit of venues throughout the South catering to black audiences. These were venues affiliated with the Theater Owners' Booking Association (TOBA), sarcastically known as "Tough on Black Asses" because the audiences were very demanding. The TOBA circuit was also widely known as the Chitlin' Circuit. In addition to performing in his own band, Hendrix performed with Bob Fisher and the Bonnevilles, and in backing bands for various soul, R&B;, and blues musicians, including Chuck Jackson, Slim Harpo, Tommy Tucker, Sam Cooke, and Jackie Wilson. The Chitlin' Circuit was where Hendrix refined his style.

Feeling he had artistically outgrown the circuit and frustrated at following the rules of bandleaders, Hendrix decided to try his luck in New York City and in January 1964 moved into the Hotel Theresa in Harlem, where he soon befriended Lithofayne Pridgeon (known as "Faye", who became his girlfriend) and the Allen twins, Arthur and Albert (now known as Taharqa and Tunde-Ra Aleem). The Allen twins became friends and kept Hendrix out of trouble in New York. The twins also performed as backup singers (under the name Ghetto Fighters) on some of his recordings, most notably the song "Freedom". Pridgeon, a Harlem native with connections throughout the area's music scene, provided Hendrix with shelter, support, and encouragement. In February 1964, Hendrix won first prize in the Apollo Theater amateur contest. Hoping to land a gig, Hendrix made the club circuit and sat in with various bands. Eventually, Hendrix was offered the guitarist position with The Isley Brothers' back-up band and he readily accepted.

First recordings

Hendrix' first studio recording occurred in March 1964, when the Isley Brothers, with Hendrix as a member of the band, recorded the two-part single "Testify". Hendrix then went on tour with the Isley Brothers. "Testify" was released in June 1964, but did not make an impact on the charts. After touring as a member of the Isley Brothers until mid-late 1964, Hendrix grew dissatisfied and left the band in Nashville. There, he found work with the tour's MC "Gorgeous" George Odell.

On March 1, 1964, Hendrix (then calling himself Maurice James) began recording and performing with Little Richard. Hendrix would later (1966) say, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice". During a stop in Los Angeles while touring with Little Richard in 1965, Hendrix played a session for Rosa Lee Brooks on her single "My Diary". This was his first recorded involvement with Arthur Lee of the band Love. While in L.A., he also played on the session for Little Richard's final single for Vee-Jay, "I Don't Know What You've Got, But It's Got Me". He later made his first recorded TV appearance on Nashville's Channel 5 ''Night Train'' with "The Royal Company" backing up "Buddy and Stacy" on "Shotgun". Hendrix clashed with Richard, over tardiness, wardrobe, and, above all, Hendrix's stage antics. He then rejoined the Isley Brothers in the summer of 1965 and recorded a second single with them, "Move Over and Let Me Dance" backed with "Have You Ever Been Disappointed" (1965 Atlantic 45-2303).

Later in 1965, Hendrix joined a New York–based R&B; band, Curtis Knight and the Squires, after meeting Knight in the lobby of the Hotel America, off Times Square, where both men were living at the time. He performed on and off with them for eight months. In October 1965, Hendrix recorded a single with Curtis Knight, "How Would You Feel" backed with "Welcome Home" (1966 RSVP 1120) and on October 15 he signed a three-year recording contract with entrepreneur Ed Chalpin, receiving 1% royalty. While the relationship with Chalpin was short-lived, his contract remained in force, which caused considerable problems for Hendrix later on in his career. The legal dispute has continued to the present day. (Several songs (and demos) from the 1965–1966 Curtis Knight recording sessions, deemed not worth releasing at the time, were marketed as "Jimi Hendrix" recordings after he became famous.) Aside from Curtis Knight and the Squires, Hendrix then toured for two months with Joey Dee and the Starliters.

In between performing with Curtis Knight in 1966, Hendrix toured and recorded with King Curtis. Hendrix recorded the two-part single "Help Me (Get the Feeling)" with Ray Sharpe and the King Curtis Orchestra (1966 Atco 45-6402) (the backing track was subsequently overdubbed by other vocalists with different lyrics and released as new songs). Later in 1966, Hendrix also recorded with Lonnie Youngblood, a saxophone player who occasionally performed with Curtis Knight. The sessions produced two singles for Youngblood: "Go Go Shoes"/"Go Go Place" (Fairmount F-1002) and "Soul Food (That's What I Like)"/"Goodbye Bessie Mae" (Fairmount F-1022). Additionally, singles for other artists came out of the sessions: The Icemen's "(My Girl) She's a Fox"/ "(I Wonder) What It Takes" (1966 SAMAR S-111) and Jimmy Norman's "You're Only Hurting Yourself"/"That Little Old Groove Maker" (1966 SAMAR S-112). As with the King Curtis recordings, backing tracks and alternate takes for the Youngblood sessions would be overdubbed and otherwise manipulated to create many "new" tracks. (Many Youngblood tracks without any Hendrix involvement would later be marketed as "Jimi Hendrix" recordings). Also around this time in 1966, Hendrix got his first composer credits for two instrumentals "Hornets Nest" and "Knock Yourself Out", released as a Curtis Knight and the Squires single (1966 RSVP 1124).

Hendrix, now going by the name Jimmy James, formed his own band, The Blue Flame, composed of Randy Palmer (bass), Danny Casey (drums), a 15-year-old guitarist who played slide and rhythm named Randy Wolfe, and the occasional stand in June 1966.

Since there were two musicians named "Randy" in the group, Hendrix dubbed Wolfe "Randy California" (as he had recently moved from there to New York City) and Palmer (a Tejano) "Randy Texas". Randy California would later co-found the band Spirit with his stepfather, drummer Ed Cassidy. It was around this time that Hendrix's only daughter Tamika was conceived with Diana Carpenter (also known as Regina Jackson), a teenage runaway and prostitute that he briefly stayed with. Her claim has not been recognized by the US courts where, after death, she may not have a claim on his estate even if she could legally prove he was her father, unless recognized previously as such by him or the courts.

Hendrix and his new band played at several places in New York, but their primary venue was a residency at the Cafe Wha? on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village. The street runs along "Washington (Square) Park" which appeared in at least two of Hendrix's songs. Their last concerts were at the Cafe au Go Go, as John Hammond Jr.'s backing group, billed as "The Blue Flame". Singer-guitarist Ellen McIlwaine and guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter also claim to have briefly worked with Hendrix in this period.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Early in 1966 at the Cheetah Club on Broadway at 53rd Street, Linda Keith, the girlfriend of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, befriended Hendrix and recommended him to Stones' manager Andrew Loog Oldham and later, producer Seymour Stein. Neither man took a liking to Hendrix's music, and they both passed. She then referred Hendrix to Chas Chandler, who was ending his tenure as bassist in The Animals and looking for talent to manage and produce. Chandler liked the song "Hey Joe" and was convinced he could create a hit single with the right artist.

