| Little Games | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by The Yardbirds | ||||
| Released | 24 July 1967 | |||
| Recorded | De Lane Lea, London, March–May 1967 | |||
| Genre | Rock, blues rock, psychedelic rock | |||
| Length | 30:28 (original) 76:17 (2003 reissue) |
|||
| Label | Epic LN 24313/BN 26313 | |||
| Producer | Mickie Most | |||
| The Yardbirds chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Singles from little Games | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
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" would later be performed live at Led Zeppelin concerts as a medley with "Black Mountain Side".
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.
Contents |
The Yardbirds' U.S. Epic record label, having made several printing errors with Yardbirds material in the past, made yet several more with this album. Chris Dreja's surname 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.
| 1967 vinyl edition Side one |
|||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | ||||||
| 1. | "Little Games" | Spiro, Wainman | 2:25 | ||||||
| 2. | "Smile On Me" | Dreja, McCarty, Page, Relf | 3:16 | ||||||
| 3. | "White Summer" | Page | 3:56 | ||||||
| 4. | "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor" | Page, McCarty | 2:49 | ||||||
| 5. | "Glimpses" | Dreja, McCarty, Page, Relf | 4:24 | ||||||
| Side two | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | ||||||
| 1. | "Drinking Muddy Water" | Dreja, McCarty, Page, Relf | 2:53 | ||||||
| 2. | "No Excess Baggage" | Atkins, D'Errico | 2:32 | ||||||
| 3. | "Stealing Stealing" | trad. arr. Dreja, McCarty, Page, Relf | 2:42 | ||||||
| 4. | "Only the Black Rose" | Relf | 2:52 | ||||||
| 5. | "Little Soldier Boy" | McCarty, Page, Relf | 2:39 | ||||||
1992 Expanded edition
An expanded Little Games edition entitled Little Games Sessions and More, was released as a 2 disc set featuring additional sessions and alternate takes from the period, plus the singles "Ha Ha Said the Clown", "Ten Little Indians", and "Goodnight Sweet Josephine".
| Chart (1967) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard The 200 Albums Chart (Pop Albums)[2] | 80 |
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | "Little Games" | UK Singles Chart[3] | 52 |
| 1967 | "Little Games" | US Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart (Pop Singles)[4] | 51 |
| 1967 | "Little Games" | US Cash Box Top 100 Singles Chart[5] | 48 |
| 1967 | "Little Games" | US Record World 100 Top Pop Chart[6] | 44 |
| 1967 | "Little Games" | Australian Go-Set Top 40 Singles Chart[7] | 27 |
| 1967 | "Ha Ha Said the Clown" | US Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart (Pop Singles)[8] | 45 |
| 1967 | "Ha Ha Said the Clown" | US Cash Box Top 100 Singles Chart[9] | 52 |
| 1967 | "Ha Ha Said the Clown" | US Record World 100 Top Pop Chart[10] | 45 |
| 1967 | "Ten Little Indians" | US Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart (Pop Singles)[11] | 96 |
| 1967 | "Ten Little Indians" | US Cash Box Top 100 Singles Chart[12] | 71 |
| 1968 | "Goodnight Sweet Josephine" | US Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart (Pop Singles) | 127 |
|title= specified when using {{Cite web}}". Record World. [http://www.geocities.com/muggy59/100y.html. Retrieved 2009-01-19.|title= specified when using {{Cite web}}". Record World. [http://www.geocities.com/muggy59/100y.html. Retrieved 2009-01-19.