URBAN ASPIRINES: The Shadows : 20 Golden Greats 1977

Saturday, February 03, 2018

The Shadows : 20 Golden Greats 1977

Not available on CD

The Shadows were an English instrumental rock group, and were Cliff Richard's backing band from 1958 to 1968, (though they have collaborated again on numerous reunion tours).

The Shadows have placed 69 UK charted singles from the 1950s to the 2000s, 35 credited to the Shadows and 34 to Cliff Richard and the Shadows. The group, who were in the forefront of the UK beat-group boom, were the first backing band to emerge as stars. As pioneers of the four-member instrumental format, the band consisted of lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar and drums. Their range covers pop, rock, surf rock and ballads with a jazz influence.

20 Golden Greats is a compilation album by UK band The Shadows. It was released in 1977. The album was in UK charts for 43 weeks, where it gained number 1 position for 6 weeks

Without a single misplaced footstep in sight, 20 Golden Greats soared effortlessly to the top of the U.K. chart, becoming the Shadows first album chart-topper since their sophomore album, back in 1962. It was a deserved triumph and, perhaps, a predictable one, even at the height of punk rock.

A straightforward run through the Shadows' early to mid-1960s singles, the peerless sequence which stretched from "Apache" in 1960 to "The Rise and Fall of Flingel Bunt" in 1964, consumes 15 of the album's 20 tracks; the remainder of the set then cherry picks the next four years to round up the lesser-heard, but equally laudable "Maroc 7," "Stingray," "The War Lord," "Genie With the Light Brown Lamp," and "A Place in the Sun.

" It's a dynamic collection, then, rounding up the 20 most quintessential Shadows hits, as opposed to the 20

most successful, the 20 best-known, or whatever other criteria such compilations like to be guided by. The fact that those other standards are almost automatically encompassed by its contents simply confirms the music's immortality. The chart success was merely the icing on the cake.

TRACKS

SIDE A