Impressed with Hendrix's version, Chandler brought him to London and signed him to a management and production contract with himself and ex-Animals manager Michael Jeffery. It was Chandler who came up with the spelling change of "Jimmy" to "Jimi". Chandler then helped Hendrix form a new band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, with guitarist-turned-bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, both English musicians. Shortly before the Experience was formed, Chandler introduced Hendrix to Pete Townshend and to Eric Clapton, who had only recently helped put together Cream. At Chandler's request, Cream let Hendrix join them on stage for a jam on the song "Killing Floor". Hendrix and Clapton remained friends up until Hendrix's death. The first night he arrived in London, he began a relationship with Kathy Etchingham that lasted until February 1969. She later wrote an autobiographical book about their relationship and the sixties London scene in general.

Hendrix sometimes had a camp sense of humor, specifically with the song "Purple Haze". A mondegreen had appeared, in which the line "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky" was misheard as "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy". In a few performances, Hendrix humorously used this, deliberately singing "kiss this guy" while pointing to Mitch or Noel, as he did at Monterey. In the Woodstock DVD he deliberately points to the sky at this point, to make it clear. A volume of misheard lyrics has been published, using this mondegreen itself as the title, with Hendrix on the cover.

UK success

After his enthusiastically received performance at France's No. 1 venue, the Olympia theatre in Paris on the Johnny Hallyday tour, an on-stage jam with Cream, a showcase gig at the newly opened, pop-celebrity oriented nightclub Bag O'Nails and the all important appearances on the top UK TV pop shows ''Ready Steady Go!'' and the BBC's ''Top of the Pops'', word of Hendrix spread throughout the London music community in late 1966. His showmanship and virtuosity made instant fans of reigning guitar heroes Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, as well as Brian Jones and members of The Beatles and The Who, whose managers signed Hendrix to their new record label, Track Records.

Hendrix's first single was a cover of "Hey Joe", using Tim Rose's slower arrangement of the song including his addition of a female backing chorus. Backing this first 1966 "Experience" single was Hendrix's first songwriting effort, "Stone Free". Further success came in early 1967 with "Purple Haze" which featured the "Hendrix chord" and "The Wind Cries Mary". The three singles were all UK Top 10 hits and were also popular internationally including Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan (though failed to sell when released later in the US).

Onstage, Hendrix was also making an impression with sped up renderings of the B.B. King hit "Rock Me Baby" and Howlin' Wolf's hit "Killing Floor".

''Are You Experienced''

The first Jimi Hendrix Experience album, ''Are You Experienced'', was released in the United Kingdom on May 12, 1967, and shortly thereafter internationally, outside of the United States and Canada. It contained none of the previously released (outside the United States and Canada) singles or their B sides ("Hey Joe"/"Stone Free", "Purple Haze"/"51st Anniversary" and "The Wind Cries Mary"/"Highway Chile"). Only The Beatles' ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' prevented ''Are You Experienced'' from reaching No. 1 on the UK charts.

At this time, the Experience extensively toured the United Kingdom and parts of Europe. This allowed Hendrix to develop his stage presence, which reached a high point on March 31, 1967, when, booked to appear as one of the opening acts on the Walker Brothers farewell tour, he set his guitar on fire at the end of his first performance, as a publicity stunt. This guitar has now been identified as the "Zappa guitar" (previously thought to have been from Miami), which has been partly refurbished. Later, as part of this press promotion campaign, there were articles about Rank Theatre management warning him to "tone down" his "suggestive" stage act, with Chandler stating that the group would not compromise regardless. On June 4, 1967, the Experience played their last show in England, at London's Saville Theatre, before heading off to America. The Beatles' ''Sgt. Pepper'' album had just been released on June 1 and two Beatles (Paul McCartney and George Harrison) were in attendance, along with a roll call of other UK rock stardom, including: Brian Epstein, Eric Clapton, Spencer Davis, Jack Bruce, and pop singer Lulu. Hendrix opened the show with his own rendering of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", rehearsed only minutes before taking the stage, much to McCartney's astonishment and delight.

While on tour in Sweden in 1967, Hendrix jammed with the duo ''Hansson & Karlsson'', and later opened several concerts with their song "Tax Free", also recording a cover of it during the Electric Ladyland sessions. He played there frequently throughout his career, and his only son James Daniel Sundquist was born there in 1969 to a Swede, Eva Sundquist, recognized as such by the Swedish courts and paid a settlement by Experience Hendrix LLC. He wrote a poem to a woman there (probably Sundquist). Sundquist had sent Hendrix roses on each of his opening nights in Stockholm, and began – according to the Swedish courts – a sexual relationship from then until conceiving Daniel with him, after his third visit in January 1969. Hendrix also dedicated songs to the Swedish-based Vietnam deserters organization in 1969.

Months later, Reprise Records released the US and Canadian version of ''Are You Experienced'' with a new cover by Karl Ferris, removing "Red House", "Remember" and "Can You See Me" to make room for the first three single A-sides. Where the (Rest of the World) album kicked off with "Foxy Lady", the US and Canadian one started with "Purple Haze". Both versions offered a startling introduction to the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and the album was a blueprint for what had become possible on an electric guitar, basically recorded on four tracks, mixed into mono and only modified at this point by a "fuzz" pedal, reverb and a small bit of the experimental "Octavia" pedal on "Purple Haze", produced by Roger Mayer in consultation with Hendrix. A remix using the mostly mono backing tracks with the guitar and vocal overdubs separated and occasionally panned to create a stereo mix was also released, only in the US and Canada.

US success

Although very popular in Europe at this time, The Jimi Hendrix Experience had yet to crack the United States.c Their first single there, "Hey Joe" c/w "51st Anniversary" (Reprise 0572, released 1 May 1967), failed to reach the Billboard chart.

Their chance came when Paul McCartney recommended the group to the organizers of the Monterey International Pop Festival. This proved to be a great opportunity for Hendrix, not only because of the large audience present at the event, but also because of the many journalists covering the event who wrote about him. The performances were filmed by D. A. Pennebaker and later shown in some movie theaters around the country in early 1969 as the concert documentary Monterey Pop, which immortalized Hendrix's iconic burning and smashing of his guitar at the finale of his performance.

The opening song was Hendrix's very fast arrangement of Howlin' Wolf's 1965 R&B; hit "Killing Floor". He played this frequently from late 1965 through 1968, usually as the opener to his shows. The Monterey performance included an equally lively rendering of B.B. King's 1964 R&B; hit "Rock Me Baby", Tim Rose's arrangement of "Hey Joe" and Bob Dylan's 1965 pop hit "Like a Rolling Stone". The set ended with The Troggs' "Wild Thing" and Hendrix repeating the act that had boosted his profile in the UK (and internationally) with him burning his guitar on stage, then smashing it to bits and tossing pieces out to the audience. This show finally brought Hendrix to the notice of the US public. A large chunk of this guitar was on display at the Experience Music Project in Seattle, along with the other psychedelically painted Stratocaster that Hendrix smashed (but did not burn) at his farewell concert in England before he left for the US and Monterey.

At the time Hendrix was playing sets in the Scene club in NYC in July 1967, he met Frank Zappa, whose Mothers of Invention were playing the adjacent Garrick Theater, and he was reportedly fascinated by Zappa's recently purchased wah-wah pedal. Hendrix immediately bought one from Manny's and starting using it right away on the sessions for both sides of his new single, and slightly later, on several jams recorded at Ed Chalpin's studio.

