10 Perfect Rock Singles Released In Summer
3. The Jimi Hendrix Experience: All Along The Watchtower (1968)
"All Along The Watchtower" originally appeared on Bob Dylan's eighth studio album, John Wesley Harding, released in late December 1967. Dylan would go on to release the track as a single the following November, but not before Jimi Hendrix beat him to it.
Hendrix dropped his own interoperation of the Dylan number at the tale end of summer in '68. It would also appear on his final album Electric Ladyland (1968). Hendrix was a huge Dylan fan, by the time he took on this song he'd already covered "Like A Rolling Stone". It was a flashy and enjoyable rendition, but it was nothing compared to what he did with Watchtower.
Hendrix found spaces in Dylan's melody for his guitar to glide through, in an ever expanding trip of musical psychedelia. Indeed, Dylan thought Hendrix's version was so superior to his own that he considered it a Hendrix original, remarking: “Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it’s a tribute to him in some kind of way.” - high praise from one of America's greatest songwriters.