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Well, it's time to raise a glass to The Shadows 20 Golden Greats... which was released 45 years ago; February 1977.

With a bit of research we can see that it hit the