The Yardbirds turned a London R&B club act into rock's most famous guitar finishing school.
Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page all passed through the lineup before the band split apart in 1968.
Table of Contents
- From the Crawdaddy Club to Eric Clapton
- Jeff Beck and the Rave-Up Sound
- Jimmy Page, the Breakup, and Led Zeppelin
- FAQ
From the Crawdaddy Club to Eric Clapton
Keith Relf, Jim McCarty, Chris Dreja, Paul Samwell-Smith and guitarist Top Topham formed the band in London in 1963.
Jim McCarty later said singer Relf may have taken the name from Jack Kerouac's "On the Road."
The novel used "yardbird" for a hobo riding the rails.
Manager Giorgio Gomelsky booked the band into the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond.
They replaced the Rolling Stones as the house act.
Manager Simon Napier-Bell later said there were "only 4 rock bands on the planet worth managing."
"And one of them was The Yardbirds," he added.
Why Clapton Quit Over "For Your Love"
Eric Clapton replaced Topham on guitar in October 1963.
He helped pioneer the "rave-up," a technique that sped a song's tempo until it nearly dissolved into noise.
The band would then snap back to the verse.
"For Your Love," built around a harpsichord instead of blues guitar, became the band's breakthrough single in March 1965.
It reached number 3 in the UK and number 6 in the US.
Clapton saw the hit as a betrayal of blues purism.
He quit on the day it came out.
Jeff Beck and the Rave-Up Sound
Jeff Beck joined on Clapton's recommendation and pushed the band's sound further out.
"Heart Full of Soul" and "Shapes of Things" followed in 1965 and February 1966.
Both layered fuzz tone and feedback over the rave-up formula.
"Shapes of Things" is often cited as an early psychedelic rock landmark.
Bassist Paul Samwell-Smith left the band in 1966, and rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja moved to bass.
A Rare Twin Guitar Lineup
Jimmy Page joined that year, initially on bass, at Beck's suggestion.
Beck fell ill on tour in San Francisco on August 25, 1966.
Page switched to lead guitar alongside him that night.
The pairing produced "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" and a cameo in the film "Blow-Up."
Beck stormed off the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars tour that autumn.
He never returned to the band.
Jimmy Page, the Breakup of The Yardbirds, and Led Zeppelin
With Beck gone, Page became sole lead guitarist.
He introduced a cello bow and heavy distortion to the band's sound.
Commercial fortunes slid.
The March 1967 single "Little Games" flopped in Britain.
January 1968's "Goodnight Sweet Josephine" failed to chart at all.
The band played its final shows between June 1 and June 7, 1968.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Legacy
Page then formed the New Yardbirds to finish a booked Scandinavian tour.
He renamed the group Led Zeppelin that October.
The name came from a Keith Moon and John Entwistle joke about a "lead balloon."
Singer Keith Relf died on May 14, 1976, at age 33.
The original lineup entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in January 1992.
The band reunited that same year with McCarty and Dreja on board.
Dreja left the touring lineup in 2013, leaving McCarty as the sole original member still active.
FAQ
Who were the original members of The Yardbirds?
Keith Relf, Jim McCarty, Chris Dreja, Paul Samwell-Smith and Top Topham formed the band in London in 1963.
Eric Clapton replaced Topham on guitar that October.
Why did Eric Clapton leave the band?
Clapton quit in March 1965 because he wanted to stay a blues purist.
He objected to the pop direction of the harpsichord-laced hit "For Your Love."
Did Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page play together in the band?
Yes.
Page joined on bass in 1966, then swapped to lead guitar alongside Beck that August.
The band had a rare twin lead guitar lineup for a few months before Beck left.
What happened after the band broke up in 1968?
Jimmy Page formed the New Yardbirds to fulfill a Scandinavian tour.
He renamed the group Led Zeppelin that October, taking the band's blues rock foundation into the 1970s.
Is The Yardbirds still together?
The band reunited in 1992 and toured with rotating lineups for decades.
Jim McCarty is now the only surviving original member still involved.
Few bands can claim three of rock's greatest guitarists passed through their ranks in five years.
That run of Clapton, Beck and Page turned The Yardbirds into a bridge between blues purism and hard rock.
Their rave-up sound sits alongside The Who and The Kinks in the mid-1960s British Invasion.
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