Artist/Band Profiles | Hack's Back Pages

The magic’s in the music, and the music’s in me

The mid-1960s was a uniquely fertile time in rock music history. The Beatles had arrived to shake up the status quo. Bob Dylan was changing the kinds of things we sang about. Motown was bringing effervescent soul to mainstream audiences. The palette of musical styles was exploding with variety — folk rock, funk, psychedelia, country rock, bluesy hard rock, Big Band rock, bubblegum pop and more.

In the midst of this, basic rock groups with exhilarating vocal harmonies were forming in small towns and big cities across the nation, churning out solid hit singles that caught listeners’ attention and sold millions. Some managed only one decent song (“one-hit wonders”) while others managed to sustain their stay on the charts for two or three years’ worth of singles, or more.

I feel lucky to have been coming of age during this vibrant time. In 1964, I was nine years old the night when we all watched Ed Sullivan together. By 1970, I was 15 and buying albums every week, listening to hipper music on WMMS-FM in Cleveland, Ohio. But for six years, it was all about the music I heard on Top 40 radio, sometimes buying the 45 RPM singles I heard on WIXY 1260 on the AM dial.

Many of these feel-good songs of the Sixties are still favorites of mine 60 years later, with their words and melodies indelibly etched in my memory. You could make a case that some of them were slight, inconsequential, even a little cringey, but most of the ones I’ve featured here are arguably time-capsule classics, well worth hearing again, or for the first time, perhaps, for some younger readers.

I’m not alone in my appreciation of these great hit singles from the Sixties. Virtually every summer since 2010, a handful of the artists responsible for these tunes pool their efforts to mount a musical revue known as the Happy Together Tour, named for the iconic 1967 hit by The Turtles. The brainchild of Turtles singers Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman (who also marketed themselves as Flo and Eddie in the ’70s), the 60-date tour has featured such acts as The Grass Roots, The Buckinghams, Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, Mark Lindsay (of Paul Revere and The Raiders), The Association, Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees, The Cowsills, The Vogues, Jay and The Americans, Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels, and Little Anthony. These tours have often sold out their venues to eager patrons looking to escape to some semblance of their simpler youth.

Curiously, I’ve never attended one of these gigs. I guess I’m leery that what I hear may fail to meet even modest expectations. Better to just crank up the originals on my sound system.

To do that properly, I’ve selected ten of these bands (and some honorable mentions) and offered brief career summaries, highlighting their best work in the Spotify playlist at the end. I can reasonably assure you that you’ll love 75% of the songs I’ve picked, maybe more.

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The Turtles

I always found something indescribably joyous about the hit records of The Turtles. Emerging in 1965 with a harmonious cover of Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe,” the group proceeded to churn out at least three of my favorite pop tunes of the period: “You Baby,” the ubiquitous “Happy Together” and “She’d Rather Be With Me.” The effervescent melodies, and especially the glorious vocals of Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman on these tunes, have had a lasting impact (on me, anyway), and so have lesser hits like “Elenore” and “You Showed Me.” By 1970, the group dissolved, but Kaylan and Volman branded themselves as Flo & Eddie, performing as a duo and also as part of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention. The duo resurrected The Turtles and, as previously mentioned, spearheaded the popular Happy Together reunion tours in the ’80s, ’90s and beyond that featured a half-dozen bands reliving their glory days. Sadly, Volman died just last week at age 78.

Paul Revere and The Raiders

Hailing from the Pacific Northwest, this band, led by organist Revere and lead singer/teen idol Mark Lindsay, were picked by impresario Dick Clark in 1965 to be the house band on his afternoon pop music showcase, “Where the Action Is.” Their gimmicky Revolutionary War costumes and a comedic approach to their live performances made them seem like a joke in some circles, but their string of a dozen catchy, potent Top 20 hits between 1966 and 1971 made Revere and The Raiders a commercial success, beginning with the #11 hit “Just Like Me.” The early hit “Kicks” was notable as an early anti-drug message song which made them seem decidedly unhip to the growing rock intelligentsia, but it was followed by the hard-rocking “Hungry” and “Good Thing” with lethal bass lines and strong vocals by Lindsay. Five years later, they scored their only #1 hit with “Indian Reservation,” a tribute to the Cherokee Native American nation.

