Purple Haze
Encyclopedia
"Purple Haze" is a song written in 1966
and recorded in 1967
by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
and released as a single (Hendrix's second) in both the United Kingdom
and the United States
. It appeared on their 1967 album Are You Experienced
. "Purple Haze" has become one of the "archetypical psychedelic drug songs of the sixties".
Reportedly, the song came into being after the band's producer Chas Chandler
heard him playing the riff backstage and suggested that he write lyrics to go with it. There is some dispute about the lyrics: supposedly written in the dressing room of the Upper Cut Club on Boxing Day
, 1966, Chandler claims that the lyrics were never cut in any way (though he admits that this was done on general principle with Hendrix's lyrics), while Hendrix stated that the original song contained much more text. Hendrix himself denied the drug relation of the song claiming it to be merely another love song. He said that the line "What ever it is, that girl put a spell on me" is the key line to the lyrics.
The single was released in the UK (as Track
604001) on 17 March 1967; it entered the charts at #39 and peaked at number three, spending 14 weeks in the chart. It was released in the US (as Reprise
0597) on 19 June 1967, where it peaked at #65, spending only 8 weeks in the chart.
In March 2005, Q magazine ranked "Purple Haze" at number one in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. Rolling Stone
magazine placed the song at #17 in their "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Australian music TV channel MAX placed "Purple Haze" at #17 on their 2008 countdown Rock Songs: Top 100.
" by Philip José Farmer
. In it, "purple haze" is used to describe the disorienting effect of sunspot activity on the inhabitants of a planet called Dante's Joy.
by actually using it as a joke while singing "Purple Haze" live in concert, particularly at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. In Cheech & Chong's film Nice Dreams, the line is parodied as "excuse me while I kiss this fly
".
" (dominant 7 # 9) played as the first chord after the introduction. This chord structure was often used in jazz by artists such as Horace Silver
in the early 1960s, but was not used in rock on a regular basis. The intro itself is notable for its prominent use of the distinctive tritone
interval, also used commonly by jazz musicians. It is sounded when Hendrix plays an E7 #9 (low to high: E, G#, B, D, G) on the guitar while the bass plays a B flat(and its octave); such a "dissonant" interval was unusual in popular music of the time. The guitar solo is played through an Octavia
, an effects pedal that increases notes by one octave. The effect was developed by Roger Mayer
, an acoustical and electronics engineer, and Mayer claims he made it in cooperation with Jimi Hendrix. A dubbed guitar part using the Octavia can also be heard during the outro.
used "Purple Haze" as the basis for title track of his album Hooray for the Salvation Army Band
, although Hendrix does not receive a songwriting credit on the label. Johhny Jones & the King Casuals covered "Purple Haze" in 1968. Hendrix was a member of The King Casuals prior to his solo career. A pop version by Dion
reached #72 in Canada in February 1969. In 1973, in National Lampoon's Lemmings
, a parody of Woodstock, John Belushi
's Joe Cocker
parody "Lonely at the Bottom" refers to the late 1960s as "days of Purple Haze and freon". In the 1979 film Apocalypse Now
, the character Lance deploys a purple smoke grenade on the boat and sings the song, while on LSD.
In Cheech & Chong's film Nice Dreams, released in 1981 by Columbia Pictures, when the protagonists are in a mental institution, a black patient dressed like Jimi Hendrix (played by Michael Winslow
) sings a parody version of "Purple Haze" (Sample lyric: "'Scuse me while I eat this fly"). A live recording of the song is featured in the opening credits of the 1983
comedy-drama
film of the same name
. Near the end of the Huey Lewis and the News
1984 song "I Want a New Drug
", the famous Intro to "Purple Haze" can be heard as the music fades out. Los Angeles art rock
band The Fibonaccis
recorded a discordant avant-garde cover of "Purple Haze" in 1984, releasing a psychedelic
music video for the song the same year. San Francisco string quartet Kronos Quartet
play "Purple Haze" live regularly; the song is included on their album Kronos Quartet
(1986) and on the music DVD In Accord (2000).