Following the festival, the Experience played a series of concerts at Bill Graham's Fillmore replacing the original headliners Jefferson Airplane at the top of the bill. It was at this time that Hendrix became acquainted with future musical collaborator Stephen Stills, and reacquainted himself with Buddy Miles who introduced Hendrix to his future partner, Devon Wilson. She had a turbulent on/off relationship with him, right up to the night of his death, and was the only one of his partners to record with him. She died only six months after Hendrix under mysterious circumstances, apparently falling from an upper window in the Chelsea Hotel.

Following this very successful West Coast introduction, which also included two open air concerts (one of them a free concert in the "panhandle" of Golden Gate Park) and a concert at the Whisky a Go Go, they were booked as one of the opening acts for pop group The Monkees on their first American tour. The Monkees asked for Hendrix because they were fans, but their (mostly early teens) audience sometimes did not warm to their act, and he quit the tour after a few dates. Chas Chandler later admitted that being thrown off the Monkees tour was engineered to gain maximum media impact and publicity for Hendrix, similar to that gained from the manufactured Rank Theatre's indecency dispute on the earlier UK Walker Brothers tour. At the time, a story circulated claiming that Hendrix was removed from the tour because of complaints made by the Daughters of the American Revolution that his stage conduct was "lewd and indecent". This report was concocted by a journalist accompanying the tour, the Australian Lillian Roxon.

Meanwhile in Western Europe, where Hendrix was appreciated for his authentic blues as well as his hit singles and recognized for his avant-garde musical ideas, his wild-man image and musical gimmickry (such as playing the guitar with his teeth and behind his back) had faded; but they later plagued him in the US following Monterey. He became frustrated by the US media and audience when they concentrated on his stage tricks and best known songs.

''Axis: Bold as Love''

The Jimi Hendrix Experience's second 1967 album, ''Axis: Bold as Love'' was his first recording made for stereo release and used panning and other stereo effects. It continued the style established by ''Are You Experienced''. The opening track, "EXP", featured a stereo effect in which a sound emanating from Hendrix's guitar appeared to revolve around the listener, fading out into the distance from the right channel, then returning in on the left. This album marked the first time Hendrix recorded the whole album with his guitar tuned down one half-step, to E, which he used exclusively thereafter and was his first to feature the wah-wah pedal. A mishap almost delayed the album's pre-Christmas release: Hendrix lost the master tape of side one of the LP, leaving it in the back seat of a London taxi. With the release deadline looming, Hendrix, Chas Chandler and engineer Eddie Kramer had to remix most of side one in an overnight session, but they could not match the lost mix of "If 6 Was 9". They soon learned that bassist Noel Redding had a tape recording of this mix. The tape had to be smoothed out as it had gotten wrinkled. Hendrix was disappointed that the album had to be finished so quickly and felt it could have been better, given more time. He was also somewhat disappointed in the album cover art work, which depicts Hendrix and his Experience bandmates as the various forms of Vishnu, incorporating a painting of them by Roger Law (from a photo-portrait by Karl Ferris). Hendrix remarked that it would have been more appropriate if the cover had highlighted his American Indian heritage.

The album was released in the UK near the end of their first headlining tour there, after which the pace slowed briefly during the Christmas holidays. In January 1968 the group went to Sweden for a short tour, and after the first show Hendrix, reportedly after drinking and according to Hendrix his drink being spiked, went berserk and smashed up his hotel room in a rage, injuring his hand and culminating in his arrest. Then on the 6th in Denmark his famous hat was stolen. The rest of the tour was uneventful, though Hendrix had to spend some time in Sweden waiting for his trial and eventual large fine.

''Electric Ladyland''

Hendrix's third recording, the double album ''Electric Ladyland'' (1968), was a departure from previous efforts. Following his third and penultimate French concert at the Paris Olympia, Hendrix flew to the US to start his first tour there, and after two months returned to his Electric Ladyland project at the newly opened Record Plant Studios with engineers Eddie Kramer and Gary Kellgren and initially Chas Chandler as producer.

As the album's recording progressed, Chas Chandler became so frustrated with Hendrix's perfectionism and with various friends and guests milling about the studio that he decided to sever his professional relationship with Hendrix. Chandler's departure had a clear impact on the artistic direction that the recording took.

Hendrix began experimenting with different combinations of musicians and instruments, and modern electronic effects. For example, Dave Mason, Chris Wood, and Steve Winwood from the band Traffic, drummer Buddy Miles and former Bob Dylan organist Al Kooper, among others, were involved in the recording sessions. He described how Hendrix went from a disciplined recording regimen to an erratic schedule, which often saw him beginning recording sessions in the middle of the night and with any number of guests.

Chandler also expressed exasperation at the number of times Hendrix would insist on rerecording particular tracks; the song "Gypsy Eyes" was reportedly recorded 43 times. This was also frustrating for bassist Noel Redding, who would often leave the studio to calm himself, only to return and find that Hendrix had recorded the bass parts himself during Redding's absence.

''Electric Ladyland'' includes "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)" as well as Hendrix's rendering of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower".

Throughout the four years of his fame, Hendrix often appeared at impromptu jams with various musicians, such as B.B. King. In March 1968, Jim Morrison of The Doors joined Hendrix onstage at New York's Scene Club. Albums of this ''Electric Ladyland''-era bootleg recording were released under various titles, some falsely claiming the presence of Johnny Winter, who has denied, several times, being a participant at that jam session, and to ever having met Morrison.

Breakup of Jimi Hendrix Experience

After a year based in the US, Hendrix temporarily moved back to London and into his girlfriend Kathy Etchingham's rented Brook Street flat, next door to the Handel House Museum, in the West End of London. During this time The Jimi Hendrix Experience toured Scandinavia, Germany, and included a final French concert. They later performed two sold-out concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall on February 18 and February 24, 1969, which were the last European appearances of this line-up of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. A Gold and Goldstein-produced film titled ''Experience'' was also recorded at these two shows, which, according to Experience Hendrix LLC, "Elements of these recordings are sure to be utilized when the official release of this material is finally made".

Noel Redding felt increasingly frustrated by the fact that he was not playing his original and favored instrument, the guitar. In 1968, he decided to form his own band, Fat Mattress, which would sometimes open for the Experience (Hendrix would jokingly refer to them as "Thin Pillow"). Redding and Hendrix would begin seeing less and less of each other, which also had an effect in the studio, with Hendrix playing many of the bass parts on ''Electric Ladyland''.

Fruitless recording sessions at Olympic in London; Olmstead and the Record Plant in New York that ended on April 9, which only produced a remake of "Stone Free" for a possible single release, were the last to feature Redding. Hendrix then flew Billy Cox to New York and started recording and rehearsing with him on April 21 as a replacement for Noel.

