Ultimate!

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Ultimate!
Ultimate! cover
Compilation album by The Yardbirds
Released July 31, 2001
Recorded December 1963 to
March 1968
Genre Blues rock
Label Rhino Records
Producer Gary Stewart and Bill Inglot
Professional reviews
The Yardbirds chronology
Live Yardbirds: Featuring Jimmy Page
(1971)
Ultimate!
(2001)
Birdland (album)
(2003)

Ultimate! is a two-disc compilation album by the English blues rock band The Yardbirds, released in 2001 on Rhino Records, catalogue R2-79825. This is the first official "complete" compilation to feature the group throughout its entire recording era.

The set includes every single, both A and b-sides, released in either the United Kingdom or the United States during the band's lifetime, as well as the Italian single "Questa Volta" and the Dutch-only single from their first recording session, a cover of John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom." The set includes the only recordings by the line-up while both Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page were in the band, "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago," "Psycho Daisies," and their reworking of "Train Kept A-Rollin'" for Antonioni's Blow-Up, "Stroll On." Also featured are three Keith Relf solo tracks recorded just prior to and following the Roger The Engineer sessions in 1966 and released as singles, which were extremely difficult to obtain until their issue on this compilation.

In addition to the 32 tracks issued as singles, the album includes 20 tracks released on LP records. Tracks five through eight on disc one derive from a live gig at the Marquee Club in London in early 1964, released on the Five Live Yardbirds album. The first ten tracks on disc two approximate the Yardbirds album of the summer of 1966, those ten tracks identical to sides one and two of the British LP with the final tune on each side excised, bringing the British running order down from twelve tracks to the American length of ten. The b-side to the US-only single "I'm A Man" was "Still I'm Sad," and "I'm Not Talking" had initially been the flip to the American release of "Shapes of Things," pulled and replaced with "New York City Blues." "Drinking Muddy Water" appeared also as the b-side to the single "Ten Little Indians" three months after its release on the LP Little Games. During the final year of the band's existence, the band's management concentrated on the American market, with only one EP and the single "Little Games" released in the UK after 1966.

Studio recordings done at R.G. Jones Studios, Olympic Sound Studios, IBC Studios, Advision Sound Studios, De Lane Lea Studios, and Sound Techniques Studios in London; Columbia Recording Studios in New York City; Sam Phillips Recording Studios in Memphis, Tennessee; and Chess Studios in Chicago, Illinois. Original recordings were produced by Giorgio Gomelsky, Paul Samwell-Smith, Simon Napier-Bell, and Mickie Most.

Contents

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Yardbirds

[edit] Additional personnel

[edit] Track listing

Chart positions for UK LPs and singles from Record Retailer; for US LPs and singles from Billboard Top Pop Albums and Billboard Hot 100 chart. UK albums and singles released on British Columbia; US albums and singles released on Epic Records.

[edit] Disc One

Track Recorded Catalogue Release Date Chart Peak Song Title Writer(s) Time
1. 12/10/63 CBS 1433+ 3/11/66 Boom Boom John Lee Hooker 2:31
2. 12/10/63 CBS 1433b+ 3/11/66 Honey In Your Hips Keith Relf 1:55
3. 3/64 DB 7823b 5/1/64 A Certain Girl Allen Toussaint 2:42
4. 3/64 DB 7823 5/1/64 I Wish You Would William Arnold 2:35
5. 3-4/64 Five Live Yardbirds 12/31/64 Too Much Monkey Business Chuck Berry 2:02
6. 3-4/64 Five Live Yardbirds 12/31/64 Got Love If You Want It James Moore 2:31
7. 3-4/64 Five Live Yardbirds 12/31/64 Smokestack Lightning Chester Burnett 2:58
8. 3-4/64 Five Live Yardbirds 12/31/64 Here 'Tis Ellas McDaniel 2:24
9. 8/6/64 DB 7391 10/30/64 #44 Good Morning Little Schoolgirl Sonny Boy Williamson 2:27
10. 8/6/64 DB 7499b 3/5/65 Got to Hurry Giorgio Gomelsky 2:32
11. 9/19/64 DB 7391b 10/30/64 I Ain't Got You Calvin Carter 2:12
12. 2/1/65 DB 7499 3/5/65 #3 For Your Love Graham Gouldman 2:38
13. 4/13/65 For Your Love 6/13/65 US#96 I'm Not Talking Mose Allison 2:12
14. 3/15/65 DB 7594b 6/4/65 Steeled Blues Jeff Beck and Keith Relf 2:15
15. 4/20/65 DB 7594 6/4/65 #2 Heart Full of Soul Graham Gouldman 2:36
16. 3/15/65 For Your Love 6/13/65 US#96 I Ain't Done Wrong Keith Relf 2:24
17. 9/65 DB 7848b 2/25/66 You're A Better Man Than I Brian Hugg and Michael Hugg 2:28
18. 12/65-1/66 DB 7848 2/25/66 #3 Shapes of Things Paul Samwell-Smith, Keith Relf, Jim McCarty 2:31
19. 9/65 Having A Rave-Up with The Yardbirds 11/15/65 US #53 Train Kept A-Rollin' Tiny Bradshaw, Sydney Nathan, Howie Kay 2:01
20. 9/65 Epic 10006b 3/25/66 New York City Blues Keith Relf and Chris Dreja 2:23
21. 8/23/65 DB 7706 10/1/65 #3 Evil Hearted You Graham Gouldman 2:08
22. 9/65 Epic 9857 10/6/65 US#17 I'm A Man Ellas McDaniel 2:34
23. 7-8/65 DB 7706b 10/1/65 Still I'm Sad Paul Samwell-Smith and Jim McCarty 2:24
24. 1/66 Ricordi MRL 6050# 2/4/66 Questa Volta Roberto Satti, Sergio Bardotti, Paul Samwell-Smith 2:33
25. 1/66 Ricordi MRL 6050b# 2/4/66 Pafff...Bum Gianfranco Reverberi, Sergio Bardotti, Paul Samwell-Smith 1:58

