The Jimi Hendrix Experience - with the famed guitarist, drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding - cut their first studio recording on October 23, 1966. The session, which took place at De Lane Lea Studios in London, produced the band's first single, "Hey Joe." They also recorded "Stone Free" at the same session.After making little headway in the music business in the U.S., Hendrix had come to the U.K. about a month before the "Hey Joe" session. He recruited Redding and Mitchell (the drummer had only been with the band about two weeks before they hit the studio), and the three played their first gig together on October 13.A folk standard that had become a minor hit earlier that year for California band the Leaves, "Hey Joe" tells the story of a man who is going off to kill his cheating lover ("Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in your hand?" the song begins). The Leaves' version and a version the Byrds had been working on at around the same time were much faster and more garage-rock oriented than the bluesy Hendrix rendition that would eventually become the most recognizable version of the song. "Hey Joe" would be released as a single in December and would become a hit in the U.K., cementing Hendrix's burgeoning reputation. The Jimi Hendrix Experience would release their first album, "Are You Experienced," the following May.