The Monkees

Probably the most lasting legacy of the bands included here belongs to The Monkees, who had the undeniable advantage of starring in their own scripted TV series for three years (and even won a Best Comedy Emmy for the debut season). Indeed, they were hired as actors, as part of a plan to make a weekly show about a fictional pop group in the zany vein of The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” film. Their first records featured group members Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones on vocals, but all the instruments were played by studio musicians instead, and The Monkees’ biggest hits were written by professional songwriters like Neil Diamond, Carole King and Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart (Hart died last week at age 86). “Last Train to Clarksville” and “I’m a Believer” were both huge #1 hits on US pop charts, while “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You,” “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” “Daydream Believer” and “Valleri” all reached the Top Five. They eventually demanded and won the right to play on their recordings and contribute their own material, but interest waned and the hits stopped in 1969. Numerous comebacks and reunion tours involving at least two of the four members were staged in the decades since. Dolenz is the only Monkee still alive in 2025.

The Buckinghams

This Chicago-based band was unique in several ways. They were one of the first pop bands to incorporate horn arrangements in their repertoire, which was the brainchild of producer James Guercio, who went on to produce horn-driven bands Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago. The Buckinghams had five Top 20 hits, all of which peaked during the calendar year 1967: “Kind of a Drag” (#1 in January), “Mercy Mercy Mercy” (#5 in February/March), “Don’t You Care” (#6 in May), “Hey Baby They’re Playing Our Song“(#12 in August) and “Susan” (#11 in October). Four of those were written or co-written by Chicago-based songwriter Jim Holvay, while “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” was penned by Cannonball Adderley Quintet keyboardist Joe Zawinul, who went on to form jazz fusion pioneers Weather Report. Most of the lead vocals were handled by guitarist Carl Giammarese, who still performs with a new Buckinghams lineup, often as part of the Happy Together Tour.

The Lovin’ Spoonful

Led by singer-songwriter John Sebastian, The Lovin’ Spoonful cut their musical teeth in Greenwich Village in the early ’60s as a jug band, and churned out some of the most popular tunes of the mid-’60s period. “Do You Believe in Magic” became an anthem of sorts as their debut single in 1965, followed by such memorable pop classics as “You Didn’t Have To Be So Nice” and the easygoing “Daydream” and “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?” I’d say their finest moment came with the irrepressible “Summer in the City,” a #1 smash in 1966 that bemoaned the noisy humid daytime and celebrated the cooler, festive nighttime hours. “Nashville Cats,” “Rain on the Roof” and “Darling Be Home Soon” rounded out their Top 20 chart successes in 1967. Sebastian made a memorable impromptu appearance at Woodstock and began a solo career the next year. The Spoonful was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.

The Dave Clark Five

Many readers may not know or remember that The Dave Clark Five were a close second to The Beatles among the groups who made up the “British Invasion” of US pop charts in 1964-1965. They came from the Tottenham district of North London, with Dave Clark’s gunshot drumming, Mike Smith’s keyboards and lead vocals and Denis Payton’s sax and guitar being the prominent elements of their sound. They scored 10 Top Twenty singles on US charts, with their early hits (“Glad All Over,” “Bits and Pieces,” “Can’t You See That She’s Mine“) competing simultaneously with The Beatles’ first big singles. Their commercial success continued in 1965 with “Because,” “I Like It Like That” and “Catch Us If You Can,” while “Over and Over” became their only #1 in the last week of 1965, edging out The Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out” from the top spot in the final week of 1965. The DC5 appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” 18 times, more than any other rock band. Clark, a shrewd businessman, negotiated their royalty deals that made him wealthy. In 2008, they, too, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Grass Roots

In 1965, the songwriting/producing team of P.F. Sloan and Steve Barry, in tandem with Dunhill Records owner Lou Adler, created an imaginary group called The Grassroots so they could record their folk-rock song “Where Were You When I Needed You.” When the demo ended up reaching #28 on the US pop charts, they searched for and found a band called The Bedouins, and convinced them to become The Grass Roots. Several lineup changes occurred over the next year, and by 1967, they hired Rob Grill as lead singer, and the band’s fortunes took off. From 1967 through 1971, The Grass Roots charted eight songs on the Top Twenty, most notably 1968’s megahit, “Midnight Confessions.” Also popular were such tunes as “Let’s Live For Today,” “Bella Linda,” “I’d Wait a Million Years,” “Temptation Eyes” and “Sooner or Later.” With Grill in charge, The Grass Roots attempted to tour in the late ’70s, but it wasn’t until the Happy Together tours of the mid-’80s and beyond that they were able to attract sizable audiences again.

