5. Hey Joe
Artist: The Leaves, The Jim Hendrix Experience
Album: Hey Joe, Single
Released: 1965, 1966
Points: 170
Hey Joe is ranked at fifth place on our list 11 most popular songs about death. The song that has the most covers on our list, including performances of Cher, Frank Zappa, Deep Purple, The Who and many others, received first commercial success with the performance of the band Leaves in 1965. Their version of Hey Joe spent 70 weeks on Hot 100 peaking at 31.
A year later Jim Hendrix released his version of the song, inspired by Tim Rose’s performance, which became hit in the UK but failed to enter US charts. The Rolling Stone placed Hey Joe on 201st place of the list 500 Greatest Song of all the Time, explaining that Hendrix “was so shy about his voice that manager Chandler even hired a female vocal group, the Breakaways, for backup”. In 2012, 7,273 guitarists played Hey Joe on the square in Wroclaw breaking Guinness record.
