Greatest Hits, Vol. 1: 1964-1966

Yardbirds | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 29, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rhino Records
• ASIN: B001BAWKJC
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,746 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. For Your Love

2. Putty (In Your Hands)

3. Evil Hearted You

4. Still I'm Sad

5. You're a Better Man Than I

6. Shapes of Things

7. Heart Full of Soul

8. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

9. I Ain't Done Wrong

10. I'm a Man

11. The Train Kept A-Rollin'

12. A Certain Girl

13. I Ain't Got You

14. I'm Not Talking

15. I Wish You Would

16. Too Much Monkey Business

17. Got Love If You Want It

18. Smokestack Lightning

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

While the Yardbirds graduated three of the greatest guitarists in rock history--Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page--during their 1963-68 existence, the group's best work came during Beck's '65-'66 tenure, which produced nearly all their hit singles and virtually everything found here. (Notable exception: their debut hit, "For Your Love," which Clapton was barely audible on anyway.) From the cat scratch fever of "I'm A Man" to the guitar-as-weapon solo in "Mister, You're a Better Man Than I," Beck rewrote the lead guitar textbook, and on one of the few songs recorded when he and Page were in the band together--"Happenings Ten Years Time Ago"--they foreshadowed the sound of '70s rock. --Billy Altman

Product Description

Though short-lived, The Yardbirds legend and influence loom large, and
rightfully so- the band was the starting point for three ultimate British guitar
heroes: Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Page. Clapton departed the
group first (to join John Mayall' s Bluesbreakers), while Beck later went on to
form the Jeff Beck Group and Page would regroup with The New
Yardbirds an outfit soon renamed Led
Zeppelin. As The Yardbirds, though, they
delivered a series of groundbreaking LPs and
scorching blues-rock singles that are classic
cornerstones of rock n roll. This powerful
compilation features eighteen of their most
important early tracks, including the hits
For Your Love, Heart Full Of Soul,
The Train Kept A-Rollin , I' m A Man, and
other guitar-intense tours de force.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Guitar Trilogy: Clapton-Beck-Page, February 22, 2000

By 

Steve Vrana (Aurora, NE) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: "The Yardbirds - Greatest Hits, Vol. 1: 1964-1966" (Audio CD)

This collection kicks of with "For Your Love," the Yardbirds' highest charting U.S. single (No. 6) and the song that led to the resignation of lead guitarist Eric Clapton. Despite Clapton's early exit from the band (March 1965), he appears on nine of the eighteen tracks. He especially shines on the final three tracks taken from Five Live Yardbirds. Listen especially to Clapton's guitar and Keith Relf's harmonica interplay on the nearly six-minute version of Smokestack Lightning!

Clapton's replacement wasn't too shabby either. Listen to Jeff Beck on their rave-up of Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man" where Beck and Relf do a guitar and harmonica call-and-response.

For a time the Yarbirds boasted the twin-guitar attack of Beck and Jimmy Page (although Page is not featured on this collection). All told, this is amazing music. My only complaint is that it doesn't include "Over, Under, Sideways, Down"--one of only six singles the band had in the U.S. [For that matter, this set also omits the Yardbirds' last top 40 hit, "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago." To get these two songs, buy the equally amazing Yardbirds' album Roger the Engineer.] ESSENTIAL

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable, April 25, 2008

By 

El Lagarto (Sandown, NH) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: "The Yardbirds - Greatest Hits, Vol. 1: 1964-1966" (Audio CD)

In 1966, Michelangelo Antonioni released a highly controversial movie called Blow Up. Set in London, the film starred David Hemmings, Sarah Miles, and a young, and exquisitely beautiful, Vanessa Redgrave. Thomas, (Hemmings), lives a fast, ultra-hip existence and at one point finds himself in a wild, psychedelic nightclub. It's loud, it's cookin', and on the bandstand Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and the other birds are rippin' up a version of The Train Kept A Rollin' which had been slightly altered for copyright reasons. The live energy is absolutely explosive; high voltage, raw electric blues like that was simply unknown back then.

This CD chronicles the most important years in the short, but sparkling, career of a hugely exciting and influential band. When you consider that this music was recorded over 40 years ago it's easy to understand that, at the time, it was as revolutionary as the arrival of Hendrix. More remarkable still, the music sounds as great today as when it was released, full of edge, authority, and bite. Sure, there are clunkers that probably sounded dated even when they were released, You're A Better Man Than I finds the Yardbirds adopting a pious, and highly inappropriate, idealism while Still I'm Sad would have been better left to the Moody Blues or some other clinically depressed outfit. Putty (In Your Hands) is cute - a word that damns it - just too close to early Beatles for comfort.

Pretty much everything else is fast out of the gate and hot as Georgia asphalt in August. I'm Not Talking is a perennial favorite of mine, as are The Train Kept A Rollin', Smokestack Lightning, Evil Hearted You, Heart Full Of Soul, I Ain't Done Wrong. The Yardbirds definitely had their limitations, Keith Reif is a mediocre vocalist - compare him with what the Beck/Stewart match up on Truth sounds like. And this whole "guitar academy" factor everybody likes to cite - Clapton, Beck, Page - actually stood in the way of The Yardbirds ever coalescing as a group. However, they did manage to keep it together for a while, and in doing so, accomplished something artists rarely achieve, they produced music that was genuinely new and good enough to stand the test of time.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent best-of, December 27, 2003

By 

Trevor Seigler (South Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: "The Yardbirds - Greatest Hits, Vol. 1: 1964-1966" (Audio CD)

As I stated in my review of the "Live Blueswailing" CD, I prefer the Clapton-era Yardbirds, and was hoping to find "Five Live" at the mall or something after Christmas. Unfortunately I couldn't find it, but I did pick up this eighteen-track compilation yesterday and am quite pleased. Ranging from the time just before Eric Clapton left to the earliest Jeff Beck material, this CD is a nice mix of the two threads in the Yardbirds' music: a reverence for the R&B standards they perfected with a desire to branch out commercially. While not every song is an absolute winner, there's more than enough to make this a great purchase for any Yardbirds fan.