Claim: Are You Experienced is the debut album of a rock band.

Are You Experienced is the debut studio album by English-American rock band the Jimi Hendrix Experience . Released in 1967 , the LP was an immediate critical and commercial success , and it is widely regarded as one of the greatest debuts in the history of rock music . The album features Jimi Hendrix 's innovative approach to songwriting and electric guitar playing which soon established a new direction in psychedelic and hard rock music .   By mid-1966 , Hendrix was struggling to earn a living playing the R&B circuit as a backing guitarist . After being referred to Chas Chandler , who was leaving the Animals and interested in managing and producing artists , Hendrix was signed to a management and production contract with Chandler and ex-Animals manager Michael Jeffery . Chandler brought Hendrix to London and began recruiting members for a band designed to showcase the guitarist 's talents , the Jimi Hendrix Experience . In late October , after having been rejected by Decca Records , the Experience signed with Track , a new label formed by the Who 's managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp .   Are You Experienced and its preceding singles were recorded over a five-month period from late October 1966 through early April 1967 . The album was completed in sixteen recording sessions at three London locations , including De Lane Lea Studios , CBS , and Olympic . Released in the UK on May 12 , 1967 , Are You Experienced spent 33 weeks on the charts , peaking at number two . The album was issued in the US on August 23 by Reprise Records , where it reached number five on the Billboard 200 , remaining on the chart for 106 weeks , 27 of those in the Top 40 . The album also spent 70 weeks on the US Billboard R&B chart , where it peaked at # 10 . The US version contained some of Hendrix 's best known songs , including the Experience 's first three singles , which , though omitted from the British edition of the LP , were top ten hits in the UK : `` Purple Haze '' , `` Hey Joe '' , and `` The Wind Cries Mary '' .   In 2005 , Rolling Stone ranked Are You Experienced fifteenth on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time . They placed four songs from the album on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time : `` Purple Haze '' -LRB- 17 -RRB- , `` Foxy Lady '' -LRB- 153 -RRB- , `` Hey Joe '' -LRB- 201 -RRB- , and `` The Wind Cries Mary '' -LRB- 379 -RRB- . That same year , the record was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress in recognition of its cultural significance to be added to the National Recording Registry . Writer and archivist Reuben Jackson of the Smithsonian Institution wrote : `` it 's still a landmark recording because it is of the rock , R&B , blues ... musical tradition . It altered the syntax of the music ... in a way I compare to James Joyce 's Ulysses . ''