YARDBIRDS, 10Cc, & Graham Gouldman
YARDBIRDS, 10CC, & GRAHAM GOULDMAN by Alan L. Chrisman The Yardbirds were a legendary British Blues-rock band in the 60’s. Especially because three well-known guitarists came out of one band at one point or another: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. They started out as a blues band, replacing The Stones at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, England. But Clapton left the band in ’65 because he didn’t like their commercial direction and he joined John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, to be replaced by Page and later, Jeff Beck, who was known for first experimenting with guitar feedback. The Yardirds also make an appearance in Antonioni’s film, Blowup in 1966. Their first big commercial hits though, “ For Your Love” and “Heart Full of Soul’”were written by songwriter, Graham Gouldman. The still-teenage Gouldman, very influenced by The Beatles, had original planned to give them his song, “For Your Love” , but that night the Yardbirds were opening for The Beatles and he gave it to Jimmy Page instead and it became The Yardbirds’ first big hit. Gouldman also wrote several hits for The Hollies (“ Bus Stop”, “Look Through Any Window”), Herman’s Hermits ( “No Milk Today”) and many others. He briefly replaced, Wayne Fontana of The Mindbenders after their hit, “The Game of Love”, where he met his future 10cc bandmate, Eric Stewart. Kevin Godley and Lol Creme would then join Stewart and Gouldman under the name, Hotlegs and have an international single with “Neanderthal Man” in 1970. The four would then form the art-rock band 10cc.
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