A version by the Art Ensemble of Chicago
is featured on their album Ancient to the Future
, which was released in 1987. The song "Purple Haze" is played in the movie Masters of the Universe
from 1987 starring Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren
. The band Winger performed a cover of the song on their self-titled debut album
released by Atlantic Records
in 1988. The song was featured in the 1988 action film Shakedown
. A heavy version of the song has been performed live by Ozzy Osbourne
at the Moscow Music Peace Festival
, a one-time gathering of high-profile hard rock
acts who put on a concert
for the people in Moscow
, Soviet Union
on 12 and 13 August 1989
to promote world peace. This version is featured on the compilation album Stairway to Heaven/Highway to Hell
, which was released in the same year. The Traveling Wilburys
song "End of the Line", released in 1989, contains the lyrics "Maybe somewhere down the road a ways / You'll think of me and wonder where I am these days / Maybe somewhere down the road when somebody plays / Purple Haze".
Frank Zappa
performs a parody version of the song on 1991 live album The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life
, recorded in 1988. The Bobs
recorded an a cappella
version of "Purple Haze" in 1991. A version of "Purple Haze" by Tangerine Dream
is on the group's concert album 220 Volt Live
, which was recorded live in USA in 1992. A version by The Cure
is the first track on 1993 tribute album
Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix
. In the film Apollo 13
, released in 1995, Jim Lovell
's oldest daughter was playing "Purple Haze" before watching Apollo 13s live broadcast from space.
In an episode of My Wife and Kids
, Michael Kyle shows his son and his friend his guitar skills by playing the song; he also lit the guitar on fire and played it with his tongue. A copy of the single was found in a CD player in one of Uday Hussein
's luxury vehicles. In the 2006 song "Dimension" by the Australian band Wolfmother
, they use the lyrics "Purple Haze is in the sky". The intro to "Purple Haze" can be heard during the guitar solo of the song "Dani California
" a single by The Red Hot Chili Peppers released on May 1, 2006.
In 2007, the Buena Vista Social Club
covered this song in the album Rhythms del Mundo Classics
.
The piece One Winged Angel, from Final Fantasy VII
by Nobuo Uematsu
, is inspired by "Purple Haze" including its famous intro. A live version of the song (recorded at the San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego, CA and not Woodstock, contrary to popular belief) appears alongside "The Wind Cries Mary
" in the music video game Guitar Hero World Tour
.
D.H. Peligro, ex-drummer of the Dead Kennedys
, recently recorded a punk rock
cover of "Purple Haze", which was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Seattle band Eclipse Revolution covered "Purple Haze" live.
Brian May
and his early band 1984 record "Purple Haze" on March 31, 1967 at Thames Television in Broom Lane Studios, Teddington, UK.
In the anime
series Bamboo Blade
the character Sayako Kuwahara stated that she wanted to play guitar after hearing the song.
On November 18, 2010 in Paris, France, Adam Lambert
covered the song, as an encore, at a live performance at the Trabendo. Almost immediately, "purple haze" became an international twitter trend.
In 2011, the cello/bassoon duo Paradox recorded a cover of "Purple Haze" on their CD titled MiX-5: Premiere Recordings for Bassoon and Cello.
1966 in music
-Events:*January 3 – Hullabaloo shows promotional videos of The Beatles songs "Day Tripper" and "We Can Work it Out".*January 8 – Shindig! airs for the last time on ABC, with musical guests the Kinks and the Who...
and recorded in 1967
1967 in music
The summer of 1967 is "The Summer of Love" in San Francisco. It also became an important year for psychedelic rock, with releases from The Beatles The summer of 1967 is "The Summer of Love" in San Francisco. It also became an important year for psychedelic rock, with releases from The Beatles The...
by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Jimi Hendrix Experience were an English-American psychedelic rock band that formed in London in October 1966. Comprising eponymous singer-songwriter and guitarist Jimi Hendrix, bassist and backing vocalist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, the band was active until June 1969, in which...
and released as a single (Hendrix's second) in both the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It appeared on their 1967 album Are You Experienced
Are You Experienced
Are You Experienced is the debut album by English/American rock band The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Released in 1967, it was the first LP for Track Records...
