Yardbirds - "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" (Studio Version)

Released as a single in both the UK (Columbia) and the US (Epic), October 1966. "Happenings" was not a hit, but its importance would be difficult to overstate: it directly influenced the development of heavy metal and remains one of the hardest, most uncompromising slabs of psychedelic rock ever recorded.

Written by Relf-McCarty-Beck-Page; produced by Simon Napier-Bell. (Jimmy Page has said that Jeff Beck was not actually involved in the song's composition: Beck arrived late to the session, playing just the guitar solo and delivering the spoken recitation heard beneath it. Chris Dreja was the only member of the band who did not appear on the record; bass guitar duties were handled by session musician John Paul Jones, who had worked with Beck and Page earlier that year on "Beck's Bolero.")

Keith Relf - lead vocal / Jim McCarty - drums & backing vocal / Jimmy Page - rhythm guitar / Jeff Beck - lead guitar / John Paul Jones - bass

(Keith Relf & Jimmy Page onstage, 1968: photographer unknown)