The Association

In 1964, an ad hoc folk group called The Inner Tubes became the house band at The Troubadour in Los Angeles, eventually expanding to a 13-member lineup called The Men. That group was streamlined down to six musicians who called their harmony vocal group The Association, with Terry Kirkman, Larry Ramos and Jim Yester leading the way. By 1966, they had honed their sound and found success with two big singles: a cryptic song about marijuana called “Along Comes Mary” and the harmony-rich ballad “Cherish,” which topped the charts. These two tracks gave them enough cachet to earn them an invitation to be the opening act at the legendary Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967, and they built on that with two more huge singles that year: “Windy” (another #1) and “Never My Love” (one of the most-played songs of the 20th Century, according to BMI). They continued releasing albums into the early ’70s but as times changed, the group dissolved; still, a revised lineup of The Association participated in several editions of the Happy Together reunion tours in recent years.

Tommy James & The Shondells

James was only 17 when he and his group, The Shondells recorded “Hanky Panky” for a small Michigan-based label. It sold regionally, but the band soon broke up, and two years later, a Pittsburgh DJ unearthed the track and gave it airplay, and within a month it was the #1 song in the country. James corralled another group, The Raconteurs, to become the new lineup of The Shondells, and on the strength of “Hanky Panky,” signed to Roulette Records, run by mafia-connected Morris Levy. James and The Shondells charted seven Top Twenty hits between 1966-1969, most prominently “I Think We’re Alone Now” (#4), the garage-rock classic “Mony Mony” and the trio of psychedelic pop tunes from 1969 (“Crimson and Clover” in February, “Sweet Cherry Wine” in May and “Crystal Blue Persuasion” in August). James almost died from a drug overdose in 1970, but he returned as a solo artist for one last hit in 1971, “Draggin’ the Line.” He’s been a regular on the nostalgia tours.

Herman’s Hermits

Here are three things I bet you never knew about Herman’s Hermits: 1) Peter “Herman” Noone, at 15, had been a child actor on the British TV soap opera “Coronation Street” before becoming a pop singer; 2) he was given the nickname Herman based on his supposed resemblance to the animated character Sherman on the “Mr. Peabody” cartoon feature from the “Rocky and Bullwinkle” series; 3) In 1965, Herman’s Hermits were ranked #1 (ahead of the #2 Beatles!) as the Top Singles Act of the year in the US. They logged 24 consecutive weeks in the Top Ten that year, and in total, charted 14 Top Twenty singles between 1964 and 1967. Some were cringeworthy novelty songs like “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” and “I’m Henry VIII, I Am,” but most were catchy, pleasant ditties like “I’m Into Something Good” (by Carole King) and “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat,” or white-bread covers of The Diamonds’ “Silhouettes” and Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World.” Noone, with various backing musicians, has been a regular presence on nostalgia events and tours since the 1980s.

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Honorable mentions:

Gary Lewis & The Playboys (“This Diamond Ring,” “Save Your Heart For Me,” “She’s Just My Style,” “Everybody Loves a Clown,” “Green Grass“); Spanky & Our Gang (“Sunday Will Never Be the Same,” “Lazy Day,” “Like to Get to Know You,” “Give a Damn“); Jay & The Americans (“She Cried,” “Come a Little Bit Closer,” “Cara Mia,” “This Magic Moment“); Gary Puckett & The Union Gap (“Woman, Woman,” “Young Girl,” “Lady Willpower,” “This Girl is a Woman Now“); The Box Tops (“The Letter,” “Cry Like a Baby“); The Cowsills (“The Rain, The Park and Other Things,” “Hair,” “Indian Lake“); The Vogues (“You’re the One,” “Five O’Clock World“).

Worthwhile “one-hit wonders” from the ’60s period:

The American Breed (“Bend Me, Shape Me“), Every Mother’s Son (“Come on Down to My Boat“), The Standells (“Dirty Water“), John Fred and His Playboy Band (“Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)“), The Music Explosion (“Little Bit o’ Soul“), The Knickerbockers (“Lies“), The Gentrys (“Keep On Dancing“), Syndicate of Sound (“Little Girl“), The Blues Magoos (“(We Aint Got) Nothing Yet“), “The Easybeats (“Friday On My Mind“).

