[11] The quintet achieved notice on the burgeoning British rhythm and blues scene when they took over as the house band at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, succeeding the Rolling Stones.

Under Gomelsky's guidance the Yardbirds toured Britain as the back-up band for blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson II in December 1963 and early 1964.

[13] After the tours with Williamson, the Yardbirds signed to EMI's Columbia label in February 1964, and recorded more live tracks on 20 March at the legendary Marquee Club in London.

[15] The Clapton line-up recorded two singles, the blues "I Wish You Would" and "Good Morning, School Girl", before the band scored its first major hit with "For Your Love", a Graham Gouldman composition with a prominent harpsichord part by Brian Auger.

Beck's exploration of fuzz tone, reverb, feedback, sustain, distortion, and hammer-on soloing fit well into the increasingly raw style of British beat music.

The Yardbirds began to experiment with eclectic arrangements reminiscent of Gregorian chants and various European and Asian styles while Beck infused a pervasive Middle Eastern influence into the mix.

The Diddley cover, "I'm a Man", was hard blues rock, featured the Yardbirds' signature "rave-up", where the tempo shifted to double time and Relf's harmonica and Beck's scratching guitar raced to a climax before falling back into the original beat.

The single "Shapes of Things", released in February 1966, "can justifiably be classified as the first psychedelic rock classic," according to music journalist Richie Unterberger[20] and heralded the coming of British psychedelia[21] three months before the Beatles' "Paperback Writer"/"Rain".

Relf's vague anti-war protest lyrics and Beck's feedback-driven, Middle Eastern-influenced solo reflected the band's increasing embrace of psychedelia,[20] as did the UK B-side "You're a Better Man Than I" and the follow-up single, "Over Under Sideways Down".

They were allotted "a whole week" to record the album, according to Dreja,[25] resulting in a "crammed" albeit an eclectic mix of blues, hard rock, monkish chanting ("Turn into Earth", "Ever Since the World Began") and African tribal rhythms ("Hot House of Omagararshid").

[28] The Beck/Page lead guitar partnership created the avant-garde psychedelic rock single "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" (with future Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones on bass instead of Dreja), which the band recorded in July and September 1966.

The single's UK B-side was "Psycho Daisies", two minutes of garage punk sludge[30] featuring Beck on vocals and lead guitar, and Page on bass.

This piece was inspired by Ravel's "Bolero" and credited to Page (although Beck also claims to have written the song), with John Paul Jones on bass, Keith Moon on drums and Nicky Hopkins on piano.

The Yardbirds opened for the Rolling Stones' 1966 UK tour (with Ike & Tina Turner, Peter Jay and Long John Baldry also on the bill), released the "Happenings" single, shot their scenes in Blow-Up,[35] and then headed back to the US for a show at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, and a slot on American Bandstand host Dick Clark's "Caravan of Stars" tour, which they joined in Texas.

Page subsequently introduced playing the guitar with a cello bow (suggested to him by violinist David McCallum Sr.)[36] and the combination of a wah-wah pedal in addition to a distortion fuzzbox.

Other innovations included the use of a taped noise loop in live settings (on the psychedelic dirge "Glimpses") and open-tuned guitar to enhance the sitar-like sounds the Yardbirds were known for.

The band dropped Napier-Bell and entered into a partnership with Columbia Records hit-making producer Mickie Most, known for his work with the Animals, Herman's Hermits and Donovan, yet this move failed to reignite their chart success.

Most was hired by the Yardbirds' label to broaden their pop appeal and rectify their waning chart performance; however, the band's change in sound under his direction was poorly received.

[37] In the description by author Greg Russo, the compilation also presented young garage rock musicians of the psychedelic era with a handy textbook of the band's work during 1965–66.

[39] By 1968, the psychedelic blues rock of the Jimi Hendrix Experience and former Yardbird Eric Clapton's band Cream was enormously popular, yet Relf and McCarty wished to pursue a style influenced by folk and classical music.

Reflecting the divergences of the band members and their producer, the A-side, "Goodnight Sweet Josephine", was another Mickie Most-produced pop single, while the B-side, "Think About It", featured a proto-Zeppelin Page riff and snippets of the "Dazed and Confused" guitar solo.

[40] All were shelved at the band's request, but after Led Zeppelin became successful Epic tried to release the concert material as Live Yardbirds: Featuring Jimmy Page.

Wilson of Procol Harum, Paul Francis, and session man Clem Cattini, who had guested on more than a few Yardbirds tracks under Most's supervision, were considered for the band,[38] as was vocalist and composer Terry Reid.

While Page's new roster still played a few songs from the Yardbirds' canon – usually "Train Kept a-Rollin'", "Dazed and Confused" or "For Your Love" and snatches of Beck's "Shapes of Things" solo – a name (and identity) change was in order in October 1968.

[54] From 19 October 1968 onwards, they were Led Zeppelin, the name taken from the Who bandmembers Moon and Entwistle's "lead balloon" discussion of the "supergroup" that had played on the "Beck's Bolero" sessions in May 1966.

Relf, after producing albums for Medicine Head (with whom he also played bass) and Saturnalia, resurfaced in 1975 with a new quartet, Armageddon; a hybrid of heavy metal, hard rock and folk influences, which now included former Renaissance bandmate Louis Cennamo, drummer Bobby Caldwell (previously a member of Captain Beyond and Johnny Winter), and guitarist Martin Pugh (from Steamhammer, Rod Stewart's An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down, and most recently in 7th Order).

In the 1980s McCarty, Dreja, and Samwell-Smith formed a short-lived Yardbirds semi-reunion called Box of Frogs, which occasionally included Beck and Page plus various friends with whom they had all recorded over the years.

According to his website, Idan resigned from the Yardbirds in August 2008,[59] although his last gig with them was on Friday 24 April 2009, when they headlined the first concert in the new Live Room venue at Twickenham rugby stadium.

In August 2015, it was announced they would play the Eel Pie Club in Twickenham, west London on 17 October with a line-up of Jim McCarty, John Idan, Ben King, David Smale, and Billyboy Miskimmin.

On 15 April 2016, the band played at the Under the Bridge venue in London with a line-up of Jim McCarty, John Idan, Johnny A, Kenny Aaronson, and Billyboy Miskimmin.