The Yardbirds - For Your Love

For Your Love introduced the Yardbirds to American record buyers in 1965 and catches the band at a turning point, with Eric Clapton on his way out and Jeff Beck on his way in.

The LP was assembled for the North American market, pulling together singles, B-sides and session recordings rather than a planned studio album. The title track, written by Graham Gouldman and built around a striking harpsichord part, pushed the band toward pop. That shift famously sent the blues-devoted Clapton packing, and Beck's first sessions with the group are also included here.

"For Your Love" remains a strange, brilliant single, moody and baroque, with an explosive bridge that hints at the psychedelic years to come. "I Wish You Would" and "Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl" show the harmonica-driven rhythm and blues that made the band a club sensation, while "My Girl Sloopy" lets Beck stretch out with the wild, inventive guitar that would soon define their sound.

Producer Giorgio Gomelsky captured them in the act of reinventing British blues, and the result crackles with youthful energy and restless experimentation.

For fans of sixties British rock, this album is a fascinating snapshot of a band that would go on to launch three of the greatest guitarists of all time, with two of them right here in the grooves.