Founded in Los Angeles in 1964 by singer/guitarists Jim McGuinn (he changed his name to Roger McGuinn in 1967 after joining the spiritual movement Subud), Gene Clark and David Crosby. Bassist Chris Hillman and drummer Michael Clarke joined soon after.
McGuinn had been in a series of folk outfits before working in New York in 1962–1963 as a songwriter for Bobby Darin. He moved to LA in late 1963 and began gigging at clubs such as the Troubadour but, after hearing the Beatles for the first time, saw the opportunity to 'take Lennon and Dylan and mix them together'.
Clark, who had been in the New Christy Minstrels, briefly joined McGuinn in a duo playing at The Folk Den before Crosby persuaded them to let him join. The newly-formed trio recorded a couple of songs under the name The Jet Set and then hired Clarke to join on drums. Former bluegrass mandolin player Hillman completed the quintet.
They rehearsed and recorded extensively at the World Pacific Studios in LA under the guidance of manager Jim Dickson, culminating in a single Please Let Me Love You released by Elektra under the name The Beefeaters. Years later, these demos were released as the Preflyte album and more recently In The Beginning (1988) and The Preflyte Sessions (2001).
In November 1964, the band signed to Columbia and a few days later renamed themselves the Byrds.
In January 1965, they recorded Mr. Tambourine Man and effectively created folk rock. McGuinn's jangling, highly melodic guitar playing (using a 12-string, heavily compressed Rickenbacker for its extremely bright tone) was immediately influential, and has remained so to the present day. The group's complex harmony work became the other major characteristic of their sound. Released in June after a long delay, this debut single reached #1 on the US charts and also, a month later, in the UK. At the same time, their debut album Mr. Tambourine Man was released, also topping the charts.
The group's follow-up single was another interpretation of a Dylan song, All I Really Want To Do, although Sonny and Cher simultaneously released their own version of the song with greater commercial success.
The Byrds quickly recorded Turn! Turn! Turn!, which became the group's second US #1 single, also headlining their second album (also titled Turn! Turn! Turn! ).
By the end of 1965, the band had exhausted the folk rock sound, and began to experiment. In December 1965, they recorded Eight Miles High, generally considered the first fully-blown psychedelic recording.
Clark left the band in March 1966, partly due to a fear of flying which made it impossible to keep up with the band's itinerary. He was signed by Columbia as a solo artist and went on to forge a critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful body of work.
The Byrds' third album, Fifth Dimension (5D), released in July 1966, built on the new sound the band had created for Eight Miles High, exploring jazz and raga styles on several tracks. Allegedly irritated by the overnight success of manufactured groups such as The Monkees, the group next recorded the satirical and slightly bitter dig at the music business So You Want To Be A Rock'N'Roll Star, which again broke new ground musically, featuring a brass part played by the South African musician Hugh Masekela. The song achieved modest success as a single and also kicked off their fourth album, Younger Than Yesterday, which was more varied than its predecessors.
By 1967, there was increasing tension between the band members, McGuinn and Hillman becoming irritated by what they saw as Crosby's overbearing egotism, and his attempts to jockey for control of the band. In June, when the Byrds performed at the Monterey Pop Festival, Crosby sang the majority of lead vocals and, to the intense annoyance of the other members, gave lengthy speeches between every song, on subjects such as the JFK assassination and the benefits of giving LSD to "every man, woman and child in the country". He then added insult to injury by performing later with rival band Buffalo Springfield (filling in for Neil Young). In October, during the recording of the fifth Byrds album, Crosby refused to participate in taping the Goffin-King number Goin' Back in preference to his more controversial Triad, a song about a menage a trois.
The simmering tensions within the band finally erupted and the other group members fired Crosby, who subsequently received a considerable cash settlement and soon after began working with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, forming the hugely successful supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash. Clark briefly rejoined the Byrds to take his place, but left three weeks later, after again refusing to board an aircraft while on tour. Clarke also quit during these sessions, partly due to disputes with Crosby. Studio drummer Jim Gordon was drafted in to complete his parts. The bluegrass guitarist Clarence White contributed significantly on several tracks, later becoming a permanent band member in 1968.
