The Jimi Hendrix Experience I went to see him play, I thought that was it, the game was up for all of us, we may as well pack it in." The group came to prominence in the US after the June 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, one of the first major rock music festivals. The band's performance ended with Hendrix famously setting his psychedelically painted Fender Stratocaster on fire. After the festival they toured with the Monkees, but left the tour two weeks later, reportedly due to lack of audience response. With the Experience, Hendrix recorded several hit singles, such as "Hey Joe", "Purple Haze",
Jimi Hendrix and directed by Jimi Hendrix". During the "Electric Ladyland" recording sessions, Hendrix began experimenting with other combinations of musicians, including Jefferson Airplane's Jack Casady and Traffic's Steve Winwood, who played bass and organ, respectively, on the fifteen-minute slow-blues jam, "Voodoo Chile". During the album's production, Hendrix appeared at an impromptu jam with B.B. King, Al Kooper, and Elvin Bishop. "Electric Ladyland" was released on October 25, and by mid-November it had reached number one in the U.S., spending two weeks at the top spot. The double LP was Hendrix's most commercially successful release and his only number one album. It