''The Shadows'' is the debut studio album by British

instrumental rock Instrumental rock is rock music that emphasizes musical instruments and features very little or no singing. Examples of instrumental rock can be found in practically every subgenre of rock, often from musicians who specialize in the style. Instr ...

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 in September 1961. It reached number one in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

Track listing

;Side 1 #"Shadoogie" (

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 ...

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 ...

Jet Harris Jet, Jets, or The Jet(s) may refer to: Aerospace * Jet aircraft, an aircraft propelled by jet engines ** Jet airliner ** Jet engine ** Jet fuel * Jet Airways, an Indian airline * Wind Jet (ICAO: JET), an Italian airline * Journey to Enceladus ...

Tony Meehan Daniel Joseph Anthony Meehan (2 March 1943 – 28 November 2005), professionally known as Tony Meehan, was a founder member of the British group the Drifters, with Jet Harris, Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch, which would evolve into the Shadows. ...

) #" Blue Star" (

Victor Young Albert Victor Young (August 8, 1899– November 10, 1956)"Victor Young, Composer, Dies of Heart Attack", ''Oakland Tribune'', November 12, 1956. was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. Biography Young is commonly said to ...

Edward Heyman Edward Heyman (March 14, 1907October 16, 1981) was an American lyricist and producer, best known for his lyrics to " Body and Soul," "When I Fall in Love," and " For Sentimental Reasons." He also contributed to a number of songs for films. Biog ...

) #"Nivram" (Bruce Welch, Hank Marvin, Jet Harris) #"Baby My Heart" (

Sonny Curtis Sonny Curtis (born May 9, 1937) is an American singer and songwriter. Known for his collaborations with Buddy Holly, he was a member of the Crickets and continued with the band after Holly's death. Curtis's best known compositions include " Wa ...

) – (Vocal: Hank Marvin) #"See You in My Drums" (Tony Meehan) – Drum solo #" All My Sorrows" (

Dave Guard Donald David Guard (October 19, 1934 – March 22, 1991) was an American folk singer, songwriter, arranger and recording artist. Along with Nick Reynolds and Bob Shane, he was one of the founding members of The Kingston Trio. Guard was born in ...

Bob Shane Robert Castle Schoen (February 1, 1934 – January 26, 2020), known professionally as Bob Shane, was an American singer and guitarist who was a founding member of The Kingston Trio. In that capacity, Shane became a seminal figure in the rev ...

Nick Reynolds Nicholas Wells Reynolds (July 27, 1933 – October 1, 2008) was an American folk musician and recording artist. Reynolds was one of the founding members of The Kingston Trio, whose folk and folk-style material captured international attention du ...

) – (Vocal: Jet Harris) #"Stand Up and Say That" (Hank Marvin) ;Side 2 #"Gonzales" (Jet Harris, Bruce Welch, Hank Marvin) #"Find Me a Golden Street" (

Norman Petty Norman Petty (May 25, 1927 – August 15, 1984) was an American musician, record producer, publisher, radio station owner, and considered to be one of the founding fathers of early rock & roll. Biography Petty was born in the small town of Clo ...

) #"Theme from a Filleted Place" (Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch, Jet Harris) #" That's My Desire" ( Helmy Kresa, Carroll Loveday) – (Vocal: Bruce Welch) #"

My Resistance Is Low "My Resistance Is Low" is a 1951 song by American singer, songwriter and band leader Hoagy Carmichael, with later lyrics by Harold Adamson. Creation Carmichael had the melody, and then recorded it backed by the Gordon Jenkins Chorus and Orchestr ...

" (

Hoagy Carmichael Hoagland Howard Carmichael (November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981) was an American musician, composer, songwriter, actor and lawyer. Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s, and was among the first ...

) #" Sleepwalk" (Ann Farina, Santo Farina,

Johnny Farina Santo & Johnny were an American rock and roll instrumental duo of Italian descent from Brooklyn, New York, composed of brothers Santo Farina (born October 24, 1937) and Johnny Farina (born April 30, 1941). They are known best for their instrum ...

, Don Wolf) #"Big Boy" (Bruce Welch, Hank Marvin)

Chart positions

Personnel

– Lead guitar, piano and vocals *

– Rhythm guitar and vocals *

– Bass guitar and vocals *

– Drums and percussion *

Norrie Paramor Norman William Paramor (15 May 1914 – 9 September 1979), known professionally as Norrie Paramor, was a British record producer, composer, arranger, pianist, bandleader, and orchestral conductor. He is best known for his work with Cliff R ...

