Song Information
"Jimmy James" originally started out as an instrumental track with scratching done by Yauch (this version of the song appears on the "Jimmy James" EP as the "original original version"). Later on, lyrics were written and the other two Beastie Boys, Mike "Mike D" Diamond and Adam "King Adrock" Horovitz, asked to lend their vocals to the song along with Yauch.
However, Hendrix's family, who own the rights to most of his catalogue, denied the group clearance to use the samples (the group, however, were somehow able to keep the "Happy Birthday" and "Foxy Lady" samples in the song, though). Determined to keep the song on Check Your Head, the group re-recorded "Jimmy James" using samples similar to the Hendrix ones. This version ended up being released as the first track on the album.
A few months after Check Your Head was released, Hendrix's family finally relented and gave the Beastie Boys clearance to use the samples. As a result, the "single version" of "Jimmy James" was released as the third single from Check Your Head, and a music video was made for it which premiered in August 1992.
The original version has since been issued on their compilation album The Sounds of Science. The beginning of the album version of the track is a sample from the live version of "Surrender" by Cheap Trick from their live album Cheap Trick at Budokan.
Read more about this topic: Jimmy James (song)
Famous quotes containing the words song and/or information:
“Water. Its sunny track in the plain; its splashing in the garden canal, the sound it makes when in its course it meets the mane of the grass; the diluted reflection of the sky together with the fleeting sight of the reeds; the Negresses fill their dripping gourds and their red clay containers; the song of the washerwomen; the gorged fields the tall crops ripening.”
—Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)
“Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)