8. Hendrix’s First Rays of the New Rising Sun

In the late sixties, Jimi Hendrix recorded a trio of albums that established him as one of the most talented guitarists of all time. Hendrix was a prolific songwriter, and following the breakup of his band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, he began work on an ambitious double album called First Rays of the New Rising Sun. Unfortunately, before the recording was fully under way, Hendrix died of an overdose of sleeping pills. After Hendrix’s death a years-long legal battle began between his family and his former producer over who had the rights to the singer’s material. The family finally won in 1995, and they hired a select group of recording engineers and producers to attempt to reconstruct First Rays of the New Rising Sun. The surviving recordings ranged from nearly complete to very rough demos, but in 1997 a shortened version of the album was released that claims to be as close to Hendrix’s original vision as is possible.