Australian singles charts:
Shapes of Things entered the Kent charts on 19 March 1966 and peaked at #6. It was #57 on the Top 100 of 1966.
Songwriters:
Jim McCarty, Keith Relf, Paul Samwell-Smith
Producer:
Giorgio Gomelsky
Record label of Australian release:
Columbia
Wikipedia:
Eric Clapton had left the Yardbirds prior to Shapes of Things, joining John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, but not before he recommended Jimmy Page, a prominent young session guitarist, to replace him. Page in turn recommended his friend Jeff Beck. The Beck-era Yardbirds produced a number of groundbreaking recordings.
Shapes of Things, with its Eastern-sounding, feedback-laden guitar solo and anti-war/pro-environmental lyrics, was identified by several music writers as the first popular psychedelic rock song. It is built on musical elements contributed by several group members in three different recording studios in the US.
The song features Jeff Beck’s musical use of feedback, which he learned to control by finding the guitar’s resonant points and bending the strings. Music writers have called his work groundbreaking and cited its influence on Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapes_of_Things
This song is also on our Spotify playlist Bang a Gong – the 60s
New to Bang a Gong? Click HERE to learn more about us.