THE BYRDS

— MR. TAMBOURINE MAN —

ABOUT THIS ALBUM

Mr. Tambourine Man is the debut studio album by American rock band the Byrds, released in June 1965, by Columbia Records. The album, along with the single of the same name, established the band as an internationally successful act, and was influential in originating the musical style known as folk rock. The term was, in fact, first coined by the American music press to describe the band’s sound in mid-1965, around the same time as the “Mr. Tambourine Man” single reached the top of the Billboard chart. The single and album also represented the first effective American challenge to the dominance of the Beatles and the British Invasion during the mid-1960s.

The album peaked at number six on the Billboard Top LPs chart and reached number seven in the United Kingdom. The Bob Dylan penned “Mr. Tambourine Man” single was released ahead of the album in April 1965, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart. The second single “All I Really Want to Do“, also a Dylan cover, was moderately successful in the US, peaking at #40, but fared better in the UK, where it reached at #4.

Mr. Tambourine Man was released on June 21, 1965 in the United States and peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, during a chart stay of 38 weeks, and reached number 7 in the United Kingdom, spending a total of 12 weeks on the UK albums chart. The preceding single of the same name was released on April 12, 1965 in the U.S. and May 15, 1965 in the UK, reaching number 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart. A second single taken from the album, “All I Really Want to Do”, peaked at number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, but fared better in the United Kingdom, where it reached number 4.

In the months following the release of the Mr. Tambourine Man album, many acts began to imitate the Byrds’ hybrid of a British Invasion beat, jangly guitar playing and poetic or socially conscious lyrics. The band’s influence can be heard in many recordings released by American acts in 1965 and 1966, including the Turtles, Simon & Garfunkel, the Lovin’ Spoonful, Barry McGuire, the Mamas & the Papas, Jefferson Airplane, We Five, Love, and Sonny & Cher.

This jangly, folk rock sound that was pioneered by the Byrds on Mr. Tambourine Man has also been influential on successive generations of rock and pop musicians, including such acts as Big Star, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, R.E.M., the Church, Hüsker Dü, the Long Ryders, the Smiths, the Bangles, the Stone Roses, The La’s, Teenage Fanclub, the Bluetones, Wilco, and Delays among others.

The Byrds, formed in 1964, comprised of band-mates Jim McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke.

(A side note, Mr. Tambourine Man, the single, hit the #1 spot on the WKNR Music Guide, in Detroit, June 9, 1965.)

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Source: (see) Mr. Tambourine Man (Album); Wikipedia

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A MCRFB LINK: Here is a Guardian “Rock’s Back Pages” article, from the July 17, 1965 issue of Melody Maker, published in the U.K., titled, ‘Behind Byrdmania‘.

The piece was published on Wednesday, July 15, 2015, in commemoration of the group’s 50th anniversary of The Byrd’s debut LP release in 1965, ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’.

This article was written by none other than the famed, former Beatles’ press spokesman, Derek Taylor.