In a recorded interview by Nancy Carter on June 15 at his hotel in Los Angeles, Hendrix announced that he had been recording with Cox and that he would be replacing Noel as bass player in The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

The last Experience concert took place on June 29, 1969 at Barry Fey's Denver Pop Festival, a three-day event held at Denver's Mile High Stadium that was marked by police firing tear gas into the audience as they played "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)". The band escaped from the venue in the back of a rental truck which was partly crushed by fans trying to escape the tear gas. The next day, Noel Redding announced that he had quit the Experience.

Gypsy Sun and Rainbows

After the departure of Noel Redding from the group, Hendrix rented the eight-bedroom 'Ashokan House' in the hamlet of Boiceville near Woodstock in upstate New York, where he spent some time in mid-1969. Manager Michael Jeffery, who had a house in Woodstock, arranged the stay, with hopes that the respite would produce a new album. To replace Redding as bassist, Hendrix had been rehearsing and recording with Billy Cox, his old and trusted Army buddy, since at least April 21. Mitchell was unavailable to help fulfill Hendrix's commitments at this time, which include his first appearance on US TV – on the Dick Cavett show – where he was backed by the studio orchestra, and an appearance on ''The Tonight Show'' where he appeared with his new bass player Billy Cox, and session drummer Ed Shaughnessy sitting in for Mitchell.

Woodstock

Hendrix was advertised to play the Woodstock Music Festival, along with many of the other biggest rock groups of the time. It was to take place on rented farmland in Upper State New York from August 15–18, 1969. Although Hendrix's music had been written for a power trio of guitar, bass, and drums, he wanted to expand his sound so he added rhythm guitarist Larry Lee (another old friend from his R&B; days), and Juma Sultan and Jerry Velez to play congas. After drummer Mitch Mitchell arrived, this new lineup rehearsed for less than two weeks before the festival and according to Mitchell never really meshed. In addition, although Woodstock would become famous and mythologized through the documentary film of the same name, by the time of his performance, Hendrix had been up for three days, and his band was short on sleep as well, contributing a rawness to their filmed performance.

Before Hendrix even arrived at the festival he started to hear media reports that the crowds of kids showing up for the festival were swelling to biblical proportions, in addition to the emerging logistical problems being reported at the site. This gave Hendrix pause for concern since he did not like performing in front of very large crowds. Since he was considered an important draw for the festival, and because of his manager's negotiations, Hendrix was getting paid more than the other performers, (US$18,000, plus US$12,000 for rights to film him). As the scheduled time slot of Sunday night at midnight drew closer, Hendrix indicated that he would rather wait and close the show. A substantial rainstorm that day had delayed the schedule of performers, so when Hendrix insisted on being the closing headliner, it pushed back the time when they finally hit the stage - which ended up being 8:30am Monday morning. The audience which had peaked at an estimated 400,000 people during the festival, was now reduced to about 30-40,000 by that point; many of whom merely waited to catch a glimpse of Hendrix before leaving during his show. This reflected the reality that by the third day attendees had been sleeping in muddy conditions with limited food.

Hendrix and his band were introduced by the festival MC, Chip Monck, as "The Jimi Hendrix Experience", but once on stage Hendrix clarified saying, "We decided to change the whole thing around and call it 'Gypsy Sun and Rainbows'. For short, it's nothin but a 'Band of Gypsys'" He then launched into a two hour set, the longest of his career. Hendrix started off with a new song, “Message to Love". (His Woodstock set consisting of new material, along with his well-known hits).

Hendrix's psychedelic rendition of the U.S. national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner" occurred about 3/4 into their set (after which he morphed into "Purple Haze"). The song had actually been part of his set for a year and he had already performed it on at least three different occasions. During the number, Hendrix used feedback and sustain on his guitar to recreate the sound of wails and falling rockets. Although pundits quickly branded the song as a political manifesto against the Vietnam War, Hendrix himself never explained its meaning other than to say at a press conference three weeks later, "We're all Americans. . .it was like 'Go America!'. . .We play it the way the air is in America today. The air is slightly static, see". The song would become "part of the sixties Zeitgeist" as it was captured forever in the Woodstock film; Hendrix's image performing this number during the day wearing a blue-beaded white leather jacket with fringe and a red head scarf, has since been regarded as a defining moment of the 1960s.

Hendrix performed "Hey Joe" as the encore to finish off their set which concluded the 3½ day Woodstock Music Festival. Upon leaving the stage, Hendrix collapsed from exhaustion.

After Woodstock, this particular lineup of the band appeared on only two more occasions. The first was a street benefit in Harlem where, in a scenario similar to the festival, most of the audience had left and only a fraction remained by the time Hendrix took the stage. Within seconds of Hendrix arriving at the site two youths had stolen his guitar from the back seat of his car, although it was later recovered. The band's only other appearance was at the Salvation club in Greenwich Village, New York. After some studio recordings, Hendrix disbanded the group. Some of this band's recordings can be heard on the MCA Records box set ''The Jimi Hendrix Experience'' and on ''South Saturn Delta''. Their final work together was a session on September 6. Hendrix's September 9 appearance on TV's ''The Dick Cavett Show'', backed by Cox, Mitchell and Juma Sultan, was credited as the "Jimi Hendrix Experience".

Band of Gypsys

In 1967, a contractual dispute arose in relation to an agreement Hendrix had entered into with producer Ed Chalpin in 1965. The resolution for the dispute included Hendrix having to record an LP of new material for Chalpin company, which would not feature the Experience band, and would not be associated with the Experience band name. In addition, Chalpin was granted 2% of profits from Hendrix's back catalog sold in US. For the agreed upon album, Hendrix chose to record ''Band of Gypsys'', a live album.

Along with Billy Cox and drummer Buddy Miles (formerly with Wilson Pickett and The Electric Flag) with whom he had been jamming together since September, Hendrix wrote and rehearsed material which they then performed at a series of four concerts over two nights, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day at Fillmore East. The second night produced the material for the ''Band Of Gypsys'' LP, which was produced by Hendrix (under the name "Heaven Research").

The ''Band of Gypsys'' LP was the only official completely live LP released in Hendrix's lifetime. The band also released a single "Stepping Stone" which failed to sell, and recorded several studio songs slated for Hendrix's future LP. In 1999, the tapes from the four Fillmore concerts were remastered and additional tracks and edits were released as ''Live at the Fillmore East''. Litigation with Chalpin ended in 2007 after the "singularly uncredible witness" was fined nearly US$900,000 for failure to abide by contractual limitations and failure to pay ''Experience Hendrix L.L.C.'' its court ordered royalties.

On January 26 and 27, 1970, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding flew into New York and signed contracts with Jeffery for the upcoming Jimi Hendrix Experience tour. The next day, a second and final Band of Gypsys appearance occurred at a twelve-act show in Madison Square Garden which was a benefit for the anti-Vietnam War Moratorium Committee, titled the "Winter Festival for Peace". Similar to Woodstock, set delays forced Hendrix to take the stage at an inopportune 3 a.m., only this time he was obviously in no shape to play. He played "Who Knows" before snapping a vulgar response at a woman who shouted a request for "Foxy Lady". He played a second song, "Earth Blues", he then told the audience: "That's what happens when earth fucks with space—never forget that". He then sat down on the drum riser for a minute and then walked off stage. Various unverifiable assertions have been proffered to explain this bizarre scene. Buddy Miles claimed that manager Michael Jeffery dosed Hendrix with LSD in an effort to sabotage the current band and bring about the return of the Experience lineup, but none of Hendrix's other close associates verifies his statement.

