“For Your Love,” the Yardbirds’ highest-ever charting U.S. hit, wasn’t the last time that Jim McCarty collaborated with composer Graham Gouldman. Only the next opportunity — when the future 10cc star sat in on 1986’s Strange Land with the Yardbirds offshoot band Box of Frogs — would actually be in person.
“We’d never actually worked with him before,” McCarty tells DMME. “We just had the song from the publisher, but didn’t actually work with him in person. So, it was just an excuse to work with him and for him to play along. And he enjoyed it too I think.”
“For Your Love” had gone all the way to No. 6 in America, while finishing at No. 3 in the UK. Chris Dreja, Paul Samwell-Smith and McCarty from those mid-1960s sessions were then joined by John Fiddler and a series of guests on the Box of Frogs date some two decades later. The occasion was a remake of Gouldman’s “Heart Full of Soul,” which the Yardbirds had later covered, as well.
Roger Chapman handled vocals on this new Box of Frogs take, with Gouldman himself handling rhythm guitar and backing vocals. “We just sort of thought that that would be fun,” McCarty added. “That was a nice idea: ‘Let’s get Graham to play along on “Heart Full Of Soul” to make it special.’ And it was good to work with him.”
Along the way, the Yardbirds also recorded Gouldman’s “Evil Hearted You” for Having a Rave Up.
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