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The Wind Cries Mary is a song by Jimi Hendrix. It was the A side of Jimi Hendrix Experience's third single, with "Highway Chile" as the B side. 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.
It was later released on the 1967 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. . 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. , 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 misconception that Hendrix wrote the song about marijuana use, as "Mary Jane" is a slang term for marijuana (a literal translation from Spanish). "The Wind Cries Mary" and "Highway Chile" was re-released in 1983 on The Singles Album compilation.






