So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star

McGuinn and Hillman wrote it, and the band recorded it at Columbia in Hollywood between 28 November and 1 December 1966 with Gary Usher producing. Hugh Masekela played trumpet, the first brass on a Byrds record. Hillman says he composed the bass part during a Masekela session. The crowd screams were recorded by publicist Derek Taylor at Bournemouth on 15 August 1965, at McGuinn's request.

The song satirizes manufactured pop, especially the Monkees, whose television show had debuted in September 1966. The single came out on 9 January 1967 with Everybody's Been Burned on the B-side. It reached number 29 in the United States and did not chart in Britain.

Live

It closed the Byrds' set at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, with Masekela and Big Black joining them.