The Shadows Greatest Hits Views

Music

The Shadows were formed from members of several late-1950s UK skiffle groups: the Newcastle-based Railroaders (and also The Five Chesternuts on Columbia Records) who supplied Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch, both inspired by US pop music; and The Vipers Skiffle Group (on Parlophone records) who supplied Jet Harris and Tony Meehan from London, both inspired by UK jazz–skiffle music. The Shadows, although originally the live and recording backing band for Cliff Richard, were later marketed as an instrumental combo, following their explosive chart success with the Jerry Lordan composition Apache. In the US and Canada, they were briefly marketed as a 'surf' group with two special compilation albums on Atlantic records, The Shadows Know and Surfing with The Shadows, to compete with The Ventures and The Surfaris. Although both these albums failed to chart in America, the band had hits worldwide.

In 1960, the band released Apache, an instrumental by Jerry Lordan, which topped the charts for five weeks. Further hits followed, notably Wonderful Land , another Lordan composition with orchestral backing, at the top of the charts longer than Apache (8 weeks). This, and Kon Tiki six months earlier, reached number one. The Shadows played on more chart-toppers as Richard's band. This group, referred to subsequently as The Original Shadows, had seven hits.

The packaging of the group's greatest hits in Twenty Golden Greats by EMI in 1977 prompted the group to reform yet again for a tour featuring Francis Monkman from Sky on keyboards, leading to a number one album and a top ten hit single Don't Cry for Me Argentina. Francis left after that tour and the line-up settled as Marvin, Welch and Bennett, supplemented on records and gigs by Cliff Hall (keyboards) and Alan Jones (bass).

The group reformed in 2004 to mount a farewell tour, and they recorded a new track, Life Story, (written by the late Jerry Lordan) to accompany a new greatest hits package of the same name which featured '80s re-recordings of all their 1960s and 1970s hits. This opportunity to see Marvin, Welch and Bennett, joined on keyboards by Hall and on bass by Griffiths, was so successful that they extended the tour to Europe in 2005. The line-up was almost the same, but Warren Bennett, son of Brian, came in on keyboards instead of Hall. On 27 November 2008, a concert tour, with Cliff Richard, for 2009 was announced.[8] On 11 December 2008, Cliff Richard and the Shadows performed at the Royal Variety Performance at the same time announcing their forthcoming 50th anniversary tour. The tour commenced in September 2009 with 36 shows throughout the UK and Europe and extended to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in 2010.