The Yardbirds
English blues and psychedelic rock band
Summary
The Yardbirds are an English blues rock band formed in London in 1963. The band started the careers of three of rock's most famous guitarists: Eric Clapton (1963–1965), Jeff Beck (1965–1966) and Jimmy Page (1966–1968), all of whom ranked in the top five of Rolling Stone magazine's 2011 list of 100 greatest guitarists. The band's other members during 1963–1968 were vocalist/harmonica player Keith Relf, drummer Jim McCarty, rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja, and bassist Paul Samwell-Smith, with Dreja switching to bass when Samwell-Smith departed in 1966. The band had a string of hits in the mid-1960s, including "For Your Love", "Heart Full of Soul", "Evil Hearted You", "Still I'm Sad", "Shapes of Things", "Over Under Sideways Down", and "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago".
Originally created by Liquidcheeze
9/16/2011, 3:04:15 PM
Modified
6/3/2026, 12:17:41 PM
Recent revisions
'onwards' is British English. 'e-mail' is unconventional.
/* History */ Entitled to titled and other small edits for clarity
/* History */ Several edits for clarity and consistency
/* */ Several minor edits for clarity and consistency
They heavily mixed rockabilly and blues its stated many times as into their later sound
v2.05b - [[User:WikiCleanerBot#T23|Bot T23 CW#558]] - Fix errors for [[WP:WCW|CW project]] (Duplicated reference)
Cleaned up references and other matters.
announcomania
/* Members */
Removing [[:Category:Sanremo Music Festival participants]] per [[Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2026 February 25#Category:Sanremo Music Festival participants]]
/* Re-formation (1992–present) */ clarification request
Undid revision [[Special:Diff/1340391291|1340391291]] by [[Special:Contributions/Masato.harada|Masato.harada]] ([[User talk:Masato.harada|talk]]) but mentioned at [[Sanremo Music Festival 1966]]; I'm trying to complete this category
Undid revision [[Special:Diff/1340296211|1340296211]] by [[Special:Contributions/IvanScrooge98|IvanScrooge98]] ([[User talk:IvanScrooge98|talk]])Not mentioned in article.
/* External links */+
Undid revision [[Special:Diff/1339857873|1339857873]] by [[Special:Contributions/Dsiodsiodsijo|Dsiodsiodsijo]] ([[User talk:Dsiodsiodsijo|talk]])Reverted unexplained edit, not an improvement.
/* Beck line-up (1965–1966) */ slightly better wording, [[MOS:LINKONCE]]
