The+shadows

Since their re-emergence in 1973, the Shadows had established themselves among the most tasteful guitar instrumental bands of the age. True, their greatest singles hits tended to be vocal numbers – the Eurovision Song Contest smash "Let Me Be the One" paramount among them. But mention the Shadows to the average record buyer, and still the first thought that comes to mind was of seamless, sweet, and soaring guitar epics – which was precisely the thinking behind this set. Despite a track listing which featured three of the band's most recent 45s, String of Hits was not titled for the band's own singles success…

Twenty-five years of the Shadows had raced by in a blur of hits. Both in their own right, and as the backing band behind so many of Cliff Richard's greatest recordings, the Shadows had left such an indelible mark on the British rock landscape that kids who weren't even born before "Apache" couldn't help but wish them well on their birthday…

Reunited is a 2009 studio album by British pop singer Cliff Richard and his original backing band The Shadows. The album celebrates the 50th anniversary of Cliff's first recordings and performances with The Shadows, and is their first collaboration in the recording studio for forty years…

By 1967, the Shadows were at the end of their hitmaking career, and very close to breaking up altogether. Before they went, however, they had one final classic to deliver, an album that arrived packaged up like a parcel, which, when unwrapped, revealed a host of solid gems, evidence that no matter how far pop music had moved from the model they helped style a decade earlier, the Shadows had no intention of being left behind…