– Producer * Malcolm Addey – Engineer The sleeve notes were written by

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...

Instruments

* Lead guitar:

Fender Stratocaster The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed from 1952 into 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuousl ...

Gretsch Country Gentleman Gretsch is an American company that manufactures musical instruments. The company was founded in 1883 in Brooklyn, New York by Friedrich Gretsch, a 27-year-old German immigrant, shortly after his arrival to the United States. Friedrich Gret ...

* Rhythm guitar:

Fender Jazzmaster The Fender Jazzmaster is an electric guitar designed as a more expensive sibling of the Fender Stratocaster. First introduced at the 1958 NAMM Show, it was initially marketed to jazz guitarists, but found favor among surf rock guitarists in t ...

, Fender Stratocaster,

Gretsch 6120 The Gretsch 6120 is a hollow body electric guitar with f-holes, manufactured by Gretsch and first appearing in the mid-1950s with the endorsement of Chet Atkins. It was quickly adopted by rockabilly artists Eddie Cochran, Duane Eddy, and later b ...

, Gibson J-200 * Bass guitar: Fender Precision Bass * Drums: Gretsch, Trixon * Amplifier: Vox AC30 × 3 * Piano: from EMI Abbey Road studios

Recording

The album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios (Studio 2) between 26 October 1960 and 21 June 1961. It was recorded on entirely analogue equipment in real time, with each track recorded on a one-track-per-day basis with no overdubs or edits on a 2 track recording machine. Rather than having a stereo mix being mixed down into a mono version, both stereo and mono mixes were recorded simultaneously but separately within the same session. Mistakes made during recording necessitated immediate retakes, and for that reason, multiple versions for some (if not all) tracks exist in EMI's tape vaults. All of the tracks were recorded in several sessions over an eight-month period (nine session-days), during which singles were also recorded, including "Kon-Tiki", "

She Wears Red Feathers "She Wears Red Feathers" is a popular music, popular song, which was written by Bob Merrill and published in 1952. Background and reception The best-known sound recording and reproduction, recording of the song was made by Guy Mitchell in 1952 ...

" (unissued), "The Frightened City", "Wonderful Land", "36-24-36", "March of the Shadows" (unissued), "Peace Pipe", "The Savage", "Blues From an Unfurnished Flat" (unissued), "Happy Birthday to You" (unissued except in an overdubbed form on ''21 Today''), an LP by

. The songs from the album were recorded in this order: *"Gonzales" – recorded 26 October 1960 *"Baby My Heart" – recorded 27 January 1961 *"Find Me a Golden Street" – recorded 27 January 1961 *"Theme From a Filleted Place" – recorded 1 June 1961 *"Blue Star" – recorded 18 February 1961 *"Shadoogie" – recorded 20 April 1961 *"Sleepwalk" – recorded 20 April 1961 *"That's My Desire" – recorded 20 April 1961 *"Big Boy" – recorded 12 May 1961 *"See You in My Drums" – recorded 1 June 1961 *"All My Sorrows" – recorded 13 June 1961 *"Nivram" – recorded 13 June 1961 *"Stand Up and Say That" – recorded 13 June 1961 *"My Resistance is Low" – recorded 21 June 1961

Formats

;Vinyl *1961: 1st – (Stereo) Light Green, and (Mono) Dark Green Columbia label *1963: 2nd – (Stereo) Blue/Black Columbia label *1970: 3rd – (Stereo) Black/Silver EMI label ;Tape *1961: Reel to reel tape *1973: Cassette and 8 Track cartridge 2-fer ("The Shadows As Was!"): The Shadows/Out of the Shadows. EMI Double Executive Series label *1980: Cassette (MFP Label) ;CD *1991: Normal. 2-fer (2-4-1) CD: The Shadows/Out of the Shadows. Jewel case *1997: Remastered. 2-fer (2-4-1) CD: (Mono and Stereo albums). Jewel case

Live performances

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.

Bibliography

;Books # That Sound (From Move It on, the story of the magic sound of The Shadows), by R.Pistolesi, M.Addey & M.Mazzini. Publ: Vanni Lisanti. June 2000. # Rock 'n' Roll - I gave you the best years of my life, Autobiography by Bruce Welch. Publ. Viking Penguin Inc., London. 1989.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shadows, The 1961 debut albums The Shadows albums EMI Columbia Records albums Albums produced by Norrie Paramor