Cry of Love tour

A week after the botched Band of Gypsys show, Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding gave an interview to ''Rolling Stone'' for the upcoming tour dates as a reunited Jimi Hendrix Experience. But Redding never even got to rehearse, as Hendrix just continued to work with Billy Cox. Noel was not told he was not going to be playing until the pretour rehearsals. Fans refer to this final "Jimi Hendrix Experience" lineup as the "Cry of Love" band, named after The Cry of Love Tour to distinguish it from the original. Billy Cox has countered on several occasions that this lineup considered themselves "The Jimi Hendrix Experience" before they even went on tour and that any other title is bogus. All billing, adverts, tickets etc. on the tour used "Jimi Hendrix Experience" or occasionally, as previously, just "Jimi Hendrix".

Two of Hendrix's later recordings were the lead guitar parts on "Old Times Good Times" from Stephen Stills hit eponymous album (1970), and on "The Everlasting First" from Arthur Lee's new incarnation of Love, not so successful and aptly named LP ''False Start'' both tracks were recorded with these old friends on a fleeting and unexplained visit to London in March 1970, following Kathy Etchingham's marriage.

He spent the next four months of 1970 working on his next LP tentatively titled ''First Rays of the New Rising Sun'', recording during the week and playing live on the weekends. The Cry of Love tour, launched that April at the L.A. Forum, was partly undertaken to earn money to repay the Warner Bros. loan for completing his Electric Lady Studios. Performances on this tour featured Hendrix, Cox, and Mitchell playing new material alongside older audience favorites. The American leg of the tour included 30 performances and ended at Honolulu, Hawaii on August 1, 1970. A number of these shows were recorded and produced some of Hendrix's most memorable live performances.

Electric Lady Studios

In 1968, Hendrix and Jeffery had invested jointly in the purchase of the Generation Club in Greenwich Village. Their initial plans to reopen the club were scrapped when the pair decided that the investment would serve them much better as a recording studio. The studio fees for the lengthy ''Electric Ladyland'' sessions were astronomical, and Hendrix was constantly in search of a recording environment that suited him. In August 1970, Electric Lady Studios was opened in New York.

Designed by architect and acoustician John Storyk, the studio was made specifically for Hendrix, with round windows and a machine capable of generating ambient lighting in a myriad of colors. It was designed to have a relaxing feel to encourage Hendrix's creativity, but at the same time provide a professional recording atmosphere. Engineer Eddie Kramer upheld this by refusing to allow any drug use during session work.

Hendrix spent only two and a half months recording in Electric Lady, most of which took place while the final phases of construction were still ongoing. Following a recording/dubbing session on August 26, an opening party was held later that day. He then boarded an Air India flight for London with Billy Cox, joining Mitch Mitchell to perform at the Isle of Wight Festival.

European tour

The group then commenced the European leg of the tour. Longing for his new studio and creative outlets, the tour was a commitment that Hendrix was not eager to perform. In Aarhus, Hendrix abandoned his show after only two songs, remarking: "I've been dead a long time". In the months before Hendrix's death, a British music paper alleged that Hendrix had plans to join the band Emerson, Lake & Palmer. On September 6, 1970, his final concert performance, Hendrix was greeted with some booing and jeering by fans at the Isle of Fehmarn Festival in Germany, due to his non-appearance at the end of the previous night's bill (due to the torrential rain and risk of electrocution). Several acts played after he left the stage; later, part of the stage was burnt during the first stage appearance of Ton Steine Scherben. Billy Cox quit the tour and headed home to Memphis, Tennessee, reportedly suffering paranoia after taking LSD or being given it unknowingly, earlier in the tour. A live recording of the concert was later released as ''Live at the Isle of Fehmarn''.

Hendrix returned to London, where he reportedly spoke to Chas Chandler, Eric Burdon, and others about leaving his manager, Michael Jeffery. Hendrix's last public performance was an informal jam at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in Soho with Burdon and his latest band, War. Much of this was recorded on a Sony cassette recorder by Bill Baker, of Shepherds Bush, London, then aged 20, who was present throughout the entire performance. Two Hendrix tracks from this recording, "Mother Earth" and "Tobacco Road", were later included, without permission from Baker, on a bootleg LP, ''Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?'', produced in the mid-to-late 1970s, and on an audio tape of poor quality that went into circulation some years later. It was not until 2009, however, that the entire recording entered general circulation within the collecting community. This was remastered in California in December 2010 and includes tracks from the same night's performance by Eric Burdon's War. This is the last known recording of Jimi Hendrix, who died approximately 24 hours later.

Death

Early on September 18, 1970, Jimi Hendrix died in London. He had spent the latter part of the previous evening at a party and was picked up at close to 3:00 by girlfriend Monika Dannemann and driven to her flat at the Samarkand Hotel, 22 Lansdowne Crescent, Notting Hill. From autopsy data and statements by friends about the evening of September 17, it has been estimated that he died sometime after 3:00, possibly before 4:00, but also possibly later, though no estimate was made at the autopsy, or inquest.

Dannemann claimed in her original testimony that after they returned to her lodgings the evening before, Hendrix, unknown to her, had taken nine of her prescribed Vesparax sleeping pills. The normal medical dose was a half to one tablet as stated in the literature, but Hendrix was unfamiliar with this very strong Belgian brand. According to surgeon John Bannister, the doctor who initially attended to him, Hendrix had asphyxiated in his own vomit, mainly red wine which had filled his airways. Bannister's statement was made in January 1992 to Harry Shapiro, co-author of ''Electric Gypsy'', a book which also featured accusations of malpractice by Monika Dannemann in regards to Bannister's not performing a tracheotomy on Hendrix. He appears to have been using the amount of wine in his system as a reason for not performing a tracheotomy. He was reprimanded for two counts of medical malpractice, and struck off the medical register on 28 April 1992 for fraud. No one else at the time, the other two doctors, the ambulance men, or the police mentioned wine. The only mention of wine was by Monika much earlier, in ''Electric Gypsy'' (which Bannister had read), and that Hendrix had drunk some with food earlier that evening and also by Harvey at his, again, much earlier party, which were both several hours prior to death. The autopsy found very little alcohol in his system. The autopsy never mentioned wine, only vomited matter.

Until her death, Dannemann publicly claimed that she had only discovered that her lover had been sick at 11:00 a.m., but he was breathing, though unconscious and unresponsive (The ambulance was called at 11:18 and arrived 11:27). And that Hendrix was alive when placed in the back of the ambulance at approximately 11:30, and that she rode with him on the way to the hospital.

The ambulance crew later denied she was even there; additionally, Dannemann's comments about the timing of some events that morning often differed in places, varying from interview to interview.

