If you look too casually at the Wikipedia article on the 1960s folk-rock group the Byrds, you might think those guys were one of the most successful of American musical groups then. But you'd be incorrect. The Byrds did have some early success ... but then it somehow frittered away.
The original Byrds — Jim McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, Michael Clarke — were heavily influenced by the Beatles. They struck pay dirt with their very first single. In 1965, their "Mr. Tambourine Man" went to #1 on the charts. Bob Dylan had written the song and would put it on his 1965 album "Bringing It All Back Home." McGuinn, Clark, and Crosby had heard a pre-release version of Dylan's recording in 1964, even before the Byrds were officially formed. Once Hillman and Clarke came into the group, the quintet needed a song that could become their first single. That song was "Mr. Tambourine Man."
It hit big, as did the Byrds themselves. Here's the group appearing on the TV show "Hullabaloo" in November 1965:
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| The front line, from left to right: Hillman, Crosby, Clark, McGuinn. Drummer Michael Clarke is behind them. |
The Byrds were said to be the first group to perform in the "folk-rock" style. Later in 1965, they had another Top 40 hit with Dylan's "All I Really Want to Do," after which their third release, "Turn! Turn! Turn!", written by Pete Seeger, became their second (and last) #1 single!
In fact, they had only four more Top 40 hits, the last of which (another Dylan song, "My Back Pages") appeared in early 1967.
Yet the Byrds would continue to record and perform — albeit with a huge number of lineup changes — until 1963. Every member of the band, throughout its entirety history, was extremely talented. The Byrds' music down through those years was so excellent and so diverse that the group was admitted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. There is probably no American group, ever, that has been as influential with as many succeeding generations of performers. They pioneered not only "folk rock" but also "psychedelic rock," "raga rock," and "country rock." So it's a mystery why they ever faded from the scene!
Here are the Byrds performing "Turn! Turn! Turn!" on "Hullabaloo":
P.S. To head off confusion: Byrds founding member McGuinn — who is the only Byrd never to have left the group while it existed — changed his first name from Jim to Roger in 1967.
