10 Live Covers Of Hard Rock Songs You Need To Hear

This particular cover has gone down in music history, so famous it almost didn’t get a mention on this list for fear of being too obvious a choice. Nevertheless, it felt wrong to compile a ten-entry list of live covers without giving it an honourable mention.

The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on Friday 26 May 1967. Two days later, Jimi Hendrix opened his show with an explosive cover of the title track.

With no less than two Beatles in the audience, this was a damn bold move by Hendrix, and really demonstrated what made him such a lightning bolt of inspired energy during the era when rock music was coming into its own.

George Harrison and Paul McCartney were said to be utterly blown away by the audacity and brilliance of this move, and McCartney would later remark it was his favourite ever performance of the song.

Hendrix begins the performance by warning the audience to watch out for their ears; advice that should certainly be heeded, as this particular piece of footage unfortunately contains some unpleasant white noise throughout. But damn, it was filmed over 50 years ago, and coupled with the grainy and shaky camera footage it only adds to the authenticity of this real time capsule of music history.