Beginnings and Clapton line-up (1963–1965) The band formed in the south-west London suburbs in 1963. Relf and Samwell-Smith were originally in a band named the Metropolitan Blues Quartet. After being joined by Dreja, McCarty and
Anthony "Top" Topham, they performed at Kingston Art School in late May 1963 as a backup band for
Cyril Davies. Following a couple of gigs in September 1963 as the Blue-Sounds, they changed their name to the Yardbirds. McCarty claims that Relf was the first to use the name; he may have got it from
Jack Kerouac's novel
On the Road, where it referred to railroad yard
hoboes. He adds that Topham identified it as a nickname for jazz saxophonist
Charlie "Yardbird" Parker. The quintet achieved notice on the burgeoning
British rhythm and blues scene when they took over as the house band at the
Crawdaddy Club in
Richmond, succeeding
the Rolling Stones. Their repertoire drew from the
Chicago blues of
Howlin' Wolf,
Muddy Waters,
Bo Diddley,
Sonny Boy Williamson II and
Elmore James, including "
Smokestack Lightning", "
Good Morning Little School Girl", "
Boom Boom", "
I Wish You Would", "
Rollin' and Tumblin'", "Got Love if You Want It" and "
I'm a Man". Original lead guitarist Topham left and was replaced by
Eric Clapton in October 1963. Crawdaddy Club impresario
Giorgio Gomelsky became their manager and first record producer. Under Gomelsky's guidance the Yardbirds toured Britain as the back-up band for blues legend
Sonny Boy Williamson II in December 1963 and early 1964. Recordings from the performances were released two years later during the height of Yardbird popularity on the album
Sonny Boy Williamson and the Yardbirds. After the tours with Williamson, the Yardbirds signed to
EMI's
Columbia label in February 1964, and recorded more live tracks on 20 March at the legendary
Marquee Club in London. The resulting album of mostly American blues and R&B covers,
Five Live Yardbirds, was released by Columbia nine months later, and it failed to enter the
UK Albums Chart. Over time,
Five Live gained stature as one of the few high-quality live recordings of the era and as a historical document of both the British rock and roll boom of the 1960s and Clapton's time in the band. The Clapton line-up recorded two singles, the blues "
I Wish You Would" and "
Good Morning, School Girl", before the band scored its first major hit with "
For Your Love", a
Graham Gouldman composition with a prominent harpsichord part by
Brian Auger. "For Your Love" was a Top-10 hit in the UK, Canada and the US but displeased Clapton, a blues purist whose vision extended beyond three-minute singles. Frustrated by their commercial approach, he abruptly left the band in March 1965, shortly after the single was released. Soon after Clapton joined
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers,
Jeff Beck replaced him. The band first approached Jimmy Page, but content with his lucrative sessions work, and worried about both his health and the politics of Clapton's departure, Page recommended his friend Jeff Beck. Beck played his first gig with the Yardbirds two days after Clapton's departure.
Beck line-up (1965–1966) Beck's exploration of fuzz tone, reverb, feedback, sustain, distortion, and
hammer-on soloing fitted well into the increasingly raw style of British beat music. The Yardbirds began to experiment with eclectic arrangements reminiscent of
Gregorian chants and various European and Asian styles while Beck infused a pervasive Middle Eastern influence into the mix. Beck was voted No. 1 lead guitarist of 1966 in the British music magazine
Beat Instrumental. The Beck-era Yardbirds produced many groundbreaking recordings, including the hit singles "
Heart Full of Soul", "
Evil Hearted You"/"Still I'm Sad", a cover of Bo Diddley's "
I'm a Man" (US only), "
Shapes of Things", and "
Over Under Sideways Down", the last from the album
Yardbirds (known popularly as
Roger the Engineer). Beck's fuzz-tone guitar riff on "
Heart Full of Soul" helped to introduce Indian-influenced guitar stylings to the
UK singles chart in the summer of 1965. The follow-up, the reverb-laden "
Evil Hearted You", furthered the Eastern influence, while its B-side, "Still I'm Sad", featured the band chanting like
Gregorian monks. The Diddley cover, "
I'm a Man", was hard blues rock, featured the Yardbirds' signature "rave-up", where the tempo shifted to double time and Relf's harmonica and Beck's scratching guitar raced to a climax before falling back into the original beat. The band embarked on their first US tour in late August 1965. A pair of albums were put together for the US market:
For Your Love and
