Music Friday Flashback: The Yardbirds Promise to Give Diamond Rings in Exchange ‘For Your Love’

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you cool throwback songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today’s featured track is “For Your Love” by the British-invasion band The Yardbirds. The 1965 hit, which features key “diamond” references, was the group’s biggest commercial success with top-six chart success in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.

The song is basically a love treatise, with lead singer Keith Relf listing all the things he would give “for your love.” In addition to offering the moon, the sun and the stars, Relf starts off with a more reasonable proposal…

Relf sings, “I'd give you everything and more and that's for sure / I'd bring you diamond rings and things right to your door / To thrill you with delight / I'd give you diamonds bright/ Double takes I will excite / Make you dream of me at night.”

The Yardbirds have been called “the most impressive guitar band in rock music,” because the group launched the careers of guitar legends Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page.

Interestingly, “For Your Love” was the straw that broke the camel’s back for a 20-year-old Clapton. After playing lead guitar on the song, Clapton left the band because he believed the song signaled that The Yardbirds were becoming too commercial. Music historians claim he was also disgruntled having to duplicate the song’s unusual harpsichord intro on his 12-string electric guitar when playing live.

Musician Dave Liebman, who was hired to write the introduction to “For Your Love,” revealed years later that the use of the harpsichord was a total accident. Upon arriving at the recording studio, he realized that the organ he intended to use was nowhere in site. He had to settle for a harpsichord and history was made — the first rock song featuring a harpsichord.

The Yardbirds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and are included in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time.”

Please check out the video at the end of this post. It’s a rare 1965 clip of The Yardbirds performing “For Your Love” on Shindig!, a U.S. musical variety show. The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along.

“For Your Love”
Written by Graham Gouldman. Performed by The Yardbirds.

For your love.
For your love.
For your love.
I'd give you everything and more, and that's for sure.
For your love.
I'd bring you diamond rings and things right to your door.
For your love.

To thrill you with delight,
I'll give you diamonds bright.
There'll be things that will excite,
To make you dream of me at night.

For your love.
For your love.
For your love.

For your love, for your love,
I would give the stars above.
For your love, for your love,
I would give you all I could.

For your love.
For your love.
For your love.
I'd give the moon if it were mine to give.
For your love.
I'd give the stars and the sun 'fore I live.
For your love.

To thrill you with delight,
I'll give you diamonds bright.
There'll be things that will excite,
To make you dream of me at night.

For your love.
For your love.
For your love.
For your love.

Vancouver Police On the Lookout for Stolen Ammolite Specimen Worth $500,000; Huge Gemstone Is a Canadian National Treasure

Vancouver police are asking for the public’s help in recovering a Canadian national treasure — a huge, helmet-shaped ammolite rarity that was stolen from a storefront window on Friday morning.

About the size of a man’s shoe and valued at $500,000, the one-of-a-kind ammolite is unique because of its huge size and display of seven distinctive colors.

Vancouver police spokesman Sergeant Randy Fincham explained that a burglar busted through the front window of a Vancouver jewelry shop before store hours to get access to the ammolite, but took no other items. He asked gem collectors to contact his department if they had any information about the distinctive specimen.

"Obviously it has a limited retail value because it's fairly distinct, so it would be [someone like a] collector possibly that would look at purchasing something like this, as it is such as unique item," he said in a press conference.

Jewelry and image by Korite International.

Ammolite is formed from the fossilized shell of an ammonite, an extinct giant marine mollusk that flourished 17 million years ago in what is now Alberta, Canada. The mineral composition of ammolite is similar to that of a pearl, and the iridescent, multicolor presentation is reminiscent of a fine opal.

Although ammonite fossils can be found around the world, ammolite has only been found in one place, the Bearpaw geological formation in southern Alberta, making it one of the rarest gemstones, according to the American Gem Trade Association.

Photograph by Gregory Phillips, February 2005.

Ammolite is one of the few biogenic gemstones, which means it is made by living organisms. Others include amber and pearl. Ammolite was given gemstone status by the World Jewellery Confederation in 1981 and was named the official gemstone of the Province of Alberta in 1984.

It is also ranked as a Canadian national treasure, a status which demands that specimens be registered before they can be removed from the country, according to The Canadian Press.