. "Purple Haze" has become one of the "archetypical psychedelic drug songs of the sixties".
Reportedly, the song came into being after the band's producer Chas Chandler
Chas Chandler
Bryan James "Chas" Chandler was an English musician, record producer and manager of several successful music acts....
heard him playing the riff backstage and suggested that he write lyrics to go with it. There is some dispute about the lyrics: supposedly written in the dressing room of the Upper Cut Club on Boxing Day
Boxing Day
Boxing Day is a bank or public holiday that occurs on 26 December, or the first or second weekday after Christmas Day, depending on national or regional laws. It is observed in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth nations. In Ireland, it is recognized as...
, 1966, Chandler claims that the lyrics were never cut in any way (though he admits that this was done on general principle with Hendrix's lyrics), while Hendrix stated that the original song contained much more text. Hendrix himself denied the drug relation of the song claiming it to be merely another love song. He said that the line "What ever it is, that girl put a spell on me" is the key line to the lyrics.
The single was released in the UK (as Track
Track Records
Track Records is an English record label founded in London in 1966 by Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, then managers of hard rock band The Who. The most successful artists whose work appeared on the Track label were The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Who, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Thunderclap...
604001) on 17 March 1967; it entered the charts at #39 and peaked at number three, spending 14 weeks in the chart. It was released in the US (as Reprise
Reprise Records
Reprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...
0597) on 19 June 1967, where it peaked at #65, spending only 8 weeks in the chart.
In March 2005, Q magazine ranked "Purple Haze" at number one in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine placed the song at #17 in their "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Australian music TV channel MAX placed "Purple Haze" at #17 on their 2008 countdown Rock Songs: Top 100.
Lyrics
"I dream a lot and I put a lot of my dreams down as songs," Hendrix said in a 1969 interview with the New Musical Express, "I wrote one called 'First Around the Corner' and another called 'The Purple Haze', which was all about a dream I had that I was walking under the sea." The term "purple haze" has been used to refer to LSD, due to the form sold by Sandoz, called Delysid, which came in purple capsules. The phrase itself appears in print as early as 1861, in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, chapter 54: "There was the red sun, on the low level of the shore, in a purple haze, fast deepening into black..." Although, Hendrix himself stated that the song was partially in reference to a sci-fi story entitled "Night of LightNight of Light
Night of Light is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip Jose Farmer. It was published in June 1957 by Lawrence E. Spivak's publishing house, The Mercury Press, Inc. It was published a second time in 1966 by Berkeley Medallion Books with copyright reserved to the author...
" by Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his award-winning science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories....
. In it, "purple haze" is used to describe the disorienting effect of sunspot activity on the inhabitants of a planet called Dante's Joy.
Common mondegreen
A common misheard lyric in the song is "excuse me while I kiss this guy". The actual line is "excuse me while I kiss the sky". In fact, it has even been documented that Jimi Hendrix himself perpetrated this mondegreenMondegreen
A mondegreen is the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase as a result of near homophony, in a way that gives it a new meaning. It most commonly is applied to a line in a poem or a lyric in a song...
by actually using it as a joke while singing "Purple Haze" live in concert, particularly at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. In Cheech & Chong's film Nice Dreams, the line is parodied as "excuse me while I kiss this fly
Fly
True flies are insects of the order Diptera . They possess a pair of wings on the mesothorax and a pair of halteres, derived from the hind wings, on the metathorax...
".
Music
The song is known for its use of the "Hendrix chordHendrix chord
In music, the dominant 79 chord is sometimes known colloquially as the Hendrix chord or Purple Haze chord, nicknamed for guitarist Jimi Hendrix...