Having a Rave Up with the Yardbirds, half of which came from the earlier
Five Live Yardbirds album, combined with new tracks such as "
You're a Better Man Than I" and "
Train Kept A-Rollin'", both recorded with legendary producer Sam Phillips at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, during the first US tour. There were three more United States tours during Beck's time with the band and a brief European tour in April 1966. The single "
Shapes of Things", released in February 1966, "can justifiably be classified as the first psychedelic rock classic", according to music journalist
Richie Unterberger and heralded the coming of British psychedelia three months before the Beatles' "
Paperback Writer"/"
Rain". Reaching number three on the UK charts "Shapes" was also the Yardbirds' first self-penned hit, the previous three UK A-sides having been written by Gouldman. Relf's vague anti-war protest lyrics and Beck's feedback-driven, Middle Eastern-influenced solo reflected the band's increasing embrace of psychedelia, In the US, an abridged version of the album, minus the cartoon cover art, was released as
Over Under Sideways Down. The recording session marked the Yardbirds' split with their manager,
Giorgio Gomelsky, as writer
Simon Napier-Bell took over management and shared production credit with Samwell-Smith. The band, led by Relf and McCarty, eschewed cover material, writing the entire album themselves. They were allotted "a whole week" to record the album, according to Dreja, resulting in a "crammed" albeit an eclectic mix of blues, hard rock, monkish chanting ("Turn into Earth", "Ever Since the World Began") and African tribal rhythms ("Hot House of Omagararshid"). Beck's guitar lines were a unifying constant throughout.
Roger the Engineer was ranked at number 350 on
Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
Beck/Page line-up (1966) Roger the Engineer was released in June 1966. Soon afterward, Samwell-Smith quit the band at a drunken gig at Queen's College in Oxford and embarked on a career as a record producer.
Jimmy Page, who was at the show, agreed that night to play bass until rhythm guitarist Dreja could rehearse on the instrument. with his girlfriend Mary Hughes, while the rest of the band completed the tour. After the Yardbirds reunited in London, Dreja remained on bass and the group's dual lead guitar attack was born. featuring Beck on vocals and lead guitar, and Page on bass. The single's B-side in the US, "The Nazz Are Blue", also features a lead vocal by Beck. The Yardbirds also recorded "Stroll On", a reworking of "
Train Kept A-Rollin'", recorded for
Michelangelo Antonioni's critically acclaimed film
Blow-Up. Relf changed the song's lyrics and title to avoid having to seek permission from the copyright holder. Their appearance in the film, about a hip fashion photographer (played by
David Hemmings) undergoing an existential crisis in
Swinging London, came after
the Who declined and the
In-Crowd were unable to attend the filming.
Andy Warhol's "Factory" band
the Velvet Underground was also considered for the part but was unable to acquire UK work permits. Director Antonioni instructed Beck to smash his guitar in emulation of the Who's
Pete Townshend. The guitar that Beck destroys in the film was a cheap
Höfner instrument. The Beck/Page line-up recorded little else in the studio. No live recordings of the dual-lead guitar lineup have surfaced, except for "Great Shakes", a commercial recorded for Great Shakes milkshakes using the opening riff of "
Over Under Sideways Down", included on the 1992
Little Games Sessions & More compilation. One recording made by Beck and Page in May 1966, just weeks before Page joined the Yardbirds, was "
Beck's Bolero". This piece was inspired by
Ravel's "Bolero" and credited to Page (although Beck also claims to have written the song), with John Paul Jones on bass,
Keith Moon on drums and
Nicky Hopkins on piano. Around the time of this session, the idea of a "
supergroup" involving Beck, Page, Moon, and Who bassist
John Entwistle originated, with Entwistle suggesting it would "go over like a lead balloon" and Moon quipping that they could call the band "Lead Zeppelin". Although all the musicians remained with their bands, Page recalled the conversation in 1968 when deciding on the name for Led Zeppelin. "Beck's Bolero" was first released in 1967 as the B-side of Beck's first solo single, "
Hi Ho Silver Lining", and was included the following year on
the Jeff Beck Group's debut album,
Truth. The Yardbirds opened for the
Rolling Stones' 1966 UK tour (with
Ike & Tina Turner,
Peter Jay and
Long John Baldry also on the bill), released the "
