Now a court has decided that the estates of the bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell can sue Sony Music Entertainment for a share of the royalties from the band's songs.
Redding and Mitchell joined the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1966 and played on the group's three studio albums: Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love, and Electric Ladyland, landmarks in psychedelic rock that contain classics such as Purple Haze, Hey Joe and Foxy Lady.
Hendrix's guitar playing and spirited singing, ably backed by the groove-led Redding and Mitchell, have ensured the Jimi Hendrix Experience remain hugely popular in the streaming era, with numerous songs getting hundreds of millions of streams each on Spotify.
Aside from a handful of Reddingpenned songs, Hendrix wrote the group's repertoire and earned the songwriting royalties alone.
The trio shared in royalties for the recordings they created together prior to Hendrix's death aged 27 in 1970. But believing there would not be any more Jimi Hendrix Experience music released - and with the lucrative CD-reissue and streaming eras years in the future - the pair signed away their rights in the early 1970s.
This story is from the January 30, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the January 30, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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