Yes' second album didn't break much new ground for the band, but it did confirm what most already knew: that they were a force to be reckoned with. In the studio, Eddie Offord sat, fortuitously, at the engineer's desk for the first time with the band. Yet Time And A Word wouldn't be the quantum leap Yes needed to propel them into the big league. In fact, the only leap here was Tony Cox's orchestral arrangements, a rather de rigueur post-psychedelic ornamentation of the day.

The Yes story begins in 1966 with a band called The Syn. Bassist Chris Squire and guitarist Peter Banks spent two years with that band, progressing along the way from R&B covers to psychedelia, establishing a residency at the Marquee Club and cutting two singles for Deram. Ultimately, success wasn't in the cards for The Syn, but Squire and Banks reunited later in Mabel Greer's Toyshop. Vocalist Jon Anderson was persuaded to join; but upon recruiting drummer Bill Bruford and organist Tony Kaye (born Anthony John Selvidge), they changed their name to Yes.

By the time of their 1969 release, The Who had established themselves as one of England's premier live attractions. But on vinyl, they remained largely a singles band, save the ten-minute "A Quick One While He's Away" from A Quick One (Happy Jack in the US).