Happenings" single, shot their scenes in
Blow-Up, and then headed back to the US for a show at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, and a slot on
American Bandstand host
Dick Clark's "Caravan of Stars" tour, which they joined in Texas. After a few shows with the Caravan, Beck stormed out and headed back to San Francisco and Mary Hughes. The band, still in Texas, continued on the Dick Clark tour as a quartet, with Page as the sole lead guitarist. They caught up with Beck in late November, at which point Beck officially left the band. Beck's lack of professionalism, his temper, Relf's drunkenness, the gruelling and unrewarding Dick Clark Caravan, and other pressures were cited, none of which involved Beck being fired. and the combination of a
wah-wah pedal in addition to a distortion
fuzzbox. Other innovations included the use of a taped noise loop in live settings (on the psychedelic dirge "Glimpses") and
open-tuned guitar to enhance the sitar-like sounds the Yardbirds were known for. Meanwhile, the act's commercial fortunes were declining. "
Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" had only reached No. 30 on the US Hot 100 and had fared worse in the U.K. The band dropped Napier-Bell and entered into a partnership with Columbia Records hit-making producer
Mickie Most, known for his work with
the Animals,
Herman's Hermits and
Donovan, yet this move failed to reignite their chart success. Most was hired by the Yardbirds' label to broaden their pop appeal and rectify their waning chart performance; however, the band's change in sound under his direction was poorly received. After the disappointing sales of "Happenings", the single "
Little Games" released in March 1967 flopped so badly in the UK (where it was backed by "Puzzles") that EMI did not release another Yardbirds record there until after the band broke up. A 1968 UK release of the "Goodnight Sweet Josephine" single was planned but cancelled. A version of
Tony Hazzard's "Ha Ha Said the Clown" (recorded by Relf with session musicians and none of the other Yardbirds), backed by the Relf–McCarty original "Tinker Tailor, Soldier Sailor", was the band's last single to enter the US top 50, peaking at No. 44 on the
Billboard chart in the summer of 1967. Epic released
The Yardbirds Greatest Hits in the US in March 1967.
Greatest Hits described to the Yardbirds' growing American audience an almost complete picture of "what made the Yardbirds a great band", according to
AllMusic critic Bruce Eder. In the description by author Greg Russo, the compilation also presented young garage rock musicians of the psychedelic era with a handy textbook of the band's work during 1965–66.
Greatest Hits was the Yardbirds' best-selling US album release, peaking at No. 28 on the
Billboard chart. The band spent the first half of 1967 touring Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, and France (including a stop in Cannes to help promote
Blow-Up). They also played a handful of shows in the UK in June, before heading to Vancouver to begin their fourth tour of North America with Page. By 1968, the psychedelic blues rock of
the Jimi Hendrix Experience and former Yardbird Eric Clapton's band
Cream was enormously popular, yet Relf and McCarty wished to pursue a style influenced by folk and classical music. Page wanted to continue with the kind of "heavy" music for which Led Zeppelin would become iconic. Dreja was developing an interest in photography. By March, Relf and McCarty had decided to leave but were persuaded by the other two to stay at least for one more American tour. The band's final single was recorded in January and released two months later. Reflecting the divergences of the band members and their producer, the A-side, "Goodnight Sweet Josephine", was another Mickie Most-produced pop single, while the B-side, "Think About It", featured a proto-Zeppelin Page riff and snippets of the "Dazed and Confused" guitar solo. It failed to chart on the
Billboard Hot 100. A concert and some album tracks were recorded in New York City in March and early April (including the unreleased song "Knowing That I'm Losing You", an early version of a track that would be re-recorded by
Led Zeppelin as "
Tangerine"). All were shelved at the band's request, but after Led Zeppelin became successful Epic tried to release the concert material as
Live Yardbirds: Featuring Jimmy Page. The album was quickly withdrawn after Page's lawyers filed an injunction. The Yardbirds played their final shows on 31 May and 1 June at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, and on 4 and 5 June at the Spring Fair at the Montgomery International Speedway in Alabama. The Los Angeles shows were documented in the bootleg release
