Menu
--- In , Richard <errant_jedi@y...>
wrote:
>
> I own no Shadows albums. It's true. Is there a fully
> comprehensive best-of? What do you guys recommend as
> must-haves?
Richard,
As others have told you, there's TONS of comps out there, and none
of them are perfect. Shadows Are Go! was the only official US
release CD, and leaves me very unsatisfied (some of the choices seem
at very best completely random!). But you can get the Brit stuff
relatively cheaply, too. My recommendation would be to start with
two CDs:
The Shadows: The Shadows (self-titled)
- this is their first LP from 1961. It has tons of classics,
such as Gonzales, Shadoogie, Find Me A Golden Street, their version
of Sleepwalk (which was even more popular in Europe than the
original by Santo & Johnny), Blue Star, Nivram, etc. There's some
album filler (there always is) and a couple of vocals which are
nothing to write home about. But overall, this is a classic CD, and
a necessary part of any Shadows collection. I'd recommend the
Digipac-version which has both the mono and stereo versions of the
album. (The stereo featues such extreme separation that I often
prefer mono.)
The Shadows: Greatest Hits
- this is the reissue of their first compilation, and still the
best one. It came out in '63 and it has all of their early singles
('60 through late '62, I think) plus most of the b-sides (with a
couple of unfortunate exceptions). So, you get Apache, Man Of
Mystery, FBI, The Frightened City, Kon Tiki, The Savage, Peace Pipe,
Wonderful Land, Dance On and a bunch of others. Again, pick the
newish Digipac version.
I think most Shadows fans agree that their subsequent albums have
been somewhat uneven. Out of the Shadows ('62) is less essential
than their first one, but I'd still highly recommend it (The Rumble -
not the Link Wray song -, Cozy, Perfidia, Little B, all great
stuff); Dance With the Shadows ('64) a bit of a transitional album -
some of it was brilliant (Temptation, Zambesi, Fandango), some of it
much less so (Dakota, The Lonely Bull, French Dressing). They were
also showing signs of Beatlemania influences with their vocals (all
their albums but one had at least a couple of vocals, which in
general aren't bad - I think they were very good singers, actually,
and they even had several vocal hits); Sound of the Shadows ('65) is
one of my favorites, with greater agression and incredible guitar
tones - the album is full of classics (Brazil, The Lost City,
Breakthru, Deep Purple, National Provincial Samba, etc...). Stuff
after that ('66-'68) I would recommend only for more hardcore
Shadows fans. The Shads broke up in '68 until '73, and then
from '73 to '78 only did occasional work (though much of it was
pretty cool, especially their '73 album Rockin' With Curly Leads -
those that think that the Shads were all about easy listening after
the sixties should hear this album!). They became fully active
in '78 and from then until their breakup in '90 they toured a lot
and released a CD a year. Unfortunately, these are also the years
that most Shadows fans abhor. Bruce admitted that in '78 the
Shadows became a business first and a creative musical entity a
distant second - they turned into the Ventures! ;) They recorded an
enormous amount of crap during those 13 years (with a few diamonds
here and there).
also, there are some hits that are not on any of these releases,
things like Atlantis, Rise And Fall Of Flingel Bunt, and many
others. Those can be found on many different comps, but probably
the best one again is the original comp from '65, More Hits (a
follow up to Greatest Hits). That one has just been released on
digipac, too.
Hope that helps.
Best regards, and enjoy.
Ivan