" (dominant 7 # 9) played as the first chord after the introduction. This chord structure was often used in jazz by artists such as Horace Silver
Horace Silver
Horace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....
in the early 1960s, but was not used in rock on a regular basis. The intro itself is notable for its prominent use of the distinctive tritone
Tritone
In classical music from Western culture, the tritone |tone]]) is traditionally defined as a musical interval composed of three whole tones. In a chromatic scale, each whole tone can be further divided into two semitones...
interval, also used commonly by jazz musicians. It is sounded when Hendrix plays an E7 #9 (low to high: E, G#, B, D, G) on the guitar while the bass plays a B flat(and its octave); such a "dissonant" interval was unusual in popular music of the time. The guitar solo is played through an Octavia
Octavia (effects pedal)
The Octavia was an effects pedal designed for Jimi Hendrix by his sound technician, Jim Morris of Kelsey-Morris Sound Co., London, in early 1967...
, an effects pedal that increases notes by one octave. The effect was developed by Roger Mayer
Roger Mayer
Roger Mayer is the electrical engineer who developed several electric guitar effects, most notably the Octavia, an effects pedal which reproduced the input signal one octave higher, and mixes the two sounds with some added fuzz...
, an acoustical and electronics engineer, and Mayer claims he made it in cooperation with Jimi Hendrix. A dubbed guitar part using the Octavia can also be heard during the outro.
Covers of and references to Purple Haze
Bill CosbyBill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
used "Purple Haze" as the basis for title track of his album Hooray for the Salvation Army Band
Bill Cosby Sings Hooray for the Salvation Army Band!
Bill Cosby Sings Hooray for the Salvation Army Band! is the ninth album by Bill Cosby. This was his second studio album to feature his singing, and features less serious renditions of then-current rock and soul hits...
, although Hendrix does not receive a songwriting credit on the label. Johhny Jones & the King Casuals covered "Purple Haze" in 1968. Hendrix was a member of The King Casuals prior to his solo career. A pop version by Dion
Dion DiMucci
Dion Francis DiMucci , better known as Dion, is an American singer-songwriter whose work has incorporated elements of doo-wop, pop oldies music, rock and R&B styles....
reached #72 in Canada in February 1969. In 1973, in National Lampoon's Lemmings
National Lampoon's Lemmings
National Lampoon's Lemmings, a spinoff of the humor magazine National Lampoon, was a 1973 stage show which helped launch the performing careers of John Belushi, Christopher Guest, and Chevy Chase. The show was co-written and co-directed by a number of people including Sean Kelly...
, a parody of Woodstock, John Belushi
John Belushi
John Adam Belushi was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known as one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, The Star of the Films National Lampoon's Animal House and the The Blues Brothers and for fronting the American blues and soul...
's Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...
parody "Lonely at the Bottom" refers to the late 1960s as "days of Purple Haze and freon". In the 1979 film Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American war film set during the Vietnam War, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The central character is US Army special operations officer Captain Benjamin L. Willard , of MACV-SOG, an assassin sent to kill the renegade and presumed insane Special Forces...
, the character Lance deploys a purple smoke grenade on the boat and sings the song, while on LSD.
In Cheech & Chong's film Nice Dreams, released in 1981 by Columbia Pictures, when the protagonists are in a mental institution, a black patient dressed like Jimi Hendrix (played by Michael Winslow
Michael Winslow
Michael Winslow is an American actor and a comedian billed as the "Man of 10,000 Sound Effects" for his ability to make realistic sound effects using only his voice.-Early life:...
) sings a parody version of "Purple Haze" (Sample lyric: "'Scuse me while I eat this fly"). A live recording of the song is featured in the opening credits of the 1983
1983 in film
-Events:*February 11 - The Rolling Stones concert film Let's Spend the Night Together opens in New York*May 25 - Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the final film in the original Star Wars trilogy, is released. Like the previous films, it goes on to become the top grossing picture of...
comedy-drama
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...
film of the same name
Purple Haze (film)
Purple Haze is a 1982 dramedy about Matt Caulfield, a college student who is expelled for smoking cannabis, and subsequently drafted to Vietnam in the summer of 1968.- Plot summary :...
