Notes
The sleeve notes were written by Cliff Richard.
This album is cited by many highly influential and successful British rock/metal/heavy metal guitarists (e.g. Brian May of Queen) as being their no.1 favorite Shadows album thus influencing them in their career first choice in music.
Only Shadoogie, Nivram, All My Sorrows and Sleepwalk were used "live on stage" to promote this album in 1961-2. Nivram has been used as 1st choice Shadows bass solo for live concerts from 1962 right through to 2010. The track Gonzales was played live on a radio performance (late 1960) but never on stage until belatedly included on the final tour live set in 2004.
After three non-charting singles ("Feelin Fine", "Jet Black" and "Saturday Dance") followed by the massive number-one selling Apache single in June 1960, the group ostensibly merited an immediate debut album but in the UK at that time albums were of secondary importance to singles and EPs (the reverse was true in the US). Hence the year-long delay in releasing this important album. The UK's economy was still not sufficiently strong to enable the British record buying public to prioritise albums over singles in terms of purchasing choices. From the mid-1960s, the album would eventually predominate over the single in the UK.
This is the only Shadows album that features the original Shadows line up with Tony Meehan and Jet Harris. Meehan was sacked for persistent lateness in 1961 and Harris was constructively dismissed (resigned) in 1962. The only other early album of note featuring Harris and Meehan is the South African "Rockin Guitars" Shadows special compilation album.
The British public in 1960-61 anticipated an all instrumental debut album but the Shadows and Paramor wanted to produce an album showcasing their numerous diverse talents instead, hence the inclusion of two specialist instrumental "solos", Nivram (a bass feature) and See You In My Drums (an obviously drum-heavy track). The album was rounded out with three relatively unexpected vocals. By contrast, the debut album of The Ventures (seen to be their American counterpart) was an all-instrumental one.
This album reached the number-one slot in the UK albums chart in 1961. No singles were taken from it, though two "extract" EPs were compiled from its tracks: "The Shadows no.2" and "The Shadows no.3" - both in mono only. The group's first EP The Shadows (available in both mono and stereo) had been released in January 1961 and featured four original tracks: Mustang, Shotgun, Theme From Giant and Theme From Shane.
However, notwithstanding any minor criticisms, this very successful debut album features seven (out of fourteen) all new original compositions written by members of the Shadows in various permutations, thus contradicting many later British authors who erroneously claim that this period of British pop music "before the Beatles" was 100% influenced and dominated by "Tin Pan Alley" song writers who wrote their material at offices in London's fashionable West End.
Read more about this topic: The Shadows (album)
Famous quotes containing the word notes:
“The drama critic on your paper said my chablis-tinted hair was like a soft halo over wide set, inviting eyes, and my mouth, my mouth was a lush tunnel through which golden notes came.”
—Samuel Fuller (b. 1911)
“The night is itself sleep
And what goes on in it, the naming of the wind,
Our notes to each other, always repeated, always the same.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)