Police and ambulance statements reveal that there was no one but Hendrix in the flat when they arrived at 11:27 a.m., and not only was he dead when they arrived on the scene, but was fully clothed and had been dead for some time.

Later, Dannemen claimed that former road managers Gerry Stickels and Eric Barrett had been present before the ambulance was called. and had removed some of Hendrix's possessions, including some of his most recent messages. Lyrics written by Hendrix, which were found in the apartment, led Eric Burdon to make a premature announcement on the BBC-TV program ''24 Hours'' that he believed Hendrix had committed suicide. Burdon often claimed he had been telephoned by Dannemann after she discovered that Hendrix failed to wake up.

In 1996, Monika Dannemann committed suicide shortly after being found guilty of contempt of court for repeating a libel against Kathy Etchingham, who had been a girlfriend of Hendrix in the 1960s.

Allegations of murder

A former Animals "roadie", James "Tappy" Wright, published a book in May 2009 claiming Hendrix's manager, Mike Jeffery, admitted to him that he had Hendrix killed because the rock star wanted to end his management contract. John Bannister, one of the doctors who attended to him in 1970 stated in 2009 that it "sounded plausible". Bannister was struck off the Medical register in 1992 for fraud. In 2011 Bob Levine, Wright's long term business associate and Mike Jeffery's assistant manager in N.Y., said he knows that Wright made up these stories to sell his book, that Jeffery didn't have insurance on Hendrix, but that he merely countersigned the Warner Bros. policy that Warner's had taken out as standard practice.

"There was a freak storm across Mallorca and all the phone lines were down. Somebody told Mike that Jimi had been trying to phone him. The first call that got through was to say Jimi was dead. Mike was terribly upset at the thought of Jimi not being able to get through to him." – Trixie Sullivan, secretary/assistant for Mike Jeffery

Fashion

Hendrix was well known for his unique sense of fashion and wardrobe and his Dylan-esque (c. 1966) hairstyle. A set of hair curlers was one of the few possessions that traveled with him to England when he was first discovered in 1966. When his first advance check arrived, Hendrix immediately took to the streets of London in search of clothing at famous boutiques like I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet and Granny Takes a Trip, both of which specialized in vintage fashion. He purchased at least two army dress uniform jackets including a (possibly antique) jacket styled in imitation of a Hussar's pelisse, adorned with tasseled ropes. A group of policemen once ordered him to remove the other, a Royal Veterinary Corps dress jacket, saying it was an offense to the men who had worn it.

Many photographs of Hendrix show him wearing various scarves, rings, medallions, and brooches, and in the early days occasionally badges (pins or buttons) that professed his support for the hippie movement or his fascination with Bob Dylan. He initially wore a dark suit and plain silk shirts that progressively became "louder" and more psychedelically patterned. He later favored a bright blue velvet suit, then a bright red one, antique military dress jackets, a very broadly striped suit, psychedelically patterned silk jackets, various exotic waistcoats and brightly colored flared trousers. At Monterey, he wore a hand-painted silk jacket by Chris Jagger (Mick Jagger's brother) and a bright pink feather boa. In late 1967 he started to wear a wide-brimmed Western style hat (brand name "The Westerner"). It was adorned with a narrow purple band and various brooches, as shown in the original ''Jimi Plays Monterey'' film. This hat was stolen in 1968, and replaced later with another, crowned variously with a longer purple scarf, a star-like brooch in front and a set of silver bangles, sometimes with an angled feather, though he went hatless for protracted periods after this.

From late 1968 he began tying scarves to one leg and one arm, and in mid-1969 he gave up the hat for bandanas. He started wearing increasingly fantastic custom-made stage costume with long trailing sleeves, culminating in his African-styled "Fire Angel" outfit that he wore throughout most of his final "Cry Of Love" tour, until it began to come apart during the Isle of Wight concert. He appeared in this outfit only once more (in just the jacket) at the disastrous concert in Aarhus, Denmark. His only non-work-related vacation was a two-week trip to Morocco in July 1969 with friends Colette Mimram, Stella Benabou (the then-wife of producer Alan Douglas), and Deering Howe. Upon his return Hendrix decorated his Greenwich Village apartment with Moroccan ''objets d'art'' and fabrics. Mimram and Benabou created some of Hendrix's most memorable later attire, the shortened blue kimono-style jacket that he wore in three TV appearances and the white fringed jacket, ornamented with blue glass beads, he wore at the Woodstock Festival.

Drug use and women

Hendrix is widely known for and associated with the use of psychedelic drugs, most notably lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), as were many other famous musicians and celebrities of that time. He supposedly had never taken psychedelic drugs until the night he met Linda Keith, but had smoked cannabis and drank alcohol previously. Amphetamines are also recorded as being used by Hendrix during tours. Hendrix was notorious among friends and bandmates for sometimes becoming angry and violent when he drank too much alcohol. Kathy Etchingham spoke of an incident that took place in a London pub in which an intoxicated Hendrix beat her with a public telephone handset because he thought she was calling another man on the pay phone. Carmen Borrero, another girlfriend, says she required stitches after he hit her with a bottle after drinking and becoming jealous. Alcohol was also cited as the cause of Hendrix's 1968 rampage that badly damaged a Stockholm hotel room and led to his arrest. Paul Caruso's friendship with Hendrix ended in 1970 when Hendrix, while under the influence, punched him and accused him of stealing from him.

On May 3, 1969, while checking through Canadian customs at Toronto Pearson International Airport, Hendrix was arrested when small amounts of heroin and hashish were found in his luggage. After being released on a CAN$10,000 cash bail the same day, only four hours before his show was to begin, (and being required to appear in court at a later date), the Experience were able to play their concert at Maple Leaf Gardens. In his trial defense, Hendrix claimed that the drugs were slipped into his bag by a fan without his knowledge. He was acquitted.

He was by all accounts promiscuous, having casual sex with many women.

Gravesite

Hendrix's body was returned to Seattle and he was interred in Greenwood Memorial Park, Renton, Washington. As the popularity of Hendrix and his music grew over the decades following his death, concerns began to mount over fans damaging the adjoining graves at Greenwood, and the growing, extended Hendrix family further prompted his father to create an expanded memorial site separate from other burial sites in the park. The memorial was announced in late 1999, but Al Hendrix's deteriorating health led to delays and he died two months before its scheduled completion in 2002. Later that year, the remains of Jimi Hendrix, his father Al Hendrix, and grandmother Nora Rose Moore Hendrix were moved to the new site. The headstone contains a depiction of a Fender Stratocaster guitar, the instrument he was most famous for using —– although the guitar is shown right-side up, rather than the way Hendrix played it, upside down (left-handed).

The memorial is a granite dome supported by three pillars under which Jimi Hendrix and other family members are interred. Hendrix's autograph is inscribed at the base of each pillar, while two stepped entrances and one ramped entrance provide access to the dome's center where the original Stratocaster adorned headstone has been incorporated into a statue pedestal. A granite sundial complete with brass gnomon adjoins the dome, along with over 50 family plots that surround the central structure, half of which are currently adorned with raised granite headstones.

