Rock guitar virtuoso Jimi Hendrix (1942 - 1970) caught mid guitar-break during his performance at the Isle of Wight Festival, August 1970.

As anyone who knows anything about rock music will tell you, Jimi Hendrix is one of the best, and most influential artists, ever. His recording career lasted less than five years; he died at the age of 27 on September 18, 1970. But his three studio albums helped to change the course of rock music and pop culture. Over the years, various record labels have unloaded all kinds of reissues and live recordings. It’s understandable if the torrent of Hendrix releases makes you say, “Another Hendrix release? Again?” But the man recorded a lot of mind-blowing music in his short life.

We’ve gone through his albums released during his lifetime, as well as a lot of posthumously released collections. So, in honor of what would have been his 80th birthday on November 27, we decided to take a deep dive into his catalog… and we also looked at his influence and his influences. So, we’re presenting a series of lists: Jimi’s 16 best covers, the 22 best covers of Jimi’s songs and here, Jimi’s 42 best original jams. We’re only including songs that Jimi wrote, so there are at least two big hits that you’ll note aren’t on this list.