Were The Yardbirds considered to be better than The Who prior to The Who Sell Out?

Just curious.

 

Not if your a major Who fan

 

Not if you're a major Yardbirds fan....

Tit for tat. Next, please...

Arnie

 

Fan of both then. Saw them as equals.
(Cinches the tie.)

 

In the years 1965-68, both were probably judged to be about equal. Particularly, in the USA, neither band really broke in a huge way (prior to 1969).

Judging from popularity on the Billboard charts in the USA, though, The Yardbirds may have held a slight edge. Prior to 1969, The Who had only one top-20 hit with "I Can See For Miles" (peaking at #9). But in that same time period, The Yardbirds had FIVE top-20 hits in the USA (For Your Love at #6, Heart Full Of Soul at #9, I'm A Man at #17, Shapes of Things at #11, and Over Under Sideways Down at #13). The Who did a lot better on the UK charts, with EIGHT top-10 singles.

Neither band did much on the album charts in the USA. The Who Sell Out reached only #48, while the Magic Bus LP peaked at #39. For the Yardbirds, only their 1967 Greatest Hits LP reached #28, with no other LP making the top 50. In the UK, The Who's first two albums did well: My Generation (the LP) at #5 and A Quick One at #4. But The Who Sell Out only made it to #13. In the UK, The Yardbirds only reached #20 with the Roger The Engineer album.


Arnie

 

Arnie's right. Of course, after the Who Sell Out, the Who easily eclipsed the Yardbirds in terms of creativity and popularity. While the Who hit numerous artistic heights with Tommy, Who's Next and Quadrophenia, and toured to great acclaim, the Yardbirds went the pop route, with the Little Games album and trivial singles produced by Mickie (Herman's Hermits) Most and performances at high schools and neighborhood pools marred by in-fighting and defections by the group's members. Predictably, the Yardbirds disbanded and morphed into the Jimmy Page-led Led Zeppelin, essentially a cover band of old blues songs which it claimed to have composed, much to the delight of plaintiffs and entertainment lawyers throughout the world.

 

Also: Even in 1969, it took The Who awhile to generate interest in Tommy. The first single of "Pinball Wizard" (released a few months prior to the album in March 1969) only made it to #19 on the USA charts. Tommy became a huge hit only after the Who toured in support of the album in May and June of 1969.

Arnie

 

I think Woodstock was the Who's best move to becoming popular in the US.

 

Definitely. In particular, the Woodstock film helped in putting them over the top. Arnie

 

The Yardbirds had already played themselves out in the USA before anyone even knew who The Who was. Their Greatest Hits LP (a sure sign of declining chart presence back then) was a pretty big hit in the US on its' release in 1967, as many of the tracks on it had already been major, or minor, US hits (I'm A Man, Heart Full Of Soul, Shapes Of Things, For Your Love, Over Under Sideways Down), while the Who were a one-hit wonder (Happy Jack). Rave Up had also been a big seller (For Your Love, however, was already out-of-print & a collectable). The Yardbirds launched many garage bands in The US (mine included-we idolized them), The Who, again, were unknown. Tommy made The Who in The US--before it I would play The Who to anyone who would listen to me, with little success. After Tommy they were asking me to put The Who on, no boosting was necessary anymore. Who's Next sealed the deal here.

 

For a period of time there was a sticker affixed to the shrink of every new Who related album.

I don't remember the exact wording:

The Who Made Tommy
...........AAAnd
Tommy Made The Who

 

Wasn't aware of anything musical at the time, but I would have guessed that My Generation was far more of a statement that got widespread notice than any song released by the Yardbirds. Also the instrument destruction. Are these more notable historically than they were at the time?

 

Exactly...prior to Monterey Pop in '67, the Who were nobodies in the US beyond the brief success of Happy Jack, while the Yardbirds were on the decline in '67.

 

Weren't they considered the headliner at Woodstock? You don't get to headline something like that without being well acclaimed before then.
I'd think Woodstock was more the key to popularity for Havens, Canned Heat, Cocker, Santana, Hendrix, Ten Years After

 

Hendrix was already popular prior to Woodstock, he was selected to close the festival.

 

Your post was already great and this last sentence took it next level!!!!

 

My Generation was only played in Detroit. It was unknown in the rest of the US. It got no notice whatsoever.

 

They didn't even occupy the same space in time. The Yardbirds were associated with the British Invasion and readily identifiable by name in 1965-67, with a few well played AM radio hits like For Your Love. At that same time The Who, at least here, literally did not exist.

 

Hendrix was the headliner at Woodstock. Tommy was already a hit, and The Who were also riding their Monterey appearance (as was Jimi), the film upped their profile, but they were still a "new" act as far as most people were concerned.

 

While he closed the festival he was not selected to do so, it happened kind of inadvertantly, and by the time he played it was Monday morning and a majority of the crowd had left.
http://www.wpi.edu/news/20090/woodstock.html

Not saying he was unknown at the time, but it was a huge boost for his career

 

Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy;^^^^^^^^

 

To my recollection, both bands were pretty even musically. The Yardbirds became famous earlier than The Who, but the music is different and hard to make a comparison. The Yardbirds were of course famous for grooming great guitar players. The Who were better I think for songwriting than the Yardbirds, but some may disagree with that. I really like both bands for the record.

 

I think it depends where you live. In Germany the "Yardbirds" were nearly invisible, while "The Who" were regulars on the only nationwide TV Show "Beat Club".

 

I can assure you 100% that Jimi was already very famous & popular here in the years before Woodstock. He was a common topic of 'music talk' by probably half the teenagers I knew.

 

As an AM radio listener in the mid to late 1960s, in central Wisconsin, I was aware of the Yardbirds, especially because of "For Your Love." I never heard of The Who until "Pinball Wizard" in 1969. I was too young to travel to Monterey Pop, and we had no underground FM radio station. Our AM radio stations did not play any of the early Who singles--no "My Generation", no "Happy Jack". I do not remember hearing "I Can See For Miles" on the radio until after "Tommy" was a hit.

I never heard the "My Generation" studio recording until "Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy" was released in 1971. I had heard the live version on "Live at Leeds."

The Who became huge in my market with "Tommy", but were almost unknown before that.