{"id":10680,"date":"2026-05-02T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/people-thought-wed-sold-out-the-making-of-for-your-love-by-the-yardbirds-154430\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T13:00:00","slug":"people-thought-wed-sold-out-the-making-of-for-your-love-by-the-yardbirds-154430","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/people-thought-wed-sold-out-the-making-of-for-your-love-by-the-yardbirds-154430\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cPeople thought we\u2019d sold out\u2026\u201d \u2013 The Making Of \u201cFor Your Love\u201d, by The Yardbirds"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Originally published in Uncut Take 262 (March 2019 issue)…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Originally published in Uncut Take 262 (March 2019 issue)\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an odd song for us to do after playing Jimmy Reed and Howlin Wolf stuff,\u201d says Yardbird drummer Jim McCarty. \u201cBut we liked to be different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Your Love\u201d was very much a transitional record for The Yardbirds, propelling them from the London club scene to the international stage on its release in early 1965. Remarkably, though, the song wasn\u2019t an obvious success on paper \u2013 it was led by harpsichord and featured a vaguely medieval, minor-key melody.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had heard the Eartha Kitt song, \u2018Just An Old Fashioned Girl\u2019,\u201d recalls Paul Samwell-Smith, the band\u2019s bassist turned producer, \u201cand I loved the harpsichord on it \u2013 so different \u2013 so I wanted to try that on a Yardbirds song.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the stuff I wrote during that period was minor-key,\u201d says songwriter Graham Gouldman. \u201c\u2018Bus Stop\u2019, \u2018Heart Full Of Soul\u2019, too. I liked minor keys, I responded to them, they\u2019re more soulful, they\u2019re bluer. The band thought it was just right for them, except for Eric Clapton, of course \u2013 I think it was the last straw for him. The purist that Clapton is didn\u2019t like the idea of them doing something that wasn\u2019t an old Memphis blues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the release of \u201cFor Your Love\u201d, Clapton departed to pursue a more traditional direction with John Mayall\u2019s Bluesbreakers, his place filled by the experimentally minded Jeff Beck. For The Yardbirds, this now ushered in a period of increased popularity and expanding musical horizons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a following before,\u201d explains McCarty, \u201cbut it was just on the club scene around London. \u2018For Your Love\u2019 opened us up to the whole country. People saw us on TV, we were playing round the whole of the UK, and then Europe and the US.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved their version when I heard it,\u201d says Gouldman. \u201cI do it their exact way now when I do it, the Yardbirds way.\u201d<\/p>\n

KEY PLAYERS<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Jim McCarty (Drums)<\/li>\n
  • Paul Samwell-Smith (Producer)<\/li>\n
  • Graham Gouldman (Songwriter)<\/li>\n
  • Ron Prentice (Bowed bass)<\/li>\n
  • Top Topham (Early Yardbirds lead guitarist)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    \n
    \n
    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

    JIM MCCARTY:<\/strong> When we started, we were a covers band, really. We were just playing old blues songs. \u201cSmokestack Lightning\u201d, Chuck Berry, Elmore James.<\/p>\n

    TOP TOPHAM:<\/strong> During the Second World War, my father was down in the American South for several months. He got into the blues, and when I was quite young he took me to some amazing stuff. Around about 1959 to \u201960, I got a job and got records sent from America. We were learning how to play that stuff, and the whole thing worked very well. There\u2019s a quality in the blues that sort of heals people.<\/p>\n

    PAUL SAMWELL-SMITH:<\/strong> We were all a bit suspicious of the pop world with its three minutes or less of playable hit material. We would often play songs for 10 or even 15 minutes at gigs. But commercial radio wasn\u2019t having any of it.<\/p>\n

    TOPHAM:<\/strong> [manager] Giorgio Gomelsky took us on and he wanted us to play a lot more. My father said, \u201cNo, you\u2019re not going to play for 30 days at a time.\u201d That\u2019s when Clapton took over. I was at school with Clapton in 1960, \u201961 onwards, so I knew him \u2013 he used to come to our house to listen to the blues. <\/p>\n

    McCARTY:<\/strong> We built up a following quite quickly \u2013 but some of our contemporaries, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, they all started to have hits. We felt we needed a hit to keep up. We tried various options, some of our own songs, \u201cI Wish You Would\u201d, \u201cGood Morning Little Schoolgirl\u201d, but we never quite got our sound together in the studio. Either that, or it wasn\u2019t quite commercial enough. The problem was that the sound in the studio didn\u2019t really suit us, because we were quite a heavy R&B band.<\/p>\n

    SAMWELL-SMITH: <\/strong>The only way to jump from being a lowly local band who occasionally travelled elsewhere to gigs to being a national band with appearances on radio and television, and even abroad, was to have a \u2018hit record\u2019. So to progress at all we had to find short, \u2018commercial\u2019 material. <\/p>\n

