Jimi’s version was the first I heard in my life. Quite sometime passed until I heard the original version by Bob Dylan. And I liked it also very much, but Jimi’s just felt right. Even Dylan admitted that there’s something in that version which makes it the better one. He described his feelings towards Hendrix's version in several interviews, in one of which he said the following: "It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn't think of finding in there. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using. I took license with the song from his version, actually, and continue to do it to this day." In the liner notes of his “Biograph” album, Dylan said: "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way... Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."
The song appeared for the first time on Dylan’s 1967 record “John Wesley Harding.” Since the late seventies, he has performed “All Along the Watchtower” in concert more than any song and different versions appear on four of his live albums. The Jimi Hendrix Experience began to record their version of Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" on January 21, 1968, but it took Hendrix almost half a year to record guitar parts that would satisfy his perfectionism. He finally stopped overdubbing and the finished version was released on the album “Electric Ladyland” in September 1968. The single reached number five in the British charts, and number 20 on the Billboard chart, Hendrix's only top 20 entry there.
