"Voodoo Chile" evolved from "Catfish Blues", a song which Hendrix performed regularly during 1967 and early 1968.
Music critic Charles Shaar Murray describes "Voodoo Chile" as "virtually a chronological guided tour of blues styles" ranging from early Delta blues, through the electric blues of Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, to the more sophisticated style of B.B. King, and the "cosmic blurt" of John Coltrane.