Jimi Hendrix Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, Keith recommended him to Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham and producer Seymour Stein. They failed to see Hendrix's musical potential, and rejected him. She then referred him to Chas Chandler, who was leaving the Animals and interested in managing and producing artists. Chandler saw the then-unknown Jimi Hendrix play in Cafe Wha?, a Greenwich Village, New York City nightclub. Chandler liked the Billy Roberts song "Hey Joe", and was convinced he could create a hit single with the right artist. Impressed with Hendrix's version of the song, he brought him to London on September
The Jimi Hendrix Experience French Tour 1966 after drummer Mitch Mitchell joined on October 6. The set lists for the first three dates of the tour remain unclear, though are known to have included "Hey Joe", planned as the band's first single; Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor"; "Land of a Thousand Dances", popularised by Wilson Picket; Otis Redding's "Respect"; and Don Covay's "Mercy, Mercy", which Hendrix usually referred to as "Have Mercy". "Killing Floor" and "Hey Joe" were retained for the final date at the Olympia, to which rock standard "Wild Thing" was added as a finale; this was the first Experience performance recorded. The Jimi Hendrix Experience