Little Wing is a song by the Jimi Hendrix Experience from the 1967 album Axis: Bold as Love. It is a slow rhythm and blues inspired ballad that blends rock and psychedelic soul, featuring Hendrix’s vocal and guitar with bass, drums, and a glockenspiel, along with studio effects such as a Leslie speaker on the guitar. Lyrically it references an idealized feminine or guardian angel figure, and Hendrix described the idea as inspired by his Greenwich Village days and by Monterey Pop Festival experiences. Recorded in October 1967 at Olympic Studios in London, it was released in the UK on December 1, 1967 and in the US on January 15, 1968, and at about two and a half minutes it is one of the album’s most concise and melodic pieces. The song has become a standard with notable covers by Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Rolling Stone lists it among the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
