The Yardbirds – The Best Of The Yardbirds

I like it. Pressing is pretty good considering all the tracks. Some interesting but really good versions of these tracks. Some good BBC recordings without all the chit chat. Nice heavy vinyl. Great price point.

Despite this being a bootleg, you can actually buy this record at Best Buy. How that got through Q&A for the site, I have no idea.

Whether or not this makes this record a bootleg, among other things, is what I shall get into.

This makes this an absolutely bizarre record for the Yardbirds, but a pleasant surprise nonetheless. The record is extremely heavy, dead quiet, and is a 22-track record at 33-rpm (with around 27 minutes on each side).

The A-Side is NOT the studio versions for each respective song, but are instead takes from when they performed at BBC. Likewise, they sound fantastic and it was very surprising to hear these instead of the studio versions. The B-Side consists of studio-takes: two songs from For Your Love, three songs from Roger The Engineer (and some singles from that era), and the rest are from the Little Games era; and these also sound pretty good.

As stated before, I am wondering what makes this a bootleg. To be honest, I think they may have used some studio masters to produce the B-Side. Puzzles sounds very dissimilar to the 1996 or 2003 masters on CD, so I'm wondering what else they could of used.

What's that weird Russian text on the bottom of the back? Ugh!

Overall, the quality of the pressing and packaging (with a rice-paper inner sleeve) is very good, coming from someone who hasn't listened to much of the original pressings. I would give this record five stars, if it wasn't for the validity at how the record was produced and some of my lack of knowledge.

As for Yardbirds-collectors, I wouldn't bother since it may be a bootleg!

As for the casual person just getting into the Yardbirds on vinyl, I would recommend getting this record alongside Rhino's Greatest Hits, Volume One: 1964-1966, for a wider collection of the best sounding versions of some of the best songs from the band. You'd kill off some of the music you need to get with one stone, due to the inclusion of tracks and singles from the eras of Roger the Engineer and Little Games. Otherwise, you'd have to pay a pretty penny to get some of those songs in good quality.

EDIT (5/24/21): Upon checking the Best Buy site, it seems like this record has been out of stock at for the time being. Could this be because too many bought it, or that Best Buy caught wind of its status as a bootleg? The world may never know. :(

If you still want a record that's very similar to this, one could get The Best of The Yardbirds by Get Back. Make sure you listen to it in mono, with a stereo needle.