"Atlantis" is a rock music instrumental by British group

the Shadows The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters) were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the pre- Beatles era. They served as the backing band for Cliff Richard ...

, released as a single in May 1963. It spent 17 weeks on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, peaking at number two for two weeks.

Background and reception

"Atlantis" was written by

Jerry Lordan Jerry Lordan (born Jeremiah Patrick Lordan, 30 April 1934 – 24 July 1995) was an English songwriter, composer and singer. He achieved 3 hit singles on the UK Singles Chart before focusing purely on songwriting. Amongst his songwriting c ...

, who had previously written two chart-topping songs for the Shadows, " Apache" and "

Wonderful Land "Wonderful Land" is an instrumental piece written by Jerry Lordan and first recorded and released as a single by The Shadows in February 1962. It stayed at number one for eight weeks on the UK Singles Chart, a feat only Elvis Presley (in 1960), th ...

". It was released with the B-side "I Want You to Want Me", written by

Hank Marvin Hank Brian Marvin (born Brian Robson Rankin, 28 October 1941) is an English multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter. He is widely known as the lead guitarist for The Shadows, a group which primarily performed instrumentals and was the ba ...

. Whilst the Shadows had included vocals on some of their album tracks, "I Want You to Want Me" was the first single by the Shadows to feature vocals since "Saturday Dance", released as the B-side to "Lonesome Fella" in 1959. "Atlantis" was recorded on 13 December 1962 at

EMI Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

; "I Want You to Want Me", on the other hand, was recorded on 1 May 1963 whilst the group were in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. The Shadows came up with the title "Atlantis" whilst on a bus in Barcelona, saying it was "a follow-on to the

Telstar Telstar is the name of various communications satellites. The first two Telstar satellites were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched on top of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962. It successfully relayed through space the fi ...

, Polaris idea". Reviewed in '' New Record Mirror'', "Atlantis" was described as having "a medium tempo beat with some strings in the background. Rather like all the rest of their stuff but still with a lot of commercial appeal. There's also a femme chorus on the backing. Nice stuff for the younger teens". Reviewing for '' Disc'',

Don Nicholl Donald Nicholl (August 9, 1925 – July 5, 1980) was an English-American screenwriter and producer. His production company Nicholl Ross West (with Mickey Ross and Bernie West) wrote for the situation comedies ''All in the Family'', ''The Jeffe ...

described it as an "attractive Latin beat instrumental" and "a deceptive little item – by no means so simple as it sounds".

Track listing

7": Columbia / DB 7047 # "Atlantis" – 2:47 # "I Want You to Want Me" – 2:34

Personnel

– electric lead guitar *

Bruce Welch Bruce Welch (born 2 November 1941 as Bruce Cripps) is an English guitarist, songwriter, producer, singer and businessman best known as a founding member of the Shadows. Biography Welch's parents (Stan Cripps and Grace Welch) moved him to 15 B ...

– acoustic rhythm guitar * Brian "Licorice" Locking – electric bass guitar * Brian Bennett – drums, triangle * Norrie Paramor Strings – all other instrumentation

Charts

References

{{authority control Songs about Atlantis 1963 singles The Shadows songs Songs written by Jerry Lordan Rock instrumentals 1963 songs Columbia Graphophone Company singles 1960s instrumentals Song recordings produced by Norrie Paramor