Last Rave-Up in L.A. Relf and McCarty left the Yardbirds on 12 June ("Two Yardbirds Fly"). The remaining band returned home to play one last show, on 7 July 1968, at the
College of Technology in
Luton,
Bedfordshire,
The New Yardbirds/Led Zeppelin (1968) Page and Dreja, with a tour of
Scandinavia scheduled for late summer 1968, Drummers
B.J. Wilson of
Procol Harum, Paul Francis, and session man
Clem Cattini, who had guested on more than a few Yardbirds tracks under Most's supervision, were considered for the band, Plant, in turn, recommended his childhood friend
John Bonham as a drummer. Dreja bowed out to pursue a career as a rock photographer. Rehearsals began in mid-August 1968; in early September, Page's revised Yardbirds embarked as the New Yardbirds on the
Scandinavian tour, after which the band returned to the UK to produce what would become the
debut Led Zeppelin album. While Page's new roster still played a few songs from the Yardbirds' canonusually "Train Kept a-Rollin, "Dazed and Confused" or "For Your Love" and snatches of Beck's "Shapes of Things" soloa name (and identity) change was in order in October 1968. They appeared on contracts, promotional material, ticket stubs and other collateral as "The Yardbirds" or "The New Yardbirds" for three shows in October 1968, with the Marquee Club date reported as the Yardbirds' "farewell London appearance" and the Liverpool University show 19 October advertised as the Yardbirds' "last ever appearance". This may have been motivated, at least in part, by a cease-and-desist order from Dreja, who claimed that he maintained legal rights to "The Yardbirds" name, although most sources indicate that Page and Grant fully intended to change the name after they returned from Scandinavia with or without the nudge from Dreja. From 19 October 1968 onwards, they were
Led Zeppelin, the name taken from
the Who bandmembers Moon and Entwistle's "lead balloon" discussion of the "supergroup" that had played on the "Beck's Bolero" sessions in May 1966.
After the Yardbirds (1968–1992) Relf and McCarty formed an
acoustic rock band called Together and then
Renaissance, which recorded two albums for
Island Records over two years. McCarty formed the band Shoot in 1973. Relf, after producing albums for
Medicine Head (with whom he also played bass) and Saturnalia, resurfaced in 1975 with a new quartet,
Armageddon; a hybrid of
heavy metal,
hard rock and
folk influences, which now included former Renaissance bandmate
Louis Cennamo, drummer
Bobby Caldwell (previously a member of
Captain Beyond and
Johnny Winter), and guitarist
Martin Pugh (from
Steamhammer,
Rod Stewart's ''
An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down'', and most recently in
7th Order). They recorded one promising album before Relf died in an electrical accident in his home studio on 12 May 1976. In 1977,
Illusion was formed, featuring a reunited lineup of the original Renaissance, including McCarty and Keith's sister
Jane Relf. At the
Marquee Club in London on 23 June 1983, McCarty, Dreja and Samwell-Smith reunited for a twentieth anniversary show as the Yardbirds, with singer John Fiddler (ex-
Medicine Head) and guitarist John Knightsbridge, and Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page making guest appearances. This show eventually led to a short-lived Yardbirds semi-reunion group called
Box of Frogs, which occasionally included Beck and Page plus various friends (including Fiddler and Knightsbridge) with whom they had all recorded over the years. They recorded two albums for Epic, the self-titled
Box of Frogs (1984) and
Strange Land (1986). McCarty was also part of the British Invasion All-Stars with members of Procol Harum,
the Creation, the
Nashville Teens, the
Downliners Sect and
the Pretty Things.
Phil May and
Dick Taylor of the Pretty Things, together with McCarty, recorded two albums in
Chicago as the Pretty ThingsYardbirds Blues Band
The Chicago Blues Tapes 1991 and
Wine, Women, Whiskey, both produced by
George Paulus. : (
left to right) Page, Beck, Dreja, McCarty, Clapton The Yardbirds were inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in January 1992. Nearly all the surviving musicians who had been part of the band's heyday, including Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, appeared at the ceremony (original lead guitarist Top Topham was not included). Eric Clapton, whose Hall of Fame induction was the first of three, was unable to attend because of his obligations while recording and working on a show for the
MTV Unplugged series.