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Shapes of things before my eyes

Posted on August 15 by brucehhackett

Periodically, I have used this space to pay homage to artists I believe are worthy of focused attention — artists with an extraordinary body of work and/or a compelling story to tell. In this essay, first published here in 2016, I pay homage to a band from the 1960s whose ranks have included some of rock music’s biggest talents: The Yardbirds.

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When we talk about influential rock bands of the ’60s, we usually hear the same well-known names: The Beatles. The Beach Boys. The Rolling Stones. The Who. The Byrds. The Grateful Dead. All worthy candidates.

But there’s another band that arguably tops them all: The Yardbirds.

*The Yardbirds in 1966: Jim McCarty, Chris Dreja, Keith Relf, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck*

Casual rock music listeners will say, “Huh?” They might remember the 1965 pop hit, “For Your Love,” and some may recall the 1966 harder-edged singles “Shapes of Things” and “Heart Full of Soul.” But that’s about it.

Some rock historians maintain that, when it comes to making a seismic impact on many dozens of artists and bands that followed in their wake, you can make a strong case that The Yardbirds win the contest hands down.

For the uninitiated, here’s the deal: The Yardbirds were born in 1963 as a blues-focused band out of London. Their first guitarist didn’t last and was soon replaced by 18-year-old Eric Clapton as the lead guitarist. By 1965, Clapton had moved on, and in his place, the group was steered by the great guitar pioneer Jeff Beck. In 1966, Beck overlapped briefly with his eventual successor, veteran studio guitarist Jimmy Page.

That’s right: The three recognized kings of electric guitar and British rock/blues, who all ranked in the Top Five on Rolling Stone‘s Top 50 Guitarists of All Time, were all graduates of “Yardbirds University.”

The History

England in the late ’50s and early ’60s was still recovering from the shell shock of World War II, and as far as popular music was concerned, the teenagers growing up in that era didn’t know much more than what the staid BBC was willing to feed them — dance hall music, classical, show tunes and the like. But the new music of America filtered in from the seamen who returned from the US with the latest 45s of bold new genres known as Jazz, and The Blues.

*British blues pioneers Alexis Korner (on guitar) and Cyril Davies (with microphone)*

Young Britishers like Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies were entranced. They learned the riffs, the grooves, the feel for it all, and even opened a club called “London Blues and Barrelhouse Club,” which featured American blues artists like Muddy Waters and Memphis Slim. Young Brits starved for something more than the usual BBC fare frequented the place, and Korner and Davies formed a band called Blues Incorporated, which became a breeding ground for young British musicians similarly mesmerized by this compelling new music.

Four of these guys, all fanatical about blues music, were Keith Relf (singer and harmonica player), Paul Samwell-Smith (bass), Jim McCarty (drums) and Chris Dreja (rhythm guitar), who were eager to start their own band. With “Top” Topham on lead guitar, they formed the Blue-Sounds, and were thrilled to support Davies on several gigs in early 1963.

They soon renamed themselves The Yardbirds, named after the nickname of wanderers who hung out in railyard stations, and for the great jazz saxophonist Charlie “Yardbird” Parker.

They drew considerable attention around London playing the Chicago blues tunes of Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Bo Diddley, Howlin’ Wolf and Elmore James, future classics like “Smokestack Lightning,” “Boom Boom” and “I’m a Man.”

The Clapton Era

In October 1963, Topham grew bored and left, and in walked Eric Clapton, a remarkably accomplished guitarist despite being only 18. He’d cut his teeth in a couple bands (The Roosters, Casey Jones & The Engineers) and was a disciple of Delta bluesman Robert Johnson, and idolized American blues guitarists like B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Freddie King. Bringing Clapton into The Yardbirds helped them secure a gig as the new house band at the famed Crawdaddy Club in suburban Richmond, succeeding The Rolling Stones there. That, in turn, helped them land a recording contract with EMI’s Columbia label in 1964.

*The band with Eric Clapton (far right)*

Clapton steered The Yardbirds deeper into blues material, as evidenced by their first two singles, “I Wish You Would” and “Good Morning, Little School Girl.” Manager/producer Georgio Gomelsky was the man behind the band’s first LP, “Five Live Yardbirds,” recorded in concert at the legendary Marquee Club in London. Despite favorable reviews in R&B circles, it failed to make the charts in the UK and was never released in the US.

