The Yardbirds - Five Live Yardbirds

A sweaty night at London's Marquee Club became Five Live Yardbirds, the 1964 live debut that offered one of the earliest showcases for a young Eric Clapton.

Produced by manager Giorgio Gomelsky, the album captures the band as a red-hot R&B club act, tearing through songs by the American blues and rhythm and blues heroes they idolised. Keith Relf's harmonica and vocals lead the charge, with Chris Dreja, Paul Samwell-Smith and Jim McCarty driving the rhythm beneath Clapton's stinging leads.

Too Much Monkey Business opens with Chuck Berry's wordplay at breakneck speed, and Smokestack Lightning turns Howlin' Wolf's slow groove into a long, hypnotic build. The band's famous rave-ups, where the tempo surges toward a frenzied climax, are all over Here 'Tis and their take on Bo Diddley's I'm a Man.

It's raw, loud and gloriously unpolished, a document of the British blues boom at its most exciting, before Clapton left and the band headed off toward psychedelia with Jeff Beck. You can hear the crowd, the sweat and the sheer volume of a band that knew it owned the room.

Aerosmith's Joe Perry has called Clapton's playing here a major influence, and one listen explains exactly why the record still matters.