. Near the end of the Huey Lewis and the News
Huey Lewis and the News
Huey Lewis and the News is an American rock band based in San Francisco, California. They had a run of hit singles during the 1980s and early 1990s, eventually scoring a total of 19 top-ten singles across the Billboard Hot 100, Adult Contemporary and Mainstream Rock charts...
1984 song "I Want a New Drug
I Want a New Drug
"I Want a New Drug" is a song by American rock band Huey Lewis and the News from their third album Sports. It was released as the second single from the album, following the top-ten hit "Heart and Soul" in January 1984. The single reached number six on the U.S...
", the famous Intro to "Purple Haze" can be heard as the music fades out. Los Angeles art rock
Art rock
Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, with influences from art, avant-garde, and classical music. The first usage of the term, according to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, was in 1968. Influenced by the work of The Beatles, most notably their Sgt...
band The Fibonaccis
The Fibonaccis
The Fibonaccis were an American art rock band formed in 1981 in Los Angeles. The band consisted of songwriter John Dentino , Ron Stringer , Magie Song , Joe Berardi and later Tom Corey .-Overview:...
recorded a discordant avant-garde cover of "Purple Haze" in 1984, releasing a psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
music video for the song the same year. San Francisco string quartet Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
play "Purple Haze" live regularly; the song is included on their album Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet (album)
Kronos Quartet is a studio album by the Kronos Quartet, the first of their albums on Nonesuch Records. It contains compositions by Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe, Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen, American composer Philip Glass, and American/Mexican composer Conlon Nancarrow...
(1986) and on the music DVD In Accord (2000).
A version by the Art Ensemble of Chicago
Art Ensemble of Chicago
The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an avant-garde jazz ensemble that grew out of Chicago's AACM in the late 1960s. The group continues to tour and record through 2006, despite the deaths of two of the founding members....
is featured on their album Ancient to the Future
Ancient to the Future
Ancient to the Future: Dreaming of the Masters Series Vol. 1 is a 1987 album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago released on the Japanese DIW label...
, which was released in 1987. The song "Purple Haze" is played in the movie Masters of the Universe
Masters of the Universe (film)
Masters of the Universe is a 1987 science-fiction fantasy film based on the toy line by the same name. The movie stars Dolph Lundgren as He-Man and Frank Langella as Skeletor...
from 1987 starring Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren
Dolph Lundgren
Dolph Lundgren is a Swedish actor, director, and martial artist. He belongs to a generation of film actors who epitomise the movie action hero stereotype including Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme.A graduate in chemical...
. The band Winger performed a cover of the song on their self-titled debut album
Winger (album)
Track 11, "Higher and Higher", was a CD bonus track. It wasn't on cassette copies of the album. It was also the B-side of the "Madalaine" single. In this day and age, just as CDs were beginning to become popular, it was not uncommon to include a bonus track like this.-Band:* Kip Winger – bass...
released by Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
in 1988. The song was featured in the 1988 action film Shakedown
Shakedown (1988 film)
Shakedown, also known as Blue Jean Cop, is a 1988 crime drama/action movie starring Peter Weller and Sam Elliott. The movie is about an idealistic lawyer teaming with a veteran cop to find out the truth in a possible police corruption scandal.-Plot:...
. A heavy version of the song has been performed live by Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne is an English vocalist, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, whose radically different, intentionally dark, harder sound helped spawn the heavy metal...
at the Moscow Music Peace Festival
Moscow Music Peace Festival
The Moscow Music Peace Festival was a one-time gathering of high-profile hard rock acts for a performance in Moscow, Soviet Union on 12 and 13 August 1989 to promote world peace and establish international cooperation in fighting the drug war in Russia. It was part of an era of momentous change in...