To date, the memorial remains incomplete: brass accents for the dome and a large brass statue of Hendrix were announced as being under construction in Italy, but since 2002 no information as to the status of the project has been revealed to the public. A memorial statue of Jimi playing a Stratocaster stands near the corner of Broadway and Pine Streets in Seattle.

In May 2006, the city of Seattle honored Hendrix with the re-naming of a park near Seattle's Colman School in the Central District.

Recordings

Hendrix's recordings were originally released in North America on Reprise Records (a division of Warner Communications) from 1967 until 1993 and were released internationally (outside of US and Canada) on Polydor Records. (Because it was recorded to settle a legal dispute, the ''Band of Gypsys'' album was released on Capitol Records in US and Canada.) British releases of all his albums up to and including ''The Cry Of Love'' were first issued on the independent label Track Records, which was originally created by the managers of The Who. The label was later absorbed by Polydor.

In 1994, the Hendrix family prevailed in its long standing legal attempt to gain control of Jimi's music, and subsequently licensed the recordings to MCA Records (later Universal Music) through the family-run company Experience Hendrix. In August 2009, Experience Hendrix announced that it had entered a new licensing agreement with Sony Music Entertainment's Legacy Recordings division which would take effect in 2010.

Unfinished work and posthumous releases

Reports that Hendrix's tapes for a concept album ''Black Gold'' had been stolen and lost from the London flat, are incorrect. Hendrix gave those tapes to Mitch Mitchell at the Isle of Wight Festival three weeks prior to his death. They are now in the possession of Experience Hendrix LLC.

Hendrix's unfinished album was partly released as the 1971 title ''The Cry of Love''. The album was well received and charted in several countries. However, the album's producers, Mitchell and Kramer, would later complain that they were unable to make use of all the tracks they wanted. This was due to some tracks being used for 1971's ''Rainbow Bridge'' and 1972's ''War Heroes'' for contractual reasons.

Material from ''The Cry of Love'' was rereleased in 1997 as ''First Rays of the New Rising Sun'', along with the rest of the tracks that Mitchell and Kramer wanted to include.

Many of Hendrix's personal items, tapes, and many pages of lyrics and poems are now in the hands of private collectors and have attracted considerable sums at the occasional auctions. These materials surfaced after two employees, under the instructions of Mike Jeffery, removed items from Hendrix's Greenwich Village apartment following his death.

In 2010, Legacy Recordings and Experience Hendrix LLC launched the 2010 Jimi Hendrix Catalog Project, starting with the release of ''Valleys of Neptune'' in March. Legacy has also released deluxe CD/DVD editions of the Hendrix albums ''Are You Experienced'', ''Axis: Bold As Love'', ''Electric Ladyland'' and ''First Rays of the New Rising Sun'', as well as the 1968 compilation album ''Smash Hits''.

Legacy

Musical

Hendrix synthesized many styles in creating his musical voice and his guitar style was unique, later to be abundantly imitated by others. Despite his hectic touring schedule and notorious perfectionism, he was a prolific recording artist and left behind more than 300 unreleased recordings.

His career and death grouped him with Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Brian Jones as one of the 27 Club, a group including iconic 1960s rock stars who suffered drug-related deaths at the age of 27 within a two year period, leaving legacies in death that have eclipsed the popularity and influence they experienced during their lifetimes. Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse were later added to this list, also dying at the age of 27.

Musically, Hendrix did much to further the development of the electric guitar's repertoire, establishing it as a unique sonic source, rather than merely an amplified version of the acoustic guitar. Likewise, his feedback, wah-wah and fuzz-laden soloing moved guitar distortion well beyond mere novelty, incorporating other effects pedals and units specifically designed for him by his sound technician Roger Mayer (such as the Octavia and Uni-Vibe) with dramatic results.

Hendrix affected popular music with similar profundity; along with earlier bands such as The Who and Cream, he established a sonically heavy yet technically proficient bent to rock music as a whole, significantly furthering the development of hard rock and paving the way for heavy metal. He took blues to another level. His music has also had a great influence on funk and the development of funk rock especially through the guitarists Ernie Isley of The Isley Brothers and Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic, Prince, John Frusciante former member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jesse Johnson of The Time. His influence even extends to many hip hop artists, including Questlove, Chuck D of Public Enemy, Ice-T (who covered "Hey Joe" with his heavy metal band Body Count), El-P and Wyclef Jean. Miles Davis was also deeply impressed by Hendrix and compared his improvisational skills with those of saxophonist John Coltrane, and Davis would later want guitarists in his bands to emulate Hendrix. Hendrix was ranked number 3 on VH1's ''100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock'' behind Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin.

Hendrix's guitar style also had significant influence upon ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons, fellow Texas guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughan, and later on Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett and Pearl Jam's Mike McCready, among others.

Hendrix was ranked number 3 on VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Artists of Rock N' Roll, behind the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. He has been voted by ''Rolling Stone'', ''Guitar World'', and a number of other magazines and polls as the best electric guitarist of all time. Conversely and with some modesty, Hendrix when asked in a Rolling Stone interview, "How does it feel to be the greatest guitarist in the world?", Hendrix replied, "I don't know, go ask Rory Gallagher."

In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked him number 6 on their list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.

''Guitar World'''s readers voted six of Hendrix's solos among the top "100 Greatest" of all time: "Purple Haze" (70), "The Star-Spangled Banner" (52), "Machine Gun" (32), "Little Wing" (18), "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (11) and "All Along the Watchtower" (5).

In 1992, Hendrix was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Financial and legal

When Al Hendrix died of congestive heart failure in 2002, his will stipulated that Experience Hendrix, LLC was to exist as a trust designed to distribute profits to a list of Hendrix family beneficiaries. Upon his death, it was revealed that Al had signed a revision to his will which removed Hendrix's brother Leon Hendrix as a beneficiary. A 2004 probate lawsuit merged Leon's challenge to the will with charges from other Hendrix family beneficiaries that Janie Hendrix, Al's adopted daughter, was improperly handling the company finances. The suit argued that Janie and a cousin of Jimi Hendrix (Robert Hendrix) paid themselves exorbitant salaries and covered their own mortgages and personal expenses from the company's coffers while the beneficiaries went without payment and the Hendrix gravesite in Renton went uncompleted.

Janie and Robert's defense was that the company was not profitable yet, and that their salary and benefits were justified given the work that they put into running the company. Leon charged that Janie bilked Al Hendrix, then old and frail, into signing the revised will, and sought to have the previous will reinstated. The defense argued that Al willingly removed Leon from his will because of Leon's problems with alcohol and gambling. In early 2005, presiding judge Jeffrey Ramsdell handed down a ruling that left the final will intact, but replaced Janie and Robert's role at the financial helm of Experience Hendrix with an independent trustee.

On October 5, 2011 the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case ''Golan v. Holder'' concerning the 1994 U.S. federal law that protected foreign copyrights. At stake in the outcome of this case is whether previously unprotected foreign works could be suddenly copyrighted and withdrawn from public domain. In a hypothetical argument Justice John Roberts asked "what about Jimi Hendrix?" and if Hendrix's rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" at Woodstock violated copyright protection or was protected under public domain. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, who defended the 1994 law, stated "maybe Jimi Hendrix could claim fair use". The music of the "Star Spangled Banner" was composed by an English musician, John Stafford Smith in the mid 1760s. The lyrics of the "Star Spangled Banner" were written by American Francis Scott Key in 1814 and the song became America's National anthem in 1931.