    GRAHAM GOULDMAN:<\/strong> I hadn\u2019t written that many songs before \u201cFor Your Love\u201d. I worked in an outfitter\u2019s shop in Salford. I used to take my guitar there and close the shop up for lunch. That\u2019s when I came up with the song. The chord sequence of \u201cHouse Of The Rising Sun\u201d, when I heard that, it intrigued me, and \u201cFor Your Love\u201d was kind of the opposite of that sequence. I was in a band called The Mockingbirds, and our record label rejected the song, so [Goudsman\u2019s manager] Harvey Lisberg said, \u201cThis song is so great, we should get it to The Beatles.\u201d I reminded Harvey that The Beatles were doing OK in the songwriting department, but he said, \u201cYeah, but they do covers.\u201d I said, \u201cYeah, but standards, rhythm and blues stuff.\u201d Harvey mentioned \u201cFor Your Love\u201d to a publisher called Ronnie Beck, and this gave Ronnie an idea, because he knew that The Yardbirds wanted to have a hit.<\/p>\n

    \n

    \u201cWe were all a bit suspicious of the pop world with its three minutes of playable hit material\u201d \u2013 PAUL SAMWELL-SMITH<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    McCARTY:<\/strong> We were playing with The Beatles at their Hammersmith Christmas show in 1964, and this publisher saw us and sent this acetate demo of \u201cFor Your Love\u201d round to Giorgio Gomelski. We were a bit of a different group when he saw us, doing odd things like changing tempos in the middle of songs, and I expect he thought maybe this would suit them.<\/p>\n

    SAMWELL-SMITH:<\/strong> \u201cFor Your Love\u201d was first played to me by Ronnie Beck at B Feldman & Co, our publisher \u2013 Ronnie was a drinking pal of mine.<\/p>\n

    McCARTY:<\/strong> We all went round to Giorgio Gomelsky\u2019s apartment in Kensington, listened to it and we all liked it. I thought Graham was a great writer. Eric, of course, didn\u2019t like it, because he was having political problems within the band. He was a bit of a blues purist. He didn\u2019t like the song choice or that Paul Samwell-Smith was going to produce it.<\/p>\n

    SAMWELL-SMITH:<\/strong> I\u2019d been playing with tape recorders since my teens. My brother was five years older than me so he was able to introduce me to some of the early recording devices. My first was what was called a \u2018wire recorder\u2019, because it used thin metal wire and not tape to record the magnetic information. I used to mess with sound effects and primitive guitar sounds. <\/p>\n

    GOULDMAN:<\/strong> On the original demo, the intro is actually played on an acoustic guitar, so the idea of using the harpsichord was inspired, I thought. There\u2019s something otherworldly about it. The way I played it on the original demo is slightly different, it feels like Em\/G\/A\/A minor, but it\u2019s not quite that, the second chord is more like Em7, which is closely related to G \u2013 like G6, almost. Their version is simpler, more direct, and consequently more effective. <\/p>\n

    McCARTY:<\/strong> We weren\u2019t in there very long. Denny Piercy was on the bongos, he wasn\u2019t a professional musician, he was an amateur, and a presenter on the BBC. Giorgio knew him and asked him to come and play bongos. We did a track with me playing drums, the bowed bass, and Brian Auger played the harpsichord and it seemed to work really well.<\/p>\n

    RON PRENTICE:<\/strong> IBC was like any other studio \u2013 we didn\u2019t used to take much notice of the surroundings, we\u2019d just be at so-and-so at one o\u2019clock, say, and you\u2019d play, get your money and go home. I can see in my diary here, I had a few bookings for Yardbirds Limited then \u2013 one on April 28, 6 \u2013 10.30pm, booked by Ron Beck [for a later song, perhaps \u201cHeart Full Of Soul<\/em>\u201c]. <\/p>\n

    \n

    \u201cPeople thought we\u2019d sold out because \u2018For Your Love\u2019 was so different to what we\u2019d played previously\u201d \u2013 JIM MCCARTY<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    SAMWELL-SMITH: <\/strong>I had to order the harpsichord specially for the session, and Giorgio managed to get Brian Auger to play it for us \u2013 Brian was in a band that Giorgio also managed, the Brian Auger Trinity. Giorgio also booked Denny Piercy the bongo player and Ron Prentice on bass. It was a strange experience, pulling all these different instruments together, and then having to make it work as a song. Normally you pick up your bass or guitar and play as a band. It all fits together. This was more experimental. As for the bowed bass and congas, I can\u2019t really remember where I got that idea, maybe with Keith [Relf] and Jim, but I do know I was trying to go in a different direction to the usual two guitars, bass and drums.<\/p>\n

