Ultimate!

Infobox Album |
Name = Ultimate!
Type = Compilation
Artist = The Yardbirds


Background =
Released = July 31, 2001
Recorded = December 1963 to
March 1968
Genre = Blues rock
Length =
Label = Rhino Records
Producer = Gary Stewart and Bill Inglot
Reviews =
*"Rolling Stone" (Not Rated) [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/theyardbirds/albums/album/87659/review/5942396/ultimate link]
* Allmusic Rating|5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:0xfqxq90ld6e link]
Last album = "" (1971)
This album = "Ultimate! (2001)
Next album = "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.

Personnel

Yardbirds

* Keith Relf - vocals, harmonica, tambourine, acoustic guitar
* Eric Clapton - electric guitar, disc one tracks 1 through 12
* Jeff Beck - electric guitars, disc one tracks 13 through 25, disc two tracks 1 through 13, 25 and 26; bass guitar on "Over Under Sideways Down," vocal on "The Nazz Are Blue" and "Psycho Daisies"
* Jimmy Page - guitars, disc two tracks 11, 13 through 24, and 27; bass guitar on "Psycho Daisies"
* Chris Dreja - rhythm guitar, disc one, disc two tracks 1 through 10, 25, and 26; lead guitar on "Questa Volta; bass guitar disc two tracks 13, 15, 17, 19, and 24
* Paul Samwell-Smith - bass guitar, disc one except track 15, disc two tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 25 and 26
* Jim McCarty - drums except disc two tracks 14, 21, 22, 23, and 27

Additional personnel

* Brian Auger - harpsichord on "For Your Love"
* Denny Piercey - bongoes on "For Your Love"
* Ron Prentice - bass on "For Your Love" and bass guitar on "Heart Full of Soul"
* Giorgio Gomelsky - backing vocals "A Certain Girl" and "Still I'm Sad"
* Joe Osborn - bass guitar on "Shapes In My Mind"
* Hal Blaine - drums on "Shapes In My Mind"
* John Paul Jones - bass guitar on "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago," "Little Games," "No Excess Baggage," "Ten Little Indians," and "Goodnight Sweet Josephine;" arrangements on "Little Games" and "Ten Little Indians"
* Dougie Wright - drums on "Little Games"
* Chris Karan - tabla on "White Summer"
* Ian Stewart - piano on "Drinking Muddy Water"
* Al Gorgoni - guitar on "Ha Ha Said the Clown"
* Rick Nielsen - organ on "Ha Ha Said the Clown"
* Joe Macho - bass guitar on "Ha Ha Said the Clown"
* Bobby Gregg - drums on "Ha Ha Said the Clown"
* Nicky Hopkins - piano on "Goodnight Sweet Josephine"
* Clem Cattini - drums on "Ten Little Indians" and "Goodnight Sweet Josephine"

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."

Disc One

+ released in The Netherlands; # released in Italy

Disc Two

+ Keith Relf solo singles