Re-formation (1992–present) In 1992 Peter Barton from Rock Artist Management contacted Jim McCarty about the prospect of reforming the Yardbirds. McCarty was interested but only if Chris Dreja would agree, but at the time he thought it highly unlikely that Dreja would want to tour again. Barton then contacted Dreja, who agreed to give it a try. Their debut gig was booked at the Marquee Club in London along with the newly reformed
Animals. It was a great success. The lineup featured John Idan handling guitar (later bass) and lead vocals. Barton managed the band and booked all their dates for over a decade; he still works with the band on occasion. , France, 9 September 2006. L to R: John Idan, Jim McCarty (
behind the drums) and Chris Dreja. Photo: Corentin Lamy. Along with McCarty, Dreja and Idan, the reunited 1992 Yardbirds lineup featured
Rod Demick (bass, harmonica, backing vocals) from McCarty's eponymous band. Months later Demick left and Ray Majors (formerly from the
Mott the Hoople offshoot band Mott) joined on lead guitar, while Idan moved to bass, Laurie Garman also joined on harmonica. A recording of the Jim McCarty Band featuring Demick and Idan was released under the Yardbirds name as
Reunion Jam. and later that year, Garman was replaced by
Alan Glen. In 2003 a new album,
Birdland, was released under the Yardbirds name on the
Favored Nations label by a lineup including Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty,
Gypie Mayo (lead guitar, backing vocals), John Idan (bass, lead vocals) and
Alan Glen (harmonica, backing vocals), which consisted of a mixture of new material mostly penned by McCarty and re-recordings of some of their greatest hits, with guest appearances by
Joe Satriani,
Steve Vai,
Slash,
Brian May,
Steve Lukather,
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter,
John Rzeznik, Martin Ditchum and Simon McCarty. Also, Jeff Beck reunited with his former bandmates on the song "My Blind Life". And then there was the rare and improbable guest appearance onstage in 2005 by their first guitarist from the 1960s, Top Topham. After the release of
Birdland, Mayo was replaced briefly by
Jerry Donahue, and subsequently in 2005 by the then 20-year-old guitarist
Ben King, while Glen was replaced by Billy Boy Miskimmin from
Nine Below Zero fame. In 2007 the Yardbirds released a live CD, recorded on 19 July 2006, entitled
Live at B.B. King Blues Club (Favored Nations), featuring the McCarty, Dreja, Idan, King, and Miskimmin line-up. The first episode of the 2007/08 season for
The Simpsons featured the Yardbirds' "I'm a Man" from the CD
Live at B.B. King Blues Club (Favored Nations). According to his website, Idan resigned from the Yardbirds in August 2008, although his last gig with them was on Friday 24 April 2009, when they headlined the first concert in the new Live Room venue at
Twickenham rugby stadium. This was also Glen's last gig with the band after temporarily standing in when Miskimmin was unavailable. Idan and Glen were replaced by Andy Mitchell (lead vocals, harmonica, acoustic guitar) and David Smale (bass, backing vocals), brother of the virtuoso guitarist Jonathan Smale. Dreja sat out the US spring 2012 tour to recover from an illness and in 2013 left the band for medical reasons; he was replaced by original Yardbirds guitarist Topham. By December 2014 the then-lineup of the Yardbirds had disbanded. In an email McCarty he would be "working on solo ventures and other Yardbirds projects in 2015". However, the Yardbirds continued to tour in 2015. In May 2015 Topham left the band and was replaced by
Earl Slick, although Slick never played a gig with the band. On 17 October 2015 the Yardbirds played the Eel Pie Club in
Twickenham, west London, with a line-up of Jim McCarty, John Idan, Ben King, David Smale and Billyboy Miskimmin.
Boston-based guitarist
Johnny A. became the newest member of the Yardbirds for their North American tour running from 30 October to 22 November 2015. Johnny A. continued to tour as the Yardbirds' lead guitarist throughout 2016, 2017 and 2018 performing a total of 110 shows before departing. His last show with the Yardbirds was on 23 June 2018 at The Egyptian Theater, Park City, Utah. Former
Ram Jam harmonica player
Myke Scavone joined the band at the end of 2015. On 15 April 2016 the band played at the
Under the Bridge venue in London with a line-up of Jim McCarty, John Idan, Johnny A, Kenny Aaronson and Billyboy Miskimmin. Dreja died in a London nursing home on 25 September 2025 at age 79. == Musical style ==