    PRENTICE:<\/strong> It was fairly unusual for me to be playing bowed bass actually. I was a string bass player first, and then I learnt bass guitar after that. <\/p>\n

    McCARTY:<\/strong> Then we did the middle section as an overdub.<\/p>\n

    GOULDMAN:<\/strong> That idea for the middle bit was not mine \u2013 Harvey Lisberg said, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you do something completely different?\u201d So I just went into it! <\/p>\n

    McCARTY:<\/strong> It was the sort of song that was gonna stand out when it was played on the radio. We always liked it \u2013 apart from Eric. He had a little thing going with Paul Samwell-Smith, I don\u2019t know, they didn\u2019t see eye to eye. It was a bit of a class thing. I don\u2019t think Eric liked the way Paul was hyphenated, I guess!<\/p>\n

    SAMWELL-SMITH:<\/strong> You can see why Eric, quite rightly, was worried about the direction we were going in. It is true that we didn\u2019t really \u2018get on\u2019, but don\u2019t read too much into that. It\u2019s normal for two guys who aren\u2019t all that comfortable together, travelling around the country packed in the back of a van for hour after hour, to experience some discomfort, and wonder \u201cWhy?\u201d Anyway, I think harpsichord and bowed bass were too big a step in the wrong direction for Eric, so he left the band. I wonder what became of him? <\/p>\n

    McCARTY:<\/strong> Eric left quite soon after the recording. He wasn\u2019t there when it came out, so it would have been a couple of weeks after recording. It was difficult with him, he was quite a moody guy. The rest of us were quite together, but he\u2019d be quite separate, sitting in the corner of the van sulking. It was a bit of a relief when he left, \u2018cos there wasn\u2019t any more moodies. Yeah, \u201cFor Your Love\u201d was the main reason, the way it was done and the way Paul had produced it \u2013 it wasn\u2019t a bluesy enough song [for him<\/em>].<\/p>\n

    GOULDMAN:<\/strong> I saw them play it on Top Of The Pops. I was there because The Mockingbirds were one of the many bands that Top Of The Pops used to hire to play while the audience was coming in, to keep the audience happy before the show started. It was slightly surreal that I had written one of the songs that was being performed on the show. It was a nice feeling \u2013 no problem for me at all. At that point, I was happy with the idea that I would mainly be a songwriter.<\/p>\n

    McCARTY:<\/strong> Some people thought we\u2019d sold out, because \u201cFor Your Love\u201d was so different to what we\u2019d played previously. But after a while it just fitted in with our bluesy songs. Jeff [Beck] played his first gig with us at the Fairfield Hall, Croydon, and very quickly it became a huge hit. He\u2019d only just joined, so it was quite nice for him. We had to reproduce it onstage, so Jeff had to play it on electric 12-string. But he liked fuzzboxes and feedback, these weird and wonderful sounds. It made our sound quite different, which is what we wanted.<\/p>\n

    SAMWELL-SMITH:<\/strong> When I listen to it today, I think how good the band were to not only allow this experiment to happen but to play so well on it. Jim\u2019s drumming is lovely, and of course Keith is a star. None of this would have worked if the band hadn\u2019t come together to make it happen.<\/p>\n

    FACTFILE<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Written by:<\/strong> Graham Gouldman
    Recorded at:<\/strong> IBC Studios, London
    Producers:<\/strong> Paul Samwell-Smith, Giorgio Gomelsky
    Performers include:<\/strong> Keith Relf (vocals), Jim McCarty (drums), Eric Clapton (guitar), Chris Dreja (guitar), Ron Prentice (bowed bass), Brian Auger (harpsichord), Denny Piercy (bongos)
    Released:<\/strong> 5 March, 1965
    UK\/US chart position:<\/strong> 3\/6<\/p>\n

    TIMELINE<\/strong><\/p>\n

    1963<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The Yardbirds form in southwest London<\/p>\n

    December 1964<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The band perform with The Beatles at a Hammersmith Odeon Christmas show, where publisher Rob Beck gives an acetate of \u201cFor Your Love\u201d to manager Giorgio Gomelsky<\/p>\n

    February 1965<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The Yardbirds record the song at London\u2019s IBC Studios<\/p>\n

    March 5, 1965<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \u201cFor Your Love\u201d is released, and hits the Top 10 in both the UK and the US<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    The post \u201cPeople thought we\u2019d sold out\u2026\u201d \u2013 The Making Of \u201cFor Your Love\u201d, by The Yardbirds<\/a> appeared first on UNCUT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    Originally published in Uncut Take 262 (March 2019 issue)… Originally published in Uncut Take 262 (March 2019 issue)\u2026 \u201cIt was an odd song for us to do after playing Jimmy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4017,805],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-yardbirds","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}