The Jimi Hendrix Foundation

In 1987, Leon Hendrix commissioned the James (Jimi) Marshall Hendrix Foundation. This foundation is based in Renton, Washington. Though run for some time by Jimi's brother Leon Hendrix, in August 2006 Leon asked a childhood friend of Jimi Hendrix – James (Jimmy) Williams, to take control of the Foundation.

Guitar

Fender Stratocaster

Hendrix owned and used a variety of guitars during his career. However, his guitar of choice (and the instrument that became most associated with him), was the Fender Stratocaster. He started playing the model in 1966 and thereafter used it prevalently in his stage performances and recordings.

Hendrix bought many Stratocasters and gave some away as gifts. The original sunburst Stratocaster that Hendrix burnt at the Astoria in 1967, and that he kept as a souvenir, was given to Frank Zappa by a Hendrix roadie at the 1968 Miami Pop Festival; Zappa assumed it was the one Hendrix had played there.

Hendrix used right-handed guitars, turned upside down and restrung for left-hand playing. This had an important effect on his guitar sound: because of the slant of the Strat's bridge pickup, his lowest string had a bright sound while his highest string had a mellow sound, the opposite of the Stratocaster's intended design. Heavy use of the tremolo bar necessitated frequent tuning; Hendrix often asked the audience for a "minute to tune up", as heard on many live bootlegs of his performances.

In addition to Stratocasters, Hendrix was also photographed playing Fender Jazzmasters, Duosonics, two different Gibson Flying Vs, a Gibson Les Paul, three Gibson SGs, a Gretsch Corvette he used at the 1967 Curtis Knight sessions and miming with a right-strung Fender Jaguar on the ''Top of the Pops'' TV show, as well as several other brands. Hendrix borrowed a Fender Telecaster from Noel Redding to record "Hey Joe" and "Purple Haze", used a white Gibson SG Custom for his performances on ''The Dick Cavett Show'' in the summer of 1969, and the Isle of Wight film shows him playing his second Gibson Flying V. While Jimi had previously owned a Flying V that he had painted with a psychedelic design, the Flying V used at the Isle of Wight was a unique custom left-handed guitar with gold plated hardware, a bound fingerboard and "split-diamond" fret markers that were not found on other 1960s-era Flying Vs.

On December 4, 2006, one of Hendrix's 1968 Fender Stratocaster guitars with a sunburst design was sold at a Christie's auction for US$168,000.

Other instruments

Hendrix owned a Coral electric sitar that later wound up in the possession of Peter Frampton, who used it on tour during David Bowie's 1987 world tour.

Amplifiers and effects

Hendrix was a catalyst in the development of modern guitar effects pedals. His high volume and use of feedback required robust and powerful amplifiers. For the first few rehearsals he used Vox and Fender amplifiers. Sitting in with Cream, Hendrix played through a new range of high-powered guitar amps being made by London drummer turned audio engineer Jim Marshall, and they proved perfect for his needs. Along with the Stratocaster, the Marshall stack and amplifiers were crucial in shaping his heavily overdriven sound, enabling him to master the use of feedback as a musical effect, and he created a "definitive vocabulary for rock guitar".

While his mainstays were the Arbiter Fuzz Face and a Vox wah-wah pedal, Hendrix experimented with guitar effects as well. He had a fruitful association with engineer Roger Mayer who later went on to make the Axis fuzz unit, the Octavia octave doubler and several other devices based on units Mayer had created or tweaked for Hendrix. The Japanese-made Uni-Vibe, designed to simulate the modulation effects of the rotating Leslie speaker, provided a rich phasing sound with a speed control pedal, and is heard on the Band of Gypsys track "Machine Gun", which highlights use of the Uni-Vibe, Octavia and Fuzz Face.

The Hendrix sound combined high volume and high power, feedback manipulation, and a range of cutting-edge guitar effects. He was also known for his trick playing, which included playing with only his right (fretting) hand and using his teeth or playing behind his back and between his legs. Hendrix had large hands and characteristically used his thumb to fret bass notes, leaving his fingers free to play melodic lines on top. A clear demonstration of this thumb technique can be witnessed in the Woodstock video; during the song "Red House" there are closeups of Hendrix's fretting hand.

Discography

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

''Are You Experienced'' (1967)

''Axis: Bold as Love'' (1967)

''Electric Ladyland'' (1968)

Jimi Hendrix/Band of Gypsys

''Band of Gypsys'' (1970) [recorded live]

Posthumous studio albums

''The Cry of Love'' (1971)

''Rainbow Bridge'' (1971)

''War Heroes'' (1972)

''Loose Ends'' (1974)

''Crash Landing'' (1975)

''Midnight Lightning'' (1975)

''Nine to the Universe'' (1980)

''Radio One'' (1988)

''First Rays of the New Rising Sun'' (1997)

''Valleys of Neptune'' (2010)

See also

Eire Apparent

Electric Church

Rainbow Bridge (film) Maui, Hawaii, 1970

Citations

Further reading

Charles R. Cross, ''Room Full Of Mirrors: A Biography Of Jimi Hendrix, 2005: ISBN 1401300286

Gary Geldeart & Steve Rodham, "From The Benjamin Franklin Studios 3rd Edition Parts 1, 2 & 3" 2008

Curtis Knight, ''Jimi: An Intimate Biography of Jimi Hendrix'', Praegar Publishers, New York, 1974. The book includes ''A Jimi Hendrix Discography'', compiled by John McKellar.

John Kruth, ''Bright Moments: The Life & Legacy of Rahsaan Roland Kirk'', 2004: ISBN 1566491053

Mark Lewisohn, ''The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions'', Hamlyn 1988: ISBN 0600612074. See pp. 164–5 re Apple recording studio.

Ken Matesich, ''Jimi Hendrix: A Discography'', 1982

David Stubbs, ''Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child: The Stories Behind Every Song'', 2003

Brad Tolinski and Ross Halfin, ''Classic Hendrix: The Ultimate Hendrix Experience'', Genesis Publications 2004

External links

The Jimi Hendrix Foundation

Jimi Hendrix at MySpace

Jimi Hendrix Exhibition – slideshow by ''The First Post''

"Jimi Hendrix: 'You never told me he was that good'" Ed Vulliamy, ''The Guardian''

Category:1942 births Category:1970 deaths Category:African American guitarists Category:African American rock musicians Category:African American rock singers Category:African American singer-songwriters Category:Alcohol-related deaths Category:Alcohol-related deaths in England Category:American baritones Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:American people of Cherokee descent Category:Drug-related deaths Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Lead guitarists Category:Musicians from Seattle, Washington Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:The Jimi Hendrix Experience members Category:United States Army soldiers Category:People from Renton, Washington Category:Psychedelic rock musicians Category:American rock guitarists Category:American record producers Category:American funk guitarists

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