Little Games

Infobox Album |
Name = Little Games
Type = Album
Artist = The Yardbirds


Released = July 24, 1967
Recorded = De Lane Lea, London, March–May 1967
Genre = Blues rock
Length = 30:28
Label = Epic LN 24313/BN 26313
Producer = Mickie Most
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|3|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:74220r5ac489~T1 link]
Last album = "Roger the Engineer" (1966)
This album = "Little Games" (1967)
Next album = "" (1971)
Misc = Singles
Name = little Games
Type = studio
single 1 = Little Games" b/w "Puzzles
single 1 date = 1967 Columbia DB8165 (UK); Epic BN10156 (USA)
single 2 = Ten Little Indians" b/w "Drinking Muddy Water
single 2 date = 1967 Epic BN 10248 (USA)
single 3 =
single 3 date =
single 4 =
single 4 date =

"Little Games" is an album by English blues rock band The Yardbirds, released in 1967 (see 1967 in music). Successful singles producer Mickie Most was called in to assist The Yardbirds on what was to be their final album before the group disbanded in 1968.

Jimmy Page used his guitar-bowing technique on "Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor" and "Glimpses". The song "White Summer" is often played with the song "Black Mountain Side" in live Led Zeppelin shows.

The album peaked at #80 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart.

The album title track is the first of several tracks that producer Mickie Most would exempt Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty from participating in.

Errors

The Yardbirds' U.S. Epic record label, having made several printing errors with Yardbirds material in the past, had made several more. Chris Dreja's name on all his songwriting credits for this album was misspelled on the LP labels as "Ereja". This misprint also appears on the U.S. "Drinking Muddy Water" single and the tracks "Smile On Me" and "Drinking Muddy Water" from the 1970 Epic Records compilation "The Yardbirds Featuring Performances By Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page".

The U.S. single of "Little Games", written by Harold Spiro and Phil Wainman, only credits Phil Wainman as the writer. On top of this, his last name was misspelled on the label as "Wiemann"

Epic Records (US) mistakenly released a number of stereo versions of the LP in mono version sleeves, with the mono version catalog number, and a mono version record label. The only ways to identify true mono copies is by listening to the album or by examining the 3-letter prefix of the master numbers on the record labels or in the LP trail-out grooves. "XEM" indicates genuine mono copies, stereo copies show an "XSB" prefix. Counterfeit copies of the album exist also. Genuine copies have deep, dark purple album covers, counterfeits have brighter or "bleached" purple covers.

Track listing

ide one

#"Little Games" (Harold Spiro, Phil Wainman) – 2:25
#"Smile On Me" (Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty, Jimmy Page, Keith Relf) – 3:16
#"White Summer" (Traditional; Arrangement by Page) – 3:56
#"Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor" (Page, McCarty) – 2:49
#"Glimpses" (Dreja, McCarty, Page, Relf) – 4:24

ide two

#"Drinking Muddy Water" (Dreja, McCarty, Page, Relf) – 2:53
#"No Excess Baggage" (Roger Atkins, Carl D'Errico) – 2:32
#"Stealing Stealing" (Traditional; Arrangement by Dreja, McCarty, Page, Relf) – 2:42
#"Only the Black Rose" (Relf) – 2:52
#"Little Soldier Boy" (McCarty, Page, Relf) – 2:39

Personnel

*Chris Dreja – bass guitar
*Jim McCarty – drums, percussion, backing vocals
*Jimmy Page – guitar
*Keith Relf – harmonica, percussion, Vocals

Additional personnel

*Nicky Hopkins – keyboards
*Clem Cattini – drums
*John Paul Jones – bass guitar

Production

*Producer: Adam Block
*Engineer: Kevin Reeves

Charts

Album – Billboard (North America)

Singles – Billboard (North America)