of Soul" by the Yardbirds, which was released in June 1965, "is frequently cited as a key text in starting the trend" towards incorporating Indian-inspired elements in rock music. An Indian sitarist and a tabla player accompanied the Yardbirds on a demo recording of the song, but only the tabla part was deemed usable. Instead, Jeff Beck emulated the sitar figure, tone and accompanying drone on the electric guitar for the master recording. The song reached number 2 on the UK chart and number 9 in the US. According to Chapman, the other record "chiefly credited with introducing raga motifs into Western pop" is the Kinks' July 1965 single "See My Friends", which was another top-ten hit in the UK. Written by Ray Davies and inspired by a visit to India, the song used open-tuned guitars to imitate the drone produced by an Indian tambura. Davies' vocal affectations added to the track's Indian quality; in author Peter Lavezzoli's description, "See My Friends" was "the first pop song to evoke an Indian feel". Before either of these examples, the Beatles' April 1965 single "Ticket to Ride", which was number 1 in many countries around the world, featured a melody that author Ian MacDonald terms "raga-like" over a subtle Indian drone produced by electric guitars. "Heart Full of Soul" and "See My Friends" were both influential on the emerging trend, but according to author Jon Savage, "the first truly mass exposure" was through the Beatles' 1965 film Help!, which included incidental music played by Indian session musicians. Writing in 1997, Bellman commented that the Yardbirds and Kinks recordings were often overlooked in discussions of raga rock's origins, as history instead highlighted the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". Issued in December 1965 on the band's Rubber Soul album, the folk-styled "Norwegian Wood" was the first Western pop song to incorporate the sitar, which was played by lead guitarist George Harrison, and the first to feature Indian instrumentation played by a rock musician. The song's popularity inspired a wave of interest in the sitar and Indian sounds, a phenomenon that Shankar later called "the great sitar explosion". According to authors Nicholas Schaffner and Bernard Gendron, raga rock was inaugurated by the release of "Norwegian Wood". The Byrds' raga-rock press conference The Byrds' March 1966 single "Eight Miles High" and its B-side, "Why", were also influential in originating the subgenre. Whereas earlier recordings