Eager to follow the path of other British blues bands like The Animals, who had a huge international hit with “House of the Rising Sun,” the Yardbirds agreed to record “For Your Love,” a decidedly commercial pop song by Graham Gouldman, who also wrote songs for The Hollies and Herman’s Hermits. Sure enough, “For Your Love” quickly climbed the charts in early 1965, reaching #3 in England and #6 in the US.

But Clapton, a diehard blues purist, was not happy. He heatedly objected to the commercial pop direction the band was taking, and even as “For Your Love” was establishing The Yardbirds as a success, he abruptly left. “I am, and always will be, a blues guitarist,” he said years later. “It was a very powerful drug to be introduced to me, and I absorbed it totally. I didn’t care for pop music at that time. Blues was it for me.”

*Clapton (left) with Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce in Cream (1967)*

Clapton soon hooked up with another blues purist, John Mayall, and became one of his Bluesbreakers for a spell, which included the indispensable LP “Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton” (1966). He reached worldwide fame as part of the improvisational power trio Cream (1966-1968), the short-lived supergroup Blind Faith (1969), the drug-plagued Derek and the Dominos (1970-1971) and, eventually, a long solo career that has spanned six decades. He has won multiple Grammys and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times (for Yardbirds, Cream and as a solo artist). He is often regarded as the finest rock/blues guitarist of all time.

The Beck Era

Before departing The Yardbirds, Clapton suggested the band hire veteran studio guitarist Jimmy Page to replace him. But Page turned them down, preferring the lucrative work he’d been getting in regular studio sessions. He, in turn, suggested Jeff Beck, who eagerly joined the lineup in April 1965.

yardbirds-early-1180x600 — *The Yardbirds, 1966: Chris Dreja, Jeff Beck, Paul Samwell-Smith, Jim McCarthy, Keith Relf*

Beck had most recently been in The Tridents, another London blues group, where he was known for innovations with guitar fuzz tone, sustain, feedback and distortion. He brought all that and more to The Yardbirds, first heard on their next hit single, “Heart Full of Soul,” which peaked at #2 in the UK and #9 in the US in the summer of ’65. Beck’s brief but meaty solos in tracks like “Shapes of Things” and “Over Under Sideways Down” were mini-masterpieces of early heavy metal techniques. Dozens of guitarists who followed — Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple, Rainbow), Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath) — often name Beck as a key influence in their own musical paths.

The Yardbirds gave Beck ample room to try new things, which suited him fine. “I don’t understand why some people will only accept a guitar if it has an instantly recognizable guitar sound,” he said in 1975. “Finding ways to use the same guitar that people have been playing for years to make sounds no one has heard before — that’s truly what gets me off.”

With Beck, the band released the seminal album “Roger the Engineer,” seen now as the peak of their recorded work. But Beck was developing a rebellious nature, and combined with a perfectionist attitude and an unpredictable temper, he often alienated the rest of the group, especially bassist Samwell-Smith, who chose to leave in mid-1966 to become a respected producer.

*Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck together (1966)*

Once again, The Yardbirds approached Page, this time asking if he would join as their bass player. He agreed, but Relf soon assumed the role of bassist, and Page became their second lead guitarist. Page and Beck shared lead guitar duties in concert, which sounds like a dream come true, but sadly, there are very few recordings of the two of them together. (Indeed, ’70s guitar great Ronnie Montrose recalls, “Seeing the original Yardbirds with Beck and Page together at the old Fillmore was a pretty powerful influence on me.”)

That arrangement lasted only three months. Beck’s habit of not showing up for concert dates became a dealbreaker for the other Yardbirds, and in November 1966, during a US tour, Beck was unceremoniously fired. “I probably deserved it,” he said years later. “I was a bit of a prick.”

Bruised but not beaten, Beck went on to a colorful solo career, starting with the phenomenal “Truth” LP in 1968, featuring a young Rod Stewart on vocals, Ronnie Wood on guitar and bass and Nicky Hopkins on piano. He has played with many other musicians from different genres, including Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice from Vanilla Fudge, keyboard legend Max Middleton, and jazz keyboardist Jan Hammer, most notably on “Blow By Blow” (1975) and “Wired” (1976), his best-charting albums in the US (#4 and #16 respectively). His recorded output has been sporadic, but his occasional jaw-dropping appearances at major rock events in recent years has cemented his status as a “guitarist’s guitarist.” He has twice been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a Yardbird in 1992 and as a solo artist in 2009. He passed away in 2023 at age 78.

