Love – "Hey Joe" (1966)

Hey Joe, where you going 

With that money in your hand?

If you ask Uncle Sam, “Hey Joe” was written by Billy Roberts, who copyrighted the song in 1962 but never recorded it.  

Some people believe Roberts based “Hey Joe” on “Baby, Please Don’t Go to Town,” a song written by his girlfriend, Niela Horn Miller.  (You can click here to listen to her recording of that song and judge for yourself whether Roberts stole “Hey Joe” from her.)

Billy Roberts

David Crosby of the Byrds somehow heard about the song, and Bryan MacLean – who later became a member of Love – learned about it when he was a roadie for the Byrds.  Both the Byrds and Love eventually recorded “Hey Joe” using the lyrics copyrighted by Roberts – including the lines quoted above.

According to Johnny Echols, Love’s guitarist, the Leaves – a garage band from Southern California who Echols was friendly with – asked him for the lyrics after hearing Love perform the song.  Echols decided to play a trick on the Leaves and told them the song began with “Hey Joe, where you goin’ with that gun in your hand?” rather than “Hey Joe, where you goin’ with that money in your hand?”

The Leaves used “Hey Joe, where you goin’ with that gun in your hand?” when they recorded the song in November 1965.  The group didn’t like the way that recording sounded, so they recorded a second version of the song a couple of months later.  That version flopped, but the Leaves didn’t give up.  They recorded it one more time, and that version made it to #31 on the Billboard “Hot 100” chart.

Jimi Hendrix supposedly became interested in recording the song when he heard Tim Rose’s cover on a jukebox in New York City.  I have to wonder about that because Rose’s version used the “Hey Joe, where you goin’ with that money in your hand?” line, while began his cover with “Hey Joe, where you goin’ with that gun in your hand?”  That seems odd.

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“Hey Joe” was subsequently covered by dozens of other recording artists. 

Click here to listen to the Byrds’ 1966 recording of “Hey Joe,” which David Crosby later characterized as “a mistake.”  (No sh*t, Sherlock!)

Click here to listen to the Standells’ 1966 version of “Hey Joe.” 

Click here to listen to the Music Machine’s 1966 cover of “Hey Joe.”

Click here to hear Johnny Halladay’s 1967 French-language recording of the song.

Click here if you want to listen to Patti Smith’s virtually unlistenable 1974 cover of “Hey Joe.”

And click here to watch a video of 7273 guitarists setting a Guinness record by playing “Hey Joe” in Wroclaw, Poland.

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Click here to listen to Love’s recording of “Hey Joe,” which was released on that group’s eponymous debut album in March 1966.  (Bryan MacLean is the lead vocalist on that track instead of the band usual lead singer, Arthur Lee.)

Click here to buy the record from Amazon.