Paul Granville Samwell-Smith (born Paul G. Smith, 8 May 1943, in Brentford, West London, England) is an English musician and record producer. He was a founding member and the bassist of the 1960s English rock band the Yardbirds, which launched leading guitarists Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page to fame. As a youth, Samwell-Smith attended Hampton School with Yardbirds drummer Jim McCarty. While in the Yardbirds, he co-produced and engineered much of their music, working with record producers such as Mickie Most, Simon Napier-Bell and Giorgio Gomelsky. Samwell-Smith was a major contributor to the original tracks written by the Yardbirds during his tenure with the band. He left the group in June 1966 to pursue a career as a record producer. The Yardbirds In late May 1963, he formed the Yardbirds with Keith Relf, Anthony Topham, Chris Dreja, and Jim McCarty. During this period his primary instrument was a short-scale Epiphone Rivoli bass. He played on the UK albums, Five Live Yardbirds and Yardbirds (also known as Roger the Engineer) and on the US albums For Your Love, Having a Rave Up, and Over Under Sideways Down (which was Roger the Engineer retitled for the US market), all released on Epic Records. He provided background vocals on many songs like "Good Morning Little School Girl", "For Your Love", "Heart Full of Soul", "Evil Hearted You", and more. He composed the Gregorian chant arrangements and lyrics of the songs "Still I'm Sad" and "Turn Into Earth". While in the Yardbirds he started working on the technical side in the studio. In 1966, becoming tired of touring and wanting to focus on production, he left the Yardbirds and was replaced by Jimmy Page. The last Yardbirds album he played on was Roger the Engineer. Regarding Samwell-Smith's years with the Yardbirds, a 2020 article in Guitar World opined: "As a bassist, Paul Samwell-Smith was solid and occasionally prominently inventive. No doubt, had he stuck to that he’d have been feted as an influence by many." In the early 1980s, Samwell-Smith played in the Yardbirds reunion band Box of Frogs with original Yardbird members Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty. The Box of Frogs did not tour because Chris Dreja was busy with his photography and Samwell-Smith was busy in the recording studio. He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Yardbirds in 1992. Records and