Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

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"Voodoo Child (Slight Return)"

Single by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
from the album Electric Ladyland
Released	1968 (album)/1970 (single)
Format	7" single
Recorded	May 1968
Genre	Psychedelic Rock,Hard Rock
Length	5:12
Label	MCA
Writer(s)	Jimi Hendrix
Producer(s)	Jimi Hendrix
Chart positions
1 (1970)
The Jimi Hendrix Experience singles chronology
Izabella	Voodoo Child (Slight Return)	No Such Animal (Part 1 & Part 2)

"Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" is the last track on the third and final album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Electric Ladyland. The song is well known for its wah-wah-soaked guitar work, with muted strings crescendoing into explosive riffs.

"Voodoo Child" was released as a single posthumously in 1970, and reached Number 1 in the UK.

1 Origins and recording
2 Personnel
3 Cover versions
4 Other usage
5 References

[edit] Origins and recording

"Voodoo Child (Slight Return)"'s genesis was essentially in "Voodoo Chile", a long blues jam featuring guests Steve Winwood and Jack Casady. On May 3, 1968 (the day after "Voodoo Chile"'s recording), a crew from ABC filmed the Jimi Hendrix Experience while they played. As Hendrix explained it:

"Someone was filming when we started doing that... We did that about three times because they wanted to film us in the studio—'Make like you're recording, boys.' So it was 'OK, let's play this in E, a one, a two, a three, and then we went into 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return)'".

[edit] Personnel

Producer: Jimi Hendrix
Additional producer:Chas Chandler
Engineer: Eddie Kramer
Guitar, vocals: Jimi Hendrix
Bass: Noel Redding
Drums: Mitch Mitchell

[edit] Cover versions

The track was covered by avid Hendrix fan Stevie Ray Vaughan for his Austin City Limits debut in 1983 and for his 1984 album Couldn't Stand the Weather in a slightly extended version, though it was spelled Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) in both cases. Stevie played this song all throughout his career.
The song was also covered by Angélique Kidjo for her 1998 album Oremi.
Another cover was recorded by Yngwie Malmsteen in the album The Genesis and is mentioned as a "jam".
The song has also been covered numerous times by Ben Harper during live performances, bootlegs of which circulate around the internet are frequently but erroneously attributed to Pearl Jam.
The song was covered by Kenny Wayne Shepherd and released as a bonus track on his blue on black single released in 1997.
The song featured as a jam between Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen at G3: Live in Denver in 2003.

[edit] Other usage

The song has been featured in a Nissan Xterra commercial, featured in the films Payback and In the Name of the Father.
Occasionally as the theme music of professional wrestler Hulk Hogan. During one such usage, commentator Mike Tenay mentioned it by name, but mispronounced it as "Voodoo Chili," resulting in a brief running gag of mocking that among the internet wrestling community.
MLB slugger Mike Piazza of the Oakland Athletics has long used the song when coming to bat.
Relief pitcher Joel Zumaya of the Detroit Tigers also uses the song when entering from the bullpen.
The opening to the song also is one of the demos included in Guitar Pro 5.
Radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge opens and closes his show with the song.
Stevie Ray Vaughan's cover of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" was also featured in the 2002 film Black Hawk Down.
The song was also used in the movies Under Siege, Almost Famous, In the Name of the Father, Flashback and Withnail and I.
Several times as background music in the latest series of Top Gear.
Hanoi Rocks guitarist Andy McCoy quoted the song as his "last words" when he was sliding down from his balcony in 1999. McCoy said to his wife before falling down to the ground "If I see you no more in this world, I see you in the next world, and don't be late". McCoy, however, survived the fall (though his leg had to be operated afterwards). "I quoted Hendrix", he told later in the interview in Helsingin Sanomat newspaper's weekly supplement.

[edit] References

Experience Hendrix: The Best Of Jimi Hendrix (Liner notes), Experience Hendrix, 1997.

Preceded by "Woodstock" by Matthews Southern Comfort	UK number one single November 17, 1970	Succeeded by "I Hear You Knocking" by Dave Edmund's Rockpile