Jimi Hendrix Posthumous Album Earns Highest Debut Since 1968

The posthumous Jimi Hendrix album People, Hell & Angels has debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 chart this week, Hendrix’s highest album debut since 1968’s Electric Ladyland. According to Nielsen Soundscan, the album sold 72,000 copies this week.

Going against industry trends, the album seems to be selling primarily on physical-CD. While it charted #2 on the Billboard albums chart, People, Hell & Angels ranked only #5 on the iTunes Top Album Chart behind Luke Bryan’s Spring Break…Here to Party, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ The Heist, Bruno Mars’ Unorthodox Jukebox and Imagine Dragons’ Night Visions.

The tracks featured on People, Hell & Angels are unreleased tracks that Hendrix recorded after the Jimi Hendrix Experience disbanded.  Billy Cox and Buddy Miles joined Hendrix in the studio to work on material that was expected to be released as a follow up to 1968’s Electric Ladyland. The majority of the songs featured in the album were recorded at New York’s  Record Plant Studios during studio sessions in 1968 and ’69.

Sadly, it seems People, Hell & Angels will be the last Hendrix album featuring unreleased studio material.

“Jimi utilized the studio as a rehearsal space,” Hendrix’s long-time recording engineer, Eddie Kramer said. “That’s kind of an expensive way of doing things, but thank God he did.”

Now all that material has been released through 12 posthumous albums since his death in 1970.  During Hendrix’s life he released three studio albums with The Jimi Hendrix Experience and a live album with Jimi Hendrix/Band of Gypsys.

Luke Bryan’s fourth studio album Spring Break…Here to Party debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart, outselling Hendrix’s People, Hell & Angels with 150,000 copies sold.

People, Hell & Angels track listing: