The Shadows (album)
| The Shadows | ||||
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| Studio album by The Shadows | ||||
| Released | September 1961 | |||
| Recorded | 1961 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Label | Columbia (EMI) SX1374 (mono); SCX3414 (stereo) (UK) | |||
| Producer | Norrie Paramor | |||
| The Shadows chronology | ||||
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| Allmusic |
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The Shadows is a 1961 rock album by British group The Shadows, which reached number one in the UK charts.
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" (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 Cliff Richard.
The songs from the album were recorded in this order:
The sleeve notes were written by Cliff Richard.
This album is cited by many highly influential and successful British rock/metal/heavy metal guitarists (e.g. Brian May of Queen) as being their no.1 favorite Shadows album thus influencing them in their career first choice in music.
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.
After three non-charting singles ("Feelin Fine", "Jet Black" and "Saturday Dance") followed by the massive number-one selling Apache single in June 1960, the group ostensibly merited an immediate debut album but in the UK at that time albums were of secondary importance to singles and EPs (the reverse was true in the US). Hence the year-long delay in releasing this important album. The UK's economy was still not sufficiently strong to enable the British record buying public to prioritise albums over singles in terms of purchasing choices. From the mid-1960s, the album would eventually predominate over the single in the UK.
This is the only Shadows album that features the original Shadows line up with Tony Meehan and Jet Harris. Meehan was sacked for persistent lateness in 1961 and Harris was constructively dismissed (resigned) in 1962. The only other early album of note featuring Harris and Meehan is the South African "Rockin Guitars" Shadows special compilation album.
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Wikipedia