Maiden Voyage is an instrumental jazz composition by the pianist Herbie Hancock, who wrote it alone; it was published in 1965. It became a jazz standard and is one of Hancock's best-known compositions, and in a 2011 KCET interview he named it his favourite of his own works. The piece was first recorded as the title track of the Blue Note album Maiden Voyage, made on 17 March 1965 at Rudy Van Gelder's studio with George Coleman, Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. It was Hancock's fifth album as leader, and in 1999 it received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award. The master tape originally listed the piece as "TV Jingle", and it was later used in a Yardley commercial.
The tune is modal and follows a 32-bar AABA form with two chords per section. It opens on a minor eleventh chord (Am9/D) over an ostinato derived from the bossa nova rhythm. Notable later versions include those by Bobby Hutcherson, Ramsey Lewis, Grant Green, Brian Auger and the Trinity, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Norman Connors, Toto (2002), Robert Glasper (2004) and Mr Jukes (2019).
