The band hailed from Los Angeles in California and formed in 1964 with Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark and David Crosby being the original members. They started out calling themselves The Jet Set. Their first recording was ‘Please Let Me Love You’ which they penned and which went out under the name The Beefeaters. They then changed their name to The Byrds, mimicking The Beatles misspelling of a name. Their manager then managed to get hold of a copy of Bob Dylan’s ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ which was not yet released at that stage. Initially the band didn’t take to the song, but after Dylan heard them performing it and enthused about their version, they took to the song and it would not only give them their first Hot 100 hit in the US, but it would go to number 1. They would then see a total of 16 Hot 100 hits with ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’ being another chart topper for them. In the UK they managed 7 hits with ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ being their only chart topper there. David Crosby would go on to be part of Crosby, Stills & Nash while Gene Clark would team up with Doug Dillard going under the name Dillard & Clark.
SA Singles Charts 