4/04/2013

The Shadows ~ Greatest Hits (1963)


A straightforward summary of the Shadows' first three years of habitual hit-making, opening with the pounding flurry of "Apache," then tracing through the next eight smash singles, with a handful of attendant B-sides (and one EP cut, the title track from The Boys) to round the package out. There is no denying the sheer brilliance of this early sequence. Hits like "Wonderful Land," "FBI," and "Man of Mystery" utterly rewrote the guitar's role in rock, not only musically, but culturally as well. Unquestionably, the Shadows' importance and impact diminished as the years passed, but at the outset of their career, the period documented here, they were untouchable. It is for that reason that The Shadows' Greatest Hits is still regarded in some quarters as the finest Shadows album of them all, an accolade which no other compilation (and goodness knows, there's been enough of them) has ever been able to dismiss. Even the sleeve screams "masterpiece."

tracks
01. Apache
02. Man Of Mystery
03. The Stranger
04. F.B.I.
05. Midnight
06. The Frightened City
07. Kon-Tiki
08. 36-24-36 [0:01:42.27]
09. The Savage
10. Peace Pipe
11. Wonderful Land
12. Stars Fell On Stockton [0:02:18.08]
13. Guitar Tango
14. The Boys
15. Dance On!

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