+ released in The Netherlands; # released in Italy

[edit] Disc Two

Track Recorded Catalogue Release Date Chart Peak Song Title Writer(s) Time
1. 5-6/66 Yardbirds 7/15/66 #20 Lost Woman Jeff Beck, Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty, Keith Relf, Paul Samwell-Smith 2:08
2. 4/66 DB 7928 5/27/66 #10 Over Under Sideways Down Jeff Beck, Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty, Keith Relf, Paul Samwell-Smith 2:37
3. 5-6/66 Yardbirds 7/15/66 #20 The Nazz Are Blue Jeff Beck 2:40
4. 5-6/66 Yardbirds 7/15/66 #20 I Can't Make Your Way Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty, Keith Relf, Paul Samwell-Smith 2:16
5. 5-6/66 Yardbirds 7/15/66 #20 Rack My Mind Jeff Beck, Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty, Keith Relf, Paul Samwell-Smith 2:02
6. 5-6/66 Yardbirds 7/15/66 #20 Hot House of Omagararshid Jeff Beck, Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty, Keith Relf, Paul Samwell-Smith 2:13
7. 4/66 DB 7928b 5/27/66 Jeff's Boogie Jeff Beck 2:30
8. 5-6/66 Yardbirds 7/15/66 #20 He's Always There Jim McCarty and Paul Samwell-Smith 2:41
9. 5-6/66 Yardbirds 7/15/66 #20 Turn Into Earth Rosemary Simon and Paul Samwell-Smith 2:13
10. 5-6/66 Yardbirds 7/15/66 #20 What Do You Want Jeff Beck, Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty, Keith Relf, Paul Samwell-Smith 2:08
11. 7-10/66 DB 8024 10/21/66 #43 Happenings Ten Years Time Ago Jeff Beck, Jim McCarty, Jimmy Page, Keith Relf 2:50
12. 9-10/66 DB 8024b 10/21/66 Psycho Daisies Jeff Beck, Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty, Jimmy Page, Keith Relf 2:43
13. 10/66 Blow-Up Original Soundtrack
MGM SE4447
2/20/67 Stroll On Jeff Beck, Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty, Jimmy Page, Keith Relf 2:23
14. 3/5/67 Epic 10156 3/24/67 US#51 Little Games Phil Wainman and Harold Spiro 2:10
15. 3/5/67 Epic 10156b 3/24/67 Puzzles Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty, Jimmy Page, Keith Relf 2:23
16. 4/67 Little Games 7/24/67 US#80 White Summer Jimmy Page 2:20
17. 4/67 Epic 10204b 7/10/67 Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Jim McCarty and Jimmy Page 1:51
18. 4/67 Little Games 7/24/67 US#80 No Excess Baggage Roger Atkins and Carl D'Errico 4:10
19. 4/67 Little Games 7/24/67 US#80 Drinking Muddy Water Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty, Jimmy Page, Keith Relf 2:31
20. 5/1/67 Little Games 7/24/67 US#80 Only the Black Rose Keith Relf 2:26
21. 9/25/67 Epic 10248 10/9/67 US#96 Ten Little Indians Harry Nilsson 1:56
22. 6/67 Epic 10204 7/10/67 US#45 Ha Ha Said the Clown Tony Hazzard 3:22
23. 3/68 Epic 10303 3/29/68 US#127 Goodnight Sweet Josephine Tony Hazzard 1:53
24. 1/68 Epic 10303b 3/29/68 Think About It Jim McCarty, Jimmy Page, Keith Relf 2:05
25. 4/16/66 DB 7920+ 5/13/66 Knowing Keith Relf 2:05
26. 4/16/66 DB 7920b+ 5/13/66 Mr. Zero Bob Lind 2:31
27. 8-9/66 DB 8084+ 11/25/66 Shapes In My Mind Simon Napier-Bell 1:56

+ Keith Relf solo singles