Shadows in the US

[Phrygian]

Hello Everyone! This is my first post. I came across this site recently while researching the Shadows. I only had a passing familiarity with the Shadows recordings until recently. My interest in learning more about those records was triggered by a friend of mine who plays a lot of one man band gigs. He posted a video of his version of Wonderful Land which got me to pull up the original recording. Even though I am old enough to have been aware of Wonderful Land and all the early Shadows hit records as a kid, I never heard them growing up in the US.

I don't quite understand the reason that the Shadows were not widely played by radio stations in the US in the 1960s. I tried searching a bit yesterday and came up empty. What was their US record company? Did that company not actively promote the Shadows? If nothing else, I would think that after the Beatles launched the British Invasion here in 1964, the Shadows record company would have tried to promote their records. The Shadows should have had a popularity here along the lines of the Ventures I would think.

Can anyone help me understand what happened, or did not happen, here in the US back in the Shadows glory days?

[Dance with Shadows]

Hi Bob,

I don't know if there is an explanation. But I would start with Jørgen Ingmann's hit with Apache. The Shadows were never in the race.

[Didier]

What was their US record company? Did that company not actively promote the Shadows ?

I think that's the answer, EMI records were distributed by Capitol in the US, and obviously they didn't believe in UK pop music, and didn't promote the Shadows' recordings. They didn't make the same mistake a few years later with the Beatles...

Didier

[JimN]

The early Shadows hits - certainly including Apache - were released in the States on the ABC-Paramount label.

ABC-Paramount had a loose tie-up deal with the (British) EMI/Columbia label (which itself had long been severed from the original USA Columbia label, known here as CBS).

This was a similar story to what later happened with the first four Beatles Parlophone singles (Love Me Do to She Loves You inclusive); Capitol just weren't interested and those discs were issued in the USA on VeeJay and Swan labels.

But though Capitol did get interested in The Beatles in late 1963 with the news of Beatlemania and an impending visit to the eastern seaboard, they never really did in the case of The Shadows, whose releases continued to see the light of day in the USA on other companies' imprints, including, as unlikely as it sounds in retrospect, Atlantic Records.

[Phrygian]

ABC-Paramount had previous successes with pop artists such as Paul Anka, Danny & The Juniors and Lloyd Price. Maybe they thought that guitar instrumentals did not have mass appeal.

I would like to add that I found helpful information on this forum about echo units. I recently bought a Blue Nebula pedal to get multi-head echoes. The presets for the Shadows records are very handy, and I like the preamp controls.

[manofmystery]

They had 15 singles issued in the USA: -

Feelin' Fine // Don't Be A Fool (With Love) - The Drifters (Capitol - F4220)
Driftin' // Jet Black - The Four Jets (Capitol - 4270)
Saturday Dance // Lonesome Fella - The Shadows (ABC-Paramount - 45-10073)
Apache // Quartermasster's Stores - The Shadows (ABC-Paramount - 45-10138)
FBI // The Frightened City - The Shadows (Atlantic - 45-2111)
Man Of Mystery // Kon-Tiki - The Shadows (Atlantic - 45-2135)
Wonderful Land // Stars Fell On Stockton - The Shadows (Atlantic - 45-2146)
Guitar Tango // What A Lovely Tune - The Shadows (Atlantic - 45-2166)
Dance On! // The Rumble - The Shadows (Atlantic 45-2177)
The Rise And Fall Of Flingel Bunt // Theme For Young Lovers - The Shadows (Atlantic - 45-2235)
Rhythm And Greens // The Miracle - The Shadows (Atlantic - 45-2257)
Mary Anne // Chu-Chi - The Shadows (Epic - 5-9793)
Stingray // Alice In Sunderland - The Shadows (Epic - 5-9826)
Don't Make My Baby Blue // My Grandfather's Clock - The Shadows (Epic 5-9848)
I Met A Girl // Late Night Set - The Shadows (Epic 5-10020)

[JimN]

They had 15 singles issued in the USA: -

Feelin' Fine // Don't Be A Fool (With Love) - The Drifters (Capitol - F4220)
Driftin' // Jet Black - The Four Jets (Capitol - 4270)
Saturday Dance // Lonesome Fella - The Shadows (ABC-Paramount - 45-10073)
Apache // Quartermasster's Stores - The Shadows (ABC-Paramount - 45-10138)
FBI // The Frightened City - The Shadows (Atlantic - 45-2111)
Man Of Mystery // Kon-Tiki - The Shadows (Atlantic - 45-2135)
Wonderful Land // Stars Fell On Stockton - The Shadows (Atlantic - 45-2146)
Guitar Tango // What A Lovely Tune - The Shadows (Atlantic - 45-2166)
Dance On! // The Rumble - The Shadows (Atlantic 45-2177)
The Rise And Fall Of Flingel Bunt // Theme For Young Lovers - The Shadows (Atlantic - 45-2235)
Rhythm And Greens // The Miracle - The Shadows (Atlantic - 45-2257)
Mary Anne // Chu-Chi - The Shadows (Epic - 5-9793)
Stingray // Alice In Sunderland - The Shadows (Epic - 5-9826)
Don't Make My Baby Blue // My Grandfather's Clock - The Shadows (Epic 5-9848)
I Met A Girl // Late Night Set - The Shadows (Epic 5-10020)

The Epic label was a subsidiary of the USA Columbia ("CBS") label and had a historic contractual tie with EMI/Columbia, who used to issue Epic recordings in the UK on the UK's Columbia label.

Other EMI/Columbia artistes used to have their records released on USA Epic too, including Cliff Richard and The Yardbirds. This was long before Epic was established in the UK as a British outlet for USA Sony / Columbia releases.

[GoldenStreet]

I don't quite understand the reason that the Shadows were not widely played by radio stations in the US in the 1960s.

Maybe, at that time US radio stations in general dismissed the Shadows, superficially, as a pale imitation of the Ventures, featuring the same three guitars and drums line-up, although their sound and dynamic was quite different. Also, being so closely associated in the UK with Cliff Richard (never to become fully established in the US) was perhaps another reason why no concerted effort was made to promote them as a name in their own right.

How the Jorgen Ingmann cover version of Apache came to be a major hit in the US (and No.1 in Canada) has always been something of a mystery to me!

Bill

[Phrygian]

How the Jorgen Ingmann cover version of Apache came to be a major hit in the US (and No.1 in Canada) has always been something of a mystery to me!

Bill

I'm not sure either Bill. For a long time, I ignorantly thought Jorgen's version was the original.

[Gatwick1946]

Perhaps the Shadows version did not get enough airplay, allowing Jorgen to rack up the sales and get played by the influential DJ's? Sometimes the same song would be in the charts, at the same time as versions by other artists.
I believe Bert Weedon released ( maybe recorded?) his version of Apache first, but it did not figure n the charts, so the Shadows had no competition in the UK.

Kindest regards,
Christopher