The quality of ammolite is determined by three key criteria: the number of primary colors seen in the stone; the way the colors “play,” or shift, when viewed from different angles; and the brightness of the colors. Ammolite dealers use a letter grading system to express a stone’s overall quality, from AA to B.

Actress Gabrielle Union and NBA All-Star Dwyane Wade Show Off New 8.5-Carat Cushion-Cut Diamond Engagement Ring on Social Media

Stunning actress Gabrielle Union and NBA All-Star Dwyane Wade took to their respective Twitter pages on Saturday to jointly announce their engagement with a close-up shot of the ring — a fabulous 8.5-carat cushion-cut diamond set on a simple platinum band. Jewelry experts pegged the value of the stylish four-prong sparkler at nearly $1 million.

Best known for her roles in Bring It On and Think Like a Man, the 41-year-old former model surprised her fans with this tweet on Saturday, “Sooooo this happened…#Yessss.”

She included a link to her Instagram page, where her 1.4 million followers were treated to a detailed view of her mammoth ring. In the photo, Union is wearing the ring as she gently caresses Wade’s hand.

Also on Saturday, the 31-year-old Miami Heat guard tweeted, “She said YES!!!,” while including a link to the same ring photo on his Instagram page — a page followed by 2.3 million fans.

MailOnline reported that sourcing the 8.5-carat center stone was a challenge for Beverly Hills jewelry designer Jason Arasheben. Apparently, it required three buying trips to Miami to locate the perfect stone.

The December Essence cover girl and the defending NBA champion have been a high-profile couple since 2009. Despite a brief breakup earlier this year and the challenges of their busy schedules, the couple agreed to try to make the relationship work.

“At the end of the day, we came back together and said we want to continue this and we want to get better each day,” Wade told Jay Leno on The Tonight Show.

Utah Man Proposes to Girlfriend With a Big Assist From Santa at the Mall

Shaking with excitement and wearing her new sparkling diamond engagement ring, a Utah woman proclaimed this as the “best Christmas ever” after her fiancé — and Santa Claus — surprised her with a marriage proposal at the University Mall in Orem, Utah.

A new survey confirms that the Christmas season is the #1 time of the year for marriage proposals, and Kody Fitzgerald acted right on cue when he conspired with Santa and his helpers to make girlfriend Didi Nateras’ holiday wish come true. TV station KSL was in on the surprise and captured the moment with its hidden cameras.

After waiting their turn with a lot of excited youngsters, it was finally the couple’s turn to meet Santa. “Hi, Didi. How are you?” said the jolly Mr. Claus, as he invited the young lady to sit on his lap as if she were a little girl.

He asked Nateras what she wanted Santa to bring her for Christmas. She glanced at her boyfriend before she shyly responded, "A ring.” Santa paused a moment and then told the young lady, “A ring? Well, you know I've got just enough magic left in my sack, I might be able to make that happen.”

Santa pulled out a ring box and handed it to Nateras. Her boyfriend encouraged her to look inside.

She opened it slowly, only to be disappointed that the box was empty. Sadness turned to jubilation when a few seconds later Fitzgerald got down on one knee and proposed with the diamond solitaire ring of her dreams.

“I want to spend the rest of my life with you," said Fitzgerald. "Will you marry me?”

Nateras said, “Yes,” and Santa chimed in, “You’re going to make me cry.”

Nateras rose from Santa’s lap to embrace her new fiancé. Then the couple was back on Santa’s oversized chair to get his blessing and to pose for a bunch of photos that will surely bring back priceless memories many years from now.

"I wish you the most happiness and a happy, long life for the both of you," Santa said.

With her hands still shaking with excitement, Nateras told KSL, "I mean, I don't think I will ever forget this. This is probably the best Christmas ever."

It’s a fair guess that the “best Christmas ever” phrase will be repeated by countless new brides-to-be over the next few days. A survey conducted by Chilisauce, a UK-based event planning website, confirmed that the Christmas season is the most romantic time of the year. When 7,000 men and women were asked to name the best day to pop the question, 32% said “Christmas Eve” and 13% said “Christmas Day.” The next most popular time for engagements was “Valentine’s Day,” which was named by 30% of respondents.