, a one-time gathering of high-profile hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
acts who put on a concert
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
for the people in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
on 12 and 13 August 1989
1989 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1989.-Events:*January 14 – Paul McCartney releases Снова в СССР exclusively in the USSR...
to promote world peace. This version is featured on the compilation album Stairway to Heaven/Highway to Hell
Stairway to Heaven/Highway to Hell
Stairway to Heaven/Highway to Hell was a 1989 compilation album featuring bands that performed at the Moscow Music Peace Festival. It was released by the Make a Difference Foundation. Each song is a cover of a famous solo artist or rock band who had suffered a drug- or alcohol-related death. The...
, which was released in the same year. The Traveling Wilburys
Traveling Wilburys
The Traveling Wilburys were an English–American supergroup consisting of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty, accompanied by drummer Jim Keltner...
song "End of the Line", released in 1989, contains the lyrics "Maybe somewhere down the road a ways / You'll think of me and wonder where I am these days / Maybe somewhere down the road when somebody plays / Purple Haze".
Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
performs a parody version of the song on 1991 live album The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life
The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life
The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life is a double disc live album by Frank Zappa, released in 1991 . The album was one of three to be recorded during the 1988 world tour, along with Broadway the Hard Way and Make a Jazz Noise Here...
, recorded in 1988. The Bobs
The Bobs
The Bobs were dubbed the first new wave a cappella group in history when they were founded in San Francisco, California in the early 1980s. Now based in Seattle, Washington, this genre-bending, eccentric vocal group has maintained a healthy cult following in the U.S...
recorded an a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
version of "Purple Haze" in 1991. A version of "Purple Haze" by Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The band has undergone many personnel changes over the years, with Froese being the only continuous member...
is on the group's concert album 220 Volt Live
220 Volt Live
220 Volt Live is a live album by Tangerine Dream, recorded live in the USA in 1992. It is the last of the band's many live albums consisting of original material not released previously. This may be considered some of the band's most rock oriented music so far, with Zlatko's guitar playing being...
, which was recorded live in USA in 1992. A version by The Cure
The Cure
The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...
is the first track on 1993 tribute album
Tribute album
A tribute album is a recorded collection of cover versions of songs or instrumental compositions. Its concept may be either various artists making a tribute to a single artist, a single artist making a tribute to various artists, or a single artist making a tribute to another single artist.There...
Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix
Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix
Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix is a 1993 album recorded by various artists in tribute to Jimi Hendrix. The artists were drawn from many genres of popular music. Contributors include his classic rock contemporaries Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, blues man Buddy Guy, classical violinist Nigel...
. In the film Apollo 13
Apollo 13 (film)
Apollo 13 is a 1995 American drama film directed by Ron Howard. The film stars Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Kathleen Quinlan and Ed Harris. The screenplay by William Broyles, Jr...
, released in 1995, Jim Lovell
Jim Lovell
James "Jim" Arthur Lovell, Jr., is a former NASA astronaut and a retired captain in the United States Navy, most famous as the commander of the Apollo 13 mission, which suffered a critical failure en route to the Moon but was brought back safely to Earth by the efforts of the crew and mission...
's oldest daughter was playing "Purple Haze" before watching Apollo 13s live broadcast from space.
In an episode of My Wife and Kids
My Wife and Kids
My Wife and Kids is an American television family sitcom that ran on ABC from March 28, 2001 until May 17, 2005. Produced by Touchstone Television , it starred Damon Wayans and Tisha Campbell-Martin, and centers on the character of Michael Kyle, a loving husband and modern-day patriarch who rules...
, Michael Kyle shows his son and his friend his guitar skills by playing the song; he also lit the guitar on fire and played it with his tongue. A copy of the single was found in a CD player in one of Uday Hussein
Uday Hussein
Uday Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti , was the eldest son of Saddam Hussein from his first wife, Sajida Talfah. He was the brother of Qusay Hussein. Uday was for several years seen as the heir apparent of his father; however, Uday lost his place in the line of succession due to his erratic behavior and...
