''The Byrds' Greatest Hits'' is the first

greatest hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be creat ...

album by the American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band

the Byrds The Byrds () were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) being the so ...

and was released in August 1967 on

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

. It is the top-selling album in the Byrds' catalogue and reached number 6 on the ''Billboard'' Top LPs chart, but failed to chart in the UK.

Content

The album provides a summary of the Byrds' history during

Gene Clark Harold Eugene Clark (November 17, 1944 – May 24, 1991) was an American singer-songwriter and founding member of the folk rock band the Byrds. He was the Byrds' principal songwriter between 1964 and early 1966, writing most of the band's best ...

and

David Crosby David Van Cortlandt Crosby (August 14, 1941 – January 18, 2023) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He first found fame as a member of the Byrds, with whom he helped pioneer the genres of folk rock and psychedelic music, psych ...

's original tenure with the band and also functions as a survey of the group's

hit singles A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single, or simply hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record'' ...

from 1965 to 1967, a period when the band had its greatest amount of success on the singles chart. Most of the band's U.S. A-sides from this period are included on the album, along with three of their more important album tracks: "

I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better I'll may refer to * "I'll", meaning "I will" or "I shall", a contraction (grammar) * ''I'll'' (manga) * "I'll", a song by Band-Maid from '' Unleash'' * "I'll", a song by Dir En Grey Dir En Grey (stylized as DIR EN GREY and previously as Dir en ...

", " The Bells of Rhymney", and " Chimes of Freedom". The three U.S. singles from this period that are not included on the album are " Set You Free This Time", " Have You Seen Her Face" and " Lady Friend" (although these songs have been included as bonus tracks on various CD reissues of the album). All of the songs included on the original ''Greatest Hits'' album can also be found on the band's first four albums, '' Mr. Tambourine Man'', '' Turn! Turn! Turn!'', '' Fifth Dimension'' and ''

Younger Than Yesterday ''Younger Than Yesterday'' is the fourth studio album by the American rock band the Byrds, released on February 6, 1967, by Columbia Records. It saw the band continuing to integrate elements of psychedelic music, psychedelia and jazz into their ...

''. The eight tracks on ''The Byrds' Greatest Hits'' that had been singles peaked at the following positions on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100: " 5D (Fifth Dimension)" number 44; " All I Really Want to Do" number 40; " Mr. Spaceman" number 36; "

My Back Pages "My Back Pages" is a song written by Bob Dylan and included on his 1964 album '' Another Side of Bob Dylan''. It is stylistically similar to his earlier folk protest songs and features Dylan's voice with an acoustic guitar accompaniment. Howe ...

" number 30; " So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" number 29; "

Eight Miles High "Eight Miles High" is a song by the American rock band the Byrds, written by Gene Clark, Jim McGuinn (later known as Roger McGuinn), and David Crosby. It was first released as a single on March 14, 1966. Musically influenced by sitar playe ...

" number 14; " Turn! Turn! Turn!" number 1; and " Mr. Tambourine Man" number 1. In addition, four of the singles included on the album had charted in the United Kingdom, peaking at the following positions on the UK Singles Chart: "Turn! Turn! Turn!" number 26; "Eight Miles High" number 24; "All I Really Want to Do" number 4; and "Mr. Tambourine Man" number 1. Author

Johnny Rogan John Rogan (14 February 1953 – 21 January 2021) was a British author of Irish descent best known for his books about music and popular culture. He wrote influential biographies of the Byrds, Neil Young, the Smiths, Van Morrison and Ray Davies. ...

has stated that, in particular, "Eight Miles High", "Turn! Turn! Turn!", and "Mr. Tambourine Man" were widely influential during the 1960s, a time when singles, at least in

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

, were as important in their own right as albums, and generally more so. Rogan further opined that "Turn! Turn! Turn!" summed up the decade's counter-cultural values as much as " Blowin' in the Wind", "

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. A product of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards' songwriting partnership, it features a guitar riff by Richards that opens and drives the song. The riff is w ...

" or " All You Need Is Love", while "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Eight Miles High" helped to introduce the subgenres of

folk rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop, English and American folk music. It arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music re ...

and

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

respectively into the

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

of the day.

Release

''The Byrds' Greatest Hits'' was released on August 7, 1967 in the United States (catalogue item CL 2716 in mono, CS 9516 in

stereo Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configurat ...

