The Shadows

Before Cliff and The Shadows, there had been nothing worth listening to in British music John Lennon In a career that has spanned over 50 years and over 250 million records sold, Sir Cliff Richard has topped the charts in every decade since the 1950s. Looking back, it can be easy to forget just how Cliff Richard started out: as a rebellious rock and roll singer, an 18-year-old with natural star power. Cliff's charisma was clear for all to see, but when he teamed up with The Shadows for his first number one single, true magic was born The Shadows provided such effective and dynamic musical accompaniment that they went on to forge a successful career independent of Cliff Richard. Hank Marvin s trademark tremolo sound went on to influence a generation of guitarists in the same way that Cliff drove singers such as John Lennon to take to the stage.

Two CD set. Both as 'solo' artists/bands and collaboratively, Cliff Richard and The Shadows have amassed more than 100 charting singles between them, as well as album sales upwards of ¼ Billion. Together they dominated the British popular music scene in the late '50s and early '60s with record-breaking careers that established their undisputed place in pop history. Between them they notched up 19 No.1 hits that included "Living Doll," "Travellin' Light," "Please Don't Tease," "Bachelor Boy," "Wonderful Land" and "Apache." In 2009, Cliff, together with Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch and Brian Bennett took to the stage again for their final tour - The Final Reunion - to celebrate their 50th anniversary, with an audience of more than 15,000. Released for the first time on CD, this 42-track set was recorded live at The O2 Arena in London.

More than 50 years after the original quartet assembled as The Drifters to accompany an up and coming young singer named Cliff Richard on stage and record - and after some changes of personnel, fallow years and successful comebacks - The Shadows are still statistically among the top raters in the overall history of the UK pop singles and albums charts. During the late 50s/early 60s period of this celebratory compilation they became for a while the most influential group in Britain, greatly boosting the sales of Fender guitars, Vox amps and mohair suits. Founders Hank Marvin (lead guitar) and Bruce Welch (second guitar) still front the group's intermittent sell-out revivals. Their original sidekicks Jet Harris (bass guitar) and Tony Meehan (drums) have been replaced over the years but the sound of The Shadows remains a distinctive reminder of where it all began - with the 66 tracks on this comprehensive 2CD set, the recordings that inspired a generation of young wannabes to pick up a guitar and kick a leg in tune and in step with the renowned 'Shads'.

It was in June 1960 that THE SHADOWS entered Abbey Road Studios to record APACHE, the track that was to become the instrumental hit of the decade. It shot to No.1 and became an instant classic and saw the start of a string of over thirty hits – including another four No.1’s, WONDERFUL LAND, KON-TIKI, DANCE ON! and FOOT TAPPER - for the group who pioneered the now familiar band line up of two guitars, bass and drums. APACHE also inspired a new generation of artists such as Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Pete Townshend and Queen’s Brian May to take up the guitar. The unique sound of THE SHADOWS is captured on this 2CD collection especially compiled by the band to mark their 60th anniversary year.

The Shadows is a rock band from the United Kingdom, founded in 1958. The band plays instrumental rock and is the backing band of Cliff Richard. The band ranks third (after Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard) in the ranking of the most commercially successful artists of the British singles chart.

The Shadows album is a 2019 release and comes with 40 tracks. There are also extensive sleeve notes on the inner liner. Great sleeve, note John Rostill and Tony Meehan together.

Live at the Paris Olympia Review by Bruce Eder
On the one hand, the Shadows are among the last throwbacks to a brand of utterly professional, painstakingly precise package rock & roll that existed in England before the Beatles and their contemporaries came along and substituted passion for a degree of virtuosity. On the other, the Shadows were among the biggest boosters of the electric guitar in a culture that still wasn't certain of its feelings for American-style jazz, much less rock & roll. This expanded version of the live album they cut at the Paris Olympia showcases the group's virtues and flaws about as well as anything they ever did, and may be the best way – other than picking up a handful of hits like "Apache" – for the uninitiated to discover the Shadows.

In the years after Elvis Presley but before the Beatles, Cliff Richard was the biggest thing in British rock & roll – and in the years after the Beatles, he was never far from the top of the U.K. charts. Arriving in 1958, just a couple of years after skiffle swept Britain, Richard was the first English singer to approximate the hip-shaking rebellion of American rock & roll with his 1958 debut single "Move It." A smash hit right out of the gate, "Move It" kicked off an astonishing five decades' worth of hits (as of 2014, his last time in the U.K. Top 10 was in 2008, when "Thank You for a Lifetime" went to number three). The earliest recordings, most made with his backing band the Shadows, were his hardest-rocking and undoubtedly his most influential, making an impression on nearly the entire first generation of British rock & rollers. Like Presley, who was certainly Richard's key influence, Cliff's popularity wound up pushing him ever so gradually to the status of an all-around entertainer. He moved into movies quickly – the first came just a year after "Move It" – and the Shadows tamed their rockabilly, but the real shift into the mainstream came after the Beatles opened the flood gates for homegrown British rock & roll, banishing Richard to the status of an older generation. Cliff continued to have hits in the '60s, even after he and the Shadows disbanded in 1968, but he split his time between pop and Christian music; in the early '70s, he focused on hosting a variety show on the BBC. Toward the end of the '70s, he made a big pop comeback with 1976's "Devil Woman," which became his first Top 10 hit in the U.S., and over the next five years, he racked up several intercontinental soft rock hits, including 1979's "We Don't Talk Anymore," 1980's "Dreamin'," and the Olivia Newton-John duet "Suddenly," taken from the 1980 soundtrack to Xanadu.

Review: As a lifelong Shadows fan, I have tended in recent years to buy up their compilation albums as well as original recordings to enjoy them all in different formats. In this collection Disc 1 profiles Shadows' recordings, whilst Disc 2 showcases Hank Marvin's solo tracks. The way this disc is presented nicely contrasts the different approaches of the group and solo recordings and gives an insight into the historical recordings the group has made over the years. The only down side to this collection is that the versions of the Shadows' hits are the Polydor re-recordings and not the original EMI ones which, in my opinion, were better. This should not detract from the disc as a whole which is an extremely enjoyable collection, showcasing certainly one of the most influential, yet underrated groups this country has ever produced. Hank's guitar playing is as impeccable and brilliant as ever. Favourite tracks are: The Deer Hunter (Cavatina), Wonderful Land, Theme for Young Lovers and the brilliant live version of Sacha.

In the years after Elvis Presley but before the Beatles, Cliff Richard was the biggest thing in British rock & roll – and in the years after the Beatles, he was never far from the top of the U.K. charts. Arriving in 1958, just a couple of years after skiffle swept Britain, Richard was the first English singer to approximate the hip-shaking rebellion of American rock & roll with his 1958 debut single "Move It." A smash hit right out of the gate, "Move It" kicked off an astonishing five decades' worth of hits (as of 2014, his last time in the U.K. Top 10 was in 2008, when "Thank You for a Lifetime" went to number three). The earliest recordings, most made with his backing band the Shadows, were his hardest-rocking and undoubtedly his most influential, making an impression on nearly the entire first generation of British rock & rollers. Like Presley, who was certainly Richard's key influence, Cliff's popularity wound up pushing him ever so gradually to the status of an all-around entertainer. He moved into movies quickly – the first came just a year after "Move It" – and the Shadows tamed their rockabilly, but the real shift into the mainstream came after the Beatles opened the flood gates for homegrown British rock & roll, banishing Richard to the status of an older generation. Cliff continued to have hits in the '60s, even after he and the Shadows disbanded in 1968, but he split his time between pop and Christian music; in the early '70s, he focused on hosting a variety show on the BBC.