Eight Miles High

Clark wrote most of the lyrics, and McGuinn disputes how the credit was split. The song is mainly about the August 1965 flight to London and the British tour. The Byrds first recorded it at RCA Studios in Los Angeles in December 1965, with Al Schmitt engineering. Columbia refused to release it because it was not made in one of its studios, so the master was cut at Columbia in Hollywood on 24 and 25 January 1966, with Allen Stanton producing. The line-up was McGuinn, Clark, Crosby, Hillman and Clarke.

McGuinn's guitar solo was shaped by John Coltrane, whose Africa/Brass they played on tour, and by Ravi Shankar, though no sitar is on the record. McGuinn said Coltrane's music hit him like a white-hot poker through the chest. Crosby has said they were stoned when they wrote it. The single came out on 14 March 1966, less than two weeks after Clark left, and reached number 14 in the United States and 24 in Britain. The Gavin Report alleged drug references, and some American markets dropped it. The band denied this at the time, and researcher Mark Teehan argues the ban was not the main reason for the chart limits.

One account of the title has Clark asking how high a plane flies, McGuinn saying six miles, and the pair changing it to eight, partly echoing the Beatles' Eight Days a Week. Rolling Stone placed it 151st on its 2004 list of the greatest songs, and it entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

Live

The (Untitled) album has a 16:03 live version recorded in February and March 1970, and the song is also on Live at Royal Albert Hall 1971.