After guitarist Jimmy Page joined the group, the Yardbirds recorded an updated version with new lyrics as "Stroll On" for the film Blowup in 1966.

With a highly charged rhythm section and a dual lead guitar attack by Beck and Page, it is seen as a forerunner to heavy metal music.

When the Yardbirds broke up in 1968, "Train Kept A-Rollin'" was adopted as a concert opener by Page's new band, Led Zeppelin, during its early (and again later) touring years.

[3] The verses are delivered in a lively vocal style, followed by an instrumental break with a raucous, honking-style tenor saxophone solo by Red Prysock and backed by drummer Philip Paul's heavy backbeat.

The train kept a rollin' all night long, and I still wouldn't let her go The lyrics are based on "Cow-Cow Boogie", a 1942 song about a singing cowboy.

[4] Bradshaw rewrote lines, such as "a ditty he learned in the city" and "get along, get hip little doggies, and he trucked 'em on down the old fairway", to meet his new scenario.

[5] According to music historian Larry Birnbaum, "Mann's name was plainly added to allow Syd Nathan to siphon off a share of the publishing royalties, as label owners routinely did in those days; as for Kay, his identity remains a mystery".

Besides Bradshaw, Prysock, and Paul, the other participants were: Leslie Ayers and Lester Bass on trumpets; Andrew Penn on trombone; Ted "Snooky" Holbert on alto and baritone sax; Rufus Gore on tenor saxes; Jimmy Robinson on piano; and Clarence Mack on bass.

Billboard magazine reviewed the release and commented using jump parlance: "The singer comes thru [sic] with a great vocal on a rockin' novelty, with some solid chorus and ork [orchestra a.k.a.

[9] He utilized this effect with the song's main instrumental feature, a three-note minor key guitar line repeated throughout.

[21] The Yardbirds' lead guitarist Jeff Beck, who is a fan of early rockabilly, said that he introduced the song to the group: "They just heard me play the riff, and they loved it and made up their version of it".

[15] Giorgio Gomelsky, the group' first producer, states that Sonny Boy Williamson II's use of blues harp to imitate train sounds during his 1963 UK tour with the Yardbirds also inspired the band's adaptation of the song.

[23] Following the vocal section, the rhythm changes to a shuffle and a 12-bar harmonica and guitar bridge sets the stage for Beck's first solo.

It was part of the Yardbirds' signature sound[d] and "represent[s] some of the earliest psychedelic blues-rock, antedating Jimi Hendrix and Cream", according to Birnbaum.

[e] "The Train Kept A-Rollin'" was included on studio side of the Yardbirds' second American album Having a Rave Up, which was issued on November 15, 1965.

The song was a staple of the band's concerts and they recorded several live versions with Beck, which appear on albums such as BBC Sessions (1991) and Glimpses 1963–1968 (2011).

[28] Unable to secure the movie performance rights from the song's publisher, singer Keith Relf wrote new lyrics, renamed it "Stroll On", and included credits to the five band members.

Led Zeppelin biographer Keith Shadwick describes the new version as "brutal, menacing, and teetering on all-out violence",[27] which foreshadows heavy-metal.

[30] It opens with a new drum part by Jim McCarty and harmonized guitar feedback, before Beck's train whistle simulation.

Their scene was staged on a set at Elstree Studios designed to resemble the Ricky-Tick, a popular London club and, at Antonioni's direction, Beck smashes his guitar, in the manner of the Who's Pete Townshend.

[j] Shortly after Keith Relf and Jim McCarty left the Yardbirds in mid-1968, Jimmy Page searched for new musicians for a successor band.

In Westport [at their supporting gig on October 22, 1966] we found out that Jeff had left the band and Jimmy was playing lead guitar by himself.

[42] To give the second part more of a live sound, Douglas overdubbed crowd noise from The Concert for Bangladesh, the 1971 benefit organized by George Harrison.

Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, who worked with Lou Reed and Alice Cooper, were brought in to record the guitar parts.

[48] Birnbaum sums up the various influences and versions: As it evolved from ragtime through jazz, boogie-woogie, big-band swing, small combo rhythm-and-blues, rockabilly, blues-rock, acid rock, heavy metal, punk, thrash, psychobilly, and points beyond, 'Train Kept A-Rollin'' became increasingly wild and dissonant, as if each performer were trying to surpass the intensity of the previous one.

Through all the transformations, the essence of Bradshaw's original survives — a semblance of the melody, a smattering of the lyrics, and the immortal refrain 'The train kept a rollin' all night long', a cogent sexual metaphor for power and endurance.