The Page Era

Before joining The Yardbirds, Page had already established a formidable reputation as a skillful studio guitarist, playing on recording sessions for dozens of British acts like The Kinks, Donovan, Joe Cocker, Petula Clark and Marianne Faithful. “It was lucrative and exciting for a while,” Page said, “but then it turned dull and uninspiring when they had me doing incidental film soundtracks and Muzak.” So when the Yardbirds came calling, this time he said yes.

*The Yardbirds in 1968 with Jimmy Page (far left)*

Following the aforementioned stints on bass and then sharing guitar duties with Beck until his departure, the band carried on as a four-piece (McCarty on drums, Dreja on rhythm guitar, Relf on bass and vocals, and Page on lead guitar). Psychedelic rock was becoming the rage as Jimi Hendrix, Cream, The Grateful Dead and others led the way. Page was intrigued by the possibilities and steered the band in that direction. The album they came up with, “Little Games,” was all over the map, thanks in large part to the record company (Epic) insisting on pop producer Mickie Most’s involvement. The album stalled at #80 in the US, and the single “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago” managed only #30 here. The commercial singles Most produced for them fared even worse, many not even charting in the US nor the UK.

In concert, The Yardbirds were almost like a different band. Page took them through the paces: long jams on old standards like “Smokestack Lightning,” covers of Velvet Underground songs, Eastern-flavored tour-de-forces like “White Summer,” and an electrified folk ballad by American Jake Holmes called “Dazed and Confused,” on which Page used a cello bow to coax bold new sounds from his Les Paul guitar (a clear sign of things to come).

By mid-1968, the band was fracturing. Relf and McCarty wanted the group to pursue elements of folk and classical music in their repertoire; Page was firmly headed toward the heavier blues rock idiom; Dreja, meanwhile, had developed an interest in rock photography. Clearly, it was time to call it quits. Relf and McCarty left, and made good on their dream by forming the classical rock group Renaissance.

Page, meanwhile, started looking around for other musicians to form a new Yardbirds lineup, in part because he needed to honor a set of Scandinavian concert dates in late 1968. But more pointedly, he had slowly been building “a textbook of ideas” during his tenure in the band, and was already envisioning his own group. He contacted accomplished keyboard/bass wizard John Paul Jones, another veteran of numerous ’60s studio sessions. Page also approached promising singer Terry Reid to join, but he had just signed a solo recording deal, so he declined. But he sent Page to check out a then-unknown vocalist named Robert Plant, who was turning heads in Band of Joy up in Birmingham. Page was blown away by what he heard and invited him to join his “New Yardbirds,” along with Band of Joy’s explosive drummer, John Bonham.

*“The New Yardbirds”/Led Zeppelin: Page, John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant (1969)*

This new foursome rehearsed intensely for two weeks and then played the shows in Scandinavia, where the crowds were bowled over by the group’s power and intensity. In order to make a clean slate, Page dropped the New Yardbirds name and substituted a phrase that drummer Keith Moon of The Who had once used to describe a band that would fail badly: “Lead Zeppelin.” Manager Peter Grant suggested changing “lead” to “led” so people wouldn’t mispronounce it, and voila! The greatest rock band of the 1970s, Led Zeppelin, was born.

The Aftermath

Many dozens of Yardbirds compilations, live recordings (official and bootleg), stray singles and B-sides emerged in the ’70s and ’80s and beyond, as a new generation of rock fans were curious to hear Clapton, Beck and Page in their formative years. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell whose guitar licks you’re hearing, particularly on tracks from the period Beck and Page overlapped. But there are some real jewels in there for those willing to dig through the mixed bag of 1964-1968 recordings.

And what of the other alumni? Sadly, Relf met his untimely end when he was electrocuted in his home recording studio in 1976. Dreja and McCarty attempted a reunion in the early ’80s, and assembled a new lineup as recently as 2003 when they released “Birdland,” with re-recordings of eight classic Yardbirds tracks along with seven new ones. It didn’t sell or chart, but I found it entertaining. You can check out some of it on the Spotify playlist below.

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