"Little Wing" is a song written by Jimi Hendrix. He first recorded the song on the 1967 album Axis: Bold as Love. It is ranked #357 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of "the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", and has been covered by numerous artists.
Stevie Ray Vaughan recorded an instrumental version in 1984 that was released on The Sky Is Crying in 1991. Stevie Ray Vaughan's version earned a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1993.
According to Hendrix, "Little Wing" came from an idea he had originally developed while playing in Greenwich Village, when he was fronting his band Jimmy James and the Blue Flames in the summer of 1966. He later explained that he was further inspired during the Experience's performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival:
"I got the idea like, when we were in Monterey and I was just looking at everything around. So I figured that I take everything I see around and put it maybe in the form of a girl maybe, somethin' like that, you know, and call it 'Little Wing', and then it will just fly away. Everybody's really flyin' and they're really in a nice mood, like the police and everybody was really, really great out there. So I just took all these things an put them in one very, very small little matchbox, you know, into a girl and then do it. It was very simple, but I like it though"
