Hendrix Tops Elvis
by Paul Grein in Chart Watch

The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Valleys Of Neptune enters The Billboard 200 at #4, putting the rock legend back in the top five nearly 40 years after he died at the tragically young age of 27. No other artist has cracked the top five this long after his death. Elvis Presley is in second place. His Elvis: 2nd To None debuted at #3 in October 2003, a little more than 26 years after his death.
Hendrix is the second music legend to make the top five posthumously in the past two weeks. Johnny Cash bowed at #3 two weeks ago with American VI: Ain't No Grave. But Cash died less than seven years ago. It's more remarkable for an artist who died four decades ago to make significant chart waves.

Valleys Of Neptune is, incredibly, Hendrix's 34th posthumous album to make The Billboard 200.

Hendrix was a star for just three years, from June 1967, when he played the Monterey International Pop Festival, to September 1970, when he died in London of a drug overdose. The guitar hero had four top five albums in his lifetime. This is his third top five album since his death. It follows The Cry Of Love, which hit #3 in 1971, and Crash Landing, which reached #5 in 1975.

Four of Hendrix's catalog albums re-enter The Billboard 200 this week. 1967's Are You Experienced? bows at #44, followed by 1968's Electric Ladyland at #60, the 1997 compilation First Rays Of The New Rising Sun at #63 and 1968's Axis: Bold As Love at #67.

Experienced? first cracked The Billboard 200 on Aug. 26, 1967. It was only the 10th highest new entry of the week (!), opening at an unimpressive #190. The album took 59 weeks to reach its #5 peak in October 1968. This week's debut of Valleys Of Neptune gives Hendrix a nearly 41-1/2 year span of top five albums.

lord, there's a record for everything.


show me a press release and i'll show a bullshit record/honor....

errant said:

You always downin' classic black artists when it comes to their white counterparts

xlr8r said:

don't feed the trolls

IAintTheOne said:

StarMon said:

Muttleyyyyy dooooo somethiiiiing

StarMon said:

lol

Valleys Of Neptune is doing better than I expected.

I hope they're not releasing 'new' MJ tunes 40 years after his death. Mainly cause i won't be around either!

Well deserved. Sorry not a Elvis fan. It's funny cause I saw this article on Yahoo, and they were advertising it with a pic of Elvis but the entire article was about Hendrix. Why can't they put the black mans face where it belongs? Hendrix deserves it and is the better of the 2.
[Edited 3/20/10 12:43pm]

annastesia101 said:

Cleverly titled "Elvis record beaten by another legend".

IAintTheOne said:

Dick Dastardly

Cinnie said:

xlr8r said:

From what I saw in Cynthia Plastercaster's collection, it's gonna hurt

Go Hendrix Go!

Cinnie said:

no comment

xlr8r said:

since when? and which ones?

white or black, dead or alive, it's just stupid the lengths PR people will go to to come up with convoluted honors and records that mean nothing.
[Edited 3/20/10 13:53pm]

errant said:

I know what you mean. Usually they are just getting really technical about which hits they selected to compare... #1s, top 5 hit, top 10 hit, top 20 hit, top 30 top 40

errant said:

It just seems like it stands out like a pattern with you. Like one time someone made a happy bday Jimi post and your response was "happy birthday junkie" but you cream all over the Beatles and their drug taking asses

and when there are disucssions about rockism/racism you are there denouncing it as if it never happens or is never legit

its just "my" observation

xlr8r said:

I think you're thinking of someone else.

xlr8r said:

This doesn't sound like errant, at least not his true spirit

errant said:

Well someone else does use the same avatar as errant and his name also begins with er and ends with a t. Could be easy to get them confused.

Wow I didn't know they released 34 albums of his shit! Great news for his estate too.

jimmi hendrix's preserved faeces is better than Elvis.

end of story.

I saw that CD on the wall chart at HMV at like #2

What is this project?

I am not surprised a real artist can still sell

If Jimi would've felt the love from us then like he gets now, maybe he wouldn't left us so soon. Peace forever!

DakutiusMaximus said:

dirtyman2005 said:

OH MY!!!!

LoDog said:

I think this is true.