The Wind Cries Mary

Infobox Single
Name = The Wind Cries Mary


Caption =
Artist = The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Album = "Are You Experienced"
B-side = "Highway Chile"
Released = May 5, 1967
Format = 7"
Recorded = January 11, 1967 at De Lane Lea Studios in London, England
Genre = Rock, psychedelic rock, acid rock, blues-rock
Length = 3:20
Label = Track
Writer = Jimi Hendrix
Producer = Chas Chandler
Last single = "Purple Haze"
(1967)
This single = "The Wind Cries Mary"
(1967)
Next single = "Burning of the Midnight Lamp"
(1967)

The Wind Cries Mary is a song by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. It was released as the band's third single, backed with "Highway Chile", on May 5, 1967. The track is considered a good exhibit of psychedelic blues-rock, as the song is in the key of F major, with a guitar solo primarily involving the F major pentatonic scale. One of Hendrix's first hits in England, the song was recorded at the end of the "Fire" sessions. Today, the song is considered a classic and continues to receive decent airplay around the world.Fact|date=February 2007It is #370 on Rolling Stone's list of 500 greatest songs of all time.

In the USA, the song was first released as B-side to the song "Purple Haze" in June 1967 and later on the USA compilation version of the album "Are You Experienced" and along with the other sides of their first three singles, on most later re-releases of "Are You Experienced"

The song is said to have been inspired when Hendrix and his then girlfriend, Kathy Etchingham, had an argument over her cooking; after she stormed out of their apartment, Hendrix wrote "The Wind Cries Mary", as Mary was Etchingham's middle name.Fact|date=February 2007. Kathy has said that many of the Dylanesque lyrics describe the test card that appeared at the end of BBC television transmissions at that time. [Interview, "The 100 Greatest Albums, E4", 2007] , although this may have been a mistake on Kathy's behalf as that particular testcard wasn't first broadcast until July 1967, while the song had been written long before that. Billy Cox, who was the bassist for the Band of Gypsys and long-time friend of Hendrix has stated Curtis Mayfields' influence on the song.

"'The Wind Cries Mary' was a riff that was influenced by Curtis Mayfield, who was a big influence for Jimi."

It is a misconceptionFact|date=February 2007 that Hendrix wrote the song about marijuana use, as "Mary Jane" is a slang term for marijuana. "The Wind Cries Mary" and "Highway Chile" was re-released in 1983 on The Singles Album compilation. [CD Pamphlet notes, "The Singles Album", 1983]

The song will appear in the music video game Guitar Hero World Tour.

Cover versions

*Jamie Cullum released a remake of "The Wind Cries Mary" on his album "Twentysomething".
*Guitarist Marc Ribot released a cover on his Rootless Cosmopolitans album.
*Xavier Rudd recorded a version on his album "To Let".
*The song "Mademoiselle Mabry" on the Miles Davis album "Filles de Kilimanjaro" is actually Gil Evans' arrangement of "The Wind Cries Mary."
*Richie Sambora covered the song, releasing it as a B-side to his "Ballad of Youth" single, and on the soundtrack album of the movie The Adventures of Ford Fairlane.
*Cassandra Wilson covered the song on the album "Crossing Jordan: Music from the NBC Television Series" (2003).
*The Bobs did an a cappella cover of the song on the album "The Bobs Cover The Songs of..." (1994).
*Pat Boone covered this song in his album "" (1997).

References