) and October 20, 1967 in the United Kingdom (catalogue item BPG 63107 in mono, SBPG 63107 in stereo). The album was

certified Certification is part of testing, inspection and certification and the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestatio ...

Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

within a year of its release, eventually being certified

platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...

on November 21, 1986. The album was first issued on CD by Columbia Records in 1985 and was later re-released in a

remastered A remaster is a change in the sound or image quality of previously created forms of media, whether Mastering (audio), audiophonic, Cinematography, cinematic, or Videography, videographic. The resulting product is said to be remastered. The term ...

form in 1991 with alternative cover artwork. In the UK and Europe, this 1991 edition of the album was titled ''Greatest Hits: 18 Classics Remastered'' and included an additional seven bonus tracks taken from the Byrds' post ''Younger Than Yesterday'' career (a period not covered by the original album). The album was remastered again at 20-

bit The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communication. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented as ...

resolution as part of the Columbia/Legacy Byrds series and reissued in an expanded and

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

ed form on March 30, 1999. The three bonus tracks on the 1999 reissue included two of the remaining singles from the Byrds' 1965–1967 career, plus the number 63 charting

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

, "

It Won't Be Wrong "It Won't Be Wrong" is a song by the American folk rock band the Byrds, which appeared as the second track on their 1965 album, ''Turn! Turn! Turn! (album), Turn! Turn! Turn!'' It was also coupled with the song "Set You Free This Time" for a Single ...

". The album was reissued again in the SACD format on January 30, 2001, with the same expanded track listing as on the 20-bit remaster. On March 16, 2009

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

released a new Byrds compilation titled ''Greatest Hits'' as part of their ''Steel Box Collection'' series. This compilation album is not the same as the original ''The Byrds' Greatest Hits'' album, although it does have four of the same tracks in common.

Reception

Upon release, ''The Byrds' Greatest Hits'' was met with positive reviews. Paul Williams enthusiastically waxed lyrical about the album in a review published in ''

Crawdaddy! ''Crawdaddy'' was an American rock music magazine launched in 1966. It was created by Paul Williams, a Swarthmore College student at the time, in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music. The magazine w ...

'' magazine: "Any greatest hits album is insignificant. By definition it contains nothing unfamiliar; and yet this very fact offers great potential beauty, for a well-made greatest hits LP might then unleash the emotion of familiarity in an artistic context. The Byrds have achieved that goal: always masters of the form, they have now taken the concept of a great hits anthology and created from it an essay into rediscovery." ''WCFL Beat'' magazine was also complimentary about the album, noting that, during the mid-1960s

British Invasion The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when Rock music, rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of Culture of the United Kingdom, British culture became popular in the United States with sign ...

, the Byrds were the only American band to "help to revolutionize the pop scene and to pave the way for the so-called psychedelic music of today." In the UK, ''

Record Mirror ''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper published between 1954 and 1991, aimed at pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after ''New Musical Express'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK Album ...

'' gave the album a top rating of 4 stars, while commenting "This is a chronological collection of their singles and is really something. Their sound has progressed from the Dylanesque to the sound which is one of the best in the pop world." A November 1967 review of the album in ''Beat Instrumental'' declared "This is probably the best collection LP to come out of the states this year, and has songs that won't date for years to come." In recent years,

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and former senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of multiple artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance ...

, in his review for the

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

website, has described the album as "pretty close to a definitive single-disc summary of the Byrds' prime." Sarah Zupko also praised the album in her

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...

review, noting: "The Byrds perfectly captured the mood of their time." In his review of the SACD version of the album for the Music Tap website, Robert Olsen described the album as "a compilation album featuring some of the better known recordings from the first 4 albums." Olsen went on to note that "The first album is over-represented, and there's an unwholesome emphasis on the Dylan cuts. Nevertheless, at the time the album was stunning in its breadth and provided the next generation with a good sample of the sound and direction of the group." Peter Kane found no issue with "the clarity of the originals" when reviewing the 1991 re-release for '' Q'' magazine. The album was included in

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

's "Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings, published in '' Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies'' (1981). In 2003, the album was ranked at number 178 on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' magazine's list of ''

The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is a recurring opinion survey and music ranking of the finest albums in history, compiled by the American magazine ''Rolling Stone''. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and indu ...

