Songfacts®:

• Stephen Stills first befriended Jimi Hendrix at the June 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Two years later, he was invited to a Hendrix session at the Record Plant in New York. Stills contributed "$20 Fine", an original song that featured him on organ and lead vocals Hendrix on multiple guitars, Mitch Mitchell on drums and Duane Hitchings (Buddy Miles Express) on piano.
• The song was made available to the general public for the first time when it was included on Both Sides of the Sky, a 13 track compilation of previously unheard Hendrix material recorded between January 1968 and February 1970.
  
  "It sounds like Crosby, Stills & Nash except it's on acid, you know," long-time Hendrix studio engineer and friend Eddie Kramer laughed to Associated Press. "Jimi is just rocking it. It's an amazing thing."