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Noteworthy Then

1/21/1968 Jimi Hendrix records All Along the Watchtower

The recording of a song plenty of Classic Rock fans consider the best cover version ever took place at Olympic Studios in London on this day in 1968. Bob Dylan's original of All Along the Watchtower got recorded in early November of the previous year in Nashville and was released on December 27, 1967.


Bob's publicist reportedly gave Hendrix a tape recording of the track before its release. Jimi loved it and wanted to include a version on the double album he was working on. Eddie Kramer was engineering the Electric Ladyland sessions in London and said Hendrix laid down so many takes of the song that Experience bass player Noel Redding got fed-up and walked out, so Traffic's Dave Mason, who played 12 string guitar in the sessions, took over playing bass on some takes of Watchtower, but Hendrix himself played it on the album's eventual version. Jimi would also replace his guitar parts several times over at the Record Plant in New York before he was satisfied enough to approve it for release.


His single of the song got released on September 21, 1968, with the album following it in October. Dylan was hugely impressed with the Hendrix version, saying, 'It overwhelmed me, really' and admitting that his own live versions would later borrow from the arrangement for it Hendrix came up with.

 

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 21 include...

 

1938 Wolfman Jack (Robert Smith) born.

1941 Richie Havens is born in Brooklyn, NY.

1964 An Animals concert scheduled for this night gets cancelled due to an immigration issue.

1966 George Harrison marries Patti Boyd, Paul McCartney is the Best Man at the ceremony.

1968 The Graduate soundtrack album is released.

1974 Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter hosts a post concert party for Bob Dylan at the Governor's Mansion.

1977 Pink Floyd releases Animals in England. Its US release would come on February 12.

1982 BB King donates his 20,000 lp collection to the Mississippi University Southern Culture Studies department.

1983 Lamar Williams of the Allman Brothers Band (1972-1976) and Sea Level dies of lung cancer at 34.

1984 Jackie Wilson suffers a heart attack during concert in New Jersey, enters coma and dies 8 years later.

1987 Rock Hall of Fame inducts Bo Diddley, Roy Orbison, BB King, Muddy Waters, Eddie Cochran, Carl Perkins, Jackie Wilson, Smokey Robinson, T-Bone Walker, Ricky Nelson, Louis Jordan, Leiber & Stoller, Clyde McPhatter and record execs Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler.

1992 Billy Idol enters not-guilty plea to charges filed against him after a confrontation outside a Hollywood restaurant.

1996 Bruce Springsteen appears on 60 Minutes.

2004 Guitarist Warren Haynes joins the Dead.

2006 Bon Jovi members avoid injury when their plane skids off the runway at Hamilton International Airport in Canada.

2011 SCKBSTD, musical by Bruce Hornsby, opens.

2017 Joe Perry receives Les Paul Award.

2020 Ozzy Osbourne reveals he has Parkinson's Disease during interview on Good Morning America.

2022 John Mellencamp release Stricktly a One-Eyed Jack...