Hendrix Beats Out Elvis

The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Valleys of Neptune debuted on The Billboard top 200 chart at #4. Not bad for a man who died 40 years ago.

The only other musician to break into the Billboard top five so many years after his death is Elvis Presley with Elvis: 2nd to None, which hit #3 in 2003. It was an impressive 26 years after he died.

Johnny Cash was the most recent artist to top the charts postmortem when American VI: Ain’t No Grave reached #3.

Hendrix has 33 other albums that have appeared on The Billboard 200, and four top-five albums while he was alive. Two other Hendrix albums, The Cry of Love in 1971 and Crash Landing in 1975, reached top-5 status after his death. Before the release of Valleys of Neptune, which boasts “never commercially available” music, it had been 10 years since an official Hendrix release.

The celebrated guitarist rose to fame in 1967 when he performed at the Monterey International Pop Festival. Only 3 short years later, he overdosed on drugs in London.