'', although it was dropped when the list when was updated in 2012.

Track listing

Side one

#" Mr. Tambourine Man" (

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

) – 2:29 #"

" (

) – 2:32 #" The Bells of Rhymney" ( Idris Davies,

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...

) – 3:30 #" Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)" ( Book of Ecclesiastes/Pete Seeger) – 3:49 #" All I Really Want to Do" (Bob Dylan) – 2:04 #" Chimes of Freedom" (Bob Dylan) – 3:51

Side two

" (Gene Clark, Jim McGuinn,

) – 3:34 #" Mr. Spaceman" (Jim McGuinn) – 2:09 #" 5D (Fifth Dimension)" (Jim McGuinn) – 2:33 #" So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" (Jim McGuinn,

Chris Hillman Christopher Hillman (born December 4, 1944) is an American musician. He was the original bassist of the Byrds. With frequent collaborator Gram Parsons, Hillman was a key figure in the development of country rock, defining the genre through his w ...

) – 1:50 #"

" (Bob Dylan) – 3:08

1991 reissue bonus tracks

" Jesus Is Just Alright" (Arthur Reynolds) – 2:08

#" Chestnut Mare" (Roger McGuinn,

Jacques Levy Jacques Levy (July 29, 1935 – September 30, 2004) was an American songwriter, theatre director and clinical psychologist. Early life and education Levy was born in New York City in 1935 and graduated from the City College of New York in 19 ...

) – 5:07 #"I Trust" (Roger McGuinn) – 3:17 #" Lady Friend" (David Crosby) – 2:35 #" Lay Lady Lay" (Bob Dylan) – 3:16 #" Ballad of Easy Rider" (Roger McGuinn) – 2:02 #" Glory, Glory" (Arthur Reynolds) – 4:03

1999 reissue bonus tracks

" (Jim McGuinn, Harvey Gerst) – 1:58

#" Set You Free This Time" (Gene Clark) – 2:49 #" Have You Seen Her Face" (Chris Hillman) – 2:40

Personnel

Adapted from ''So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star: The Byrds Day-By-Day (1965–1973)'', ''The Byrds: Timeless Flight Revisited'', various compact disc liner notes, and other online sources: Credits refer only to the original 11 track album. The Byrds * Jim McGuinn –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

–

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, thoug ...

, vocals *

– guitar, vocals *

–

electric bass The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an electric but with a longer neck and scale leng ...

, vocals * Michael Clarke –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Additional personnel * Jerry Cole – rhythm guitar on " Mr. Tambourine Man" *

Larry Knechtel Lawrence William Knechtel (August 4, 1940 – August 20, 2009) was an American keyboard player and bassist who was a member of the Wrecking Crew, a collection of Los Angeles–based session musicians who worked with such renowned artists as Sim ...

– electric bass on "Mr. Tambourine Man" *

Hal Blaine Hal Blaine (born Harold Simon Belsky; February 5, 1929 – March 11, 2019) was an American drummer and session musician, thought to be among the most recorded studio drummers in the music industry, claiming over 35,000 sessions and 6,000 singles. ...

– drums on "Mr. Tambourine Man" *

Leon Russell Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges; April 2, 1942 – November 13, 2016) was an American musician and songwriter who was involved with numerous bestselling records during his 60-year career that spanned multiple genres, including rock a ...

–

electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument that has a piano-style musical keyboard, where sound is produced by means of mechanical hammers striking metal strings or reeds or wire tines, which leads to vibrations which are then converted into ele ...

on "Mr. Tambourine Man" *

Van Dyke Parks Van Dyke Parks (born January 3, 1943) is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, arranger, record producer, singer, and former Warner Bros. Records executive whose work encompasses orchestral pop, elaborate recording experiments, Ame ...

–

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

on " 5D (Fifth Dimension)" *

Hugh Masekela Hugh Ramapolo Masekela (4 April 1939 – 23 January 2018) was a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, singer and composer who was described as "the father of South African jazz". Masekela was known for his jazz compositions and f ...

–

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

on " So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" *

– organ on "

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Byrds' Greatest Hits Albums produced by Terry Melcher Albums produced by Gary Usher The Byrds compilation albums 1967 greatest hits albums Columbia Records compilation albums