The resulting album, The Notorious Byrd Brothers, was released in January 1968, and despite its troubled genesis, contains some of the band's gentlest, most ethereal music. The record mixed folk rock, country, psychedelia and jazz, often within a single song, and attempted to deal with many contemporary themes.
Now reduced to a duo, the Byrds quickly recruited Hillman's cousin Kevin Kelley as drummer and the band went out on tour in support of The Notorious Byrd Brothers as a trio. After realising that the trio arrangement wasn't going to work, McGuinn and Hillman, in a fateful decision for their future career-direction, hired Gram Parsons, originally to play keyboards (he later moved to guitar).
With the aid of Hillman, Parsons persuaded McGuinn to change direction again, and take up a style with which they had previously only dabbled - country music. In February 1968 they played at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and immediately started recording their next album in a wholly country style with Parsons choosing and singing many of the songs. However, Parsons quit the band in July just before they flew to South Africa because he refused to play to segregated audiences. At the same time, Sweetheart of the Rodeo was released, most of Parsons' vocals being replaced by either McGuinn or Hillman due to legal problems with Parsons' previous record company. The album was commercially unsuccessful on its release, but is the first country-rock album to be released by an established rock band, coming 6 months before Dylan's Nashville Skyline.
Kelley left not long after Parsons and McGuinn and Hillman hired drummer Gene Parsons and guitarist Clarence White in their places. This new lineup played 2 shows together in October before Hillman quit to join Parsons in the Flying Burrito Brothers.
McGuinn, now the only original member left, hired bassist John York to replace Hillman and the resulting quartet released the Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde album in February 1969.
In October 1969 came the Ballad Of Easy Rider album. The title track was composed by McGuinn (expanding on a verse line written by Dylan) as the music theme for the 1969 movie Easy Rider and the album sold well off the back of the movie's huge success. By the time this album was released, York had left the band and been replaced by bassist Skip Battin.
In 1970, the Byrds released the double album (Untitled) which featured one disc of live recordings and one of studio performances.
1971 yielded the Byrdmaniax album which was a commercial and critical disappointment, largely due to inappropriate orchestration which was added to many tracks without the band's approval by producer Terry Melcher.
1971 also saw the release of the Farther Along album. The title track of that album, sung by White (with the rest of the group harmonising), would became a prophetic epitaph for both White and Gram Parsons (in July 1973, White was killed by a motor vehicle while he was loading equipment after a gig in Palmdale, California and soon afterwards Parsons died as a result of an overdose of morphine and alcohol, in the Joshua Tree Motel, California).
McGuinn toured with the Byrds through 1972, with LA session man John Guerin replacing Gene Parsons. Battin and Guerin either quit or were fired after the February 1973 show in Ithaca, NY and were replaced by Hillman (ironically) and Joe Lala respectively for the Byrds' final two shows on February 23 (Burlington, VT) and 24 (Passaic, NJ).
The five original Byrds all briefly reunited in late 1972 to cut the reunion album Byrds which came out in March 1973. A planned tour to support the reunion album never materialised.
Subsequently, there were disputes over which members owned the rights to the Byrds name in the late 1980s. Clarke and Clark toured separately under the Byrds' name at that time, and from 1989 through most of 1993 Clarke toured occasionally as 'The Byrds Featuring Michael Clarke' with former Byrd Battin along with newcomers Terry Jones Rogers and Jerry Sorn. To solidify their claim to the name and prevent any non-original members from using the name, McGuinn, Hillman and Crosby staged a series of Byrds' reunion concerts in 1989 and 1990 including a famous performance at a Roy Orbison tribute concert where they were joined by Dylan for Mr. Tambourine Man. These shows led to McGuinn, Hillman and Crosby recording four new studio tracks for the boxed set The Byrds in 1990. During that year, a legal action against Clarke and his booking agent failed, the judge ruling that Clarke's group had toured successfully. Eventually, a settlement was reached, preventing any entity not including McGuinn, Hillman and Crosby from using the name Byrds.
The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. The entire band's past members were honored at this induction. Clark died later that year and, two years later, Clarke succumbed to liver disease brought on by alcoholism.
Though both Hillman and Crosby have expressed an interest in working with McGuinn again on future Byrds' projects, McGuinn is currently committed to his folk music career.