“So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star” by The Byrds

"So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" came out as a Byrds single on January 9, 1967, and it sits on that year's Younger Than Yesterday album. It's the sound of two working musicians rolling their eyes at the pop business. Bassist Chris Hillman and lead guitarist Jim McGuinn wrote it in late 1966, just as the Monkees' TV show had turned a made-to-order band into an international sensation, and the pair's cynicism about the state of pop runs straight through the lyrics. Byrds authority Tim Conners has called it a sour but good-humored jab at manufactured groups.

Columbia released it, and it climbed to number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100, though it never charted in Britain.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.