's luxury vehicles. In the 2006 song "Dimension" by the Australian band Wolfmother
Wolfmother
Wolfmother is an Australian rock band from Erskineville, Sydney. Formed in 2000, the group was originally a trio composed of vocalist and guitarist Andrew Stockdale, bassist and keyboardist Chris Ross and drummer Myles Heskett. Wolfmother released their self-titled debut album in October 2005,...
, they use the lyrics "Purple Haze is in the sky". The intro to "Purple Haze" can be heard during the guitar solo of the song "Dani California
Dani California
"Dani California" is a single from the American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers's ninth studio album, Stadium Arcadium. The single was first made available at the iTunes Music Store and then was officially released on May 2, 2006...
" a single by The Red Hot Chili Peppers released on May 1, 2006.
In 2007, the Buena Vista Social Club
Buena Vista Social Club
The Buena Vista Social Club was a members club in Havana, Cuba that held dances and musical activities, becoming a popular location for musicians to meet and play during the 1940s...
covered this song in the album Rhythms del Mundo Classics
Rhythms del Mundo Classics
Rhythms del Mundo Classics is the follow-up album to the internationally successful album Rhythms del Mundo, featuring artists like The Killers, Amy Winehouse, Keane, Jack Johnson, The Rolling Stones, KT Tunstall and Rodrigo y Gabriela.-Charity:...
.
The piece One Winged Angel, from Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII
is a role-playing video game developed by Square and published by Sony Computer Entertainment as the seventh installment in the Final Fantasy series. It was originally released in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation and was re-released in 1998 for Microsoft Windows-based personal computers and in 2009...
by Nobuo Uematsu
Nobuo Uematsu
is a Japanese video game composer, best known for scoring the majority of titles in the Final Fantasy series. He is considered as one of the most famous and respected composers in the video game community...
, is inspired by "Purple Haze" including its famous intro. A live version of the song (recorded at the San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego, CA and not Woodstock, contrary to popular belief) appears alongside "The Wind Cries Mary
The Wind Cries Mary
The Wind Cries Mary is a song by The Jimi Hendrix Experience released as the band's third single, backed with "Highway Chile", on May 5, 1967. It reached no. 6 in the UK Charts. The track is an example of psychedelic blues-rock, as the song is in the key of F major, with a guitar solo primarily...
" in the music video game Guitar Hero World Tour
Guitar Hero World Tour
Guitar Hero World Tour is a music video game developed by Neversoft and published by RedOctane and Activision. It is the fourth main entry in the Guitar Hero series...
.
D.H. Peligro, ex-drummer of the Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1978. The band became part of the American hardcore punk movement of the early 1980s. They gained a large underground fanbase in the international punk music scene....
, recently recorded a punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
cover of "Purple Haze", which was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Seattle band Eclipse Revolution covered "Purple Haze" live.
Brian May
Brian May
Brian Harold May, CBE is an English musician and astrophysicist most widely known as the guitarist and a songwriter of the rock band Queen...
and his early band 1984 record "Purple Haze" on March 31, 1967 at Thames Television in Broom Lane Studios, Teddington, UK.
In the anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
series Bamboo Blade
Bamboo Blade
is a Japanese manga series written by Masahiro Totsuka, and illustrated by Aguri Igarashi. The manga was first serialized in the Japanese seinen manga magazine Young Gangan starting December 3, 2004. The manga has been licensed for distribution in North America by Yen Press. An anime adaptation by...
the character Sayako Kuwahara stated that she wanted to play guitar after hearing the song.
On November 18, 2010 in Paris, France, Adam Lambert
Adam Lambert
Adam Mitchel Lambert is an American singer, songwriter, and actor from San Diego, California. In May 2009, he finished as the runner-up on the eighth season of American Idol...
covered the song, as an encore, at a live performance at the Trabendo. Almost immediately, "purple haze" became an international twitter trend.
In 2011, the cello/bassoon duo Paradox recorded a cover of "Purple Haze" on their CD titled MiX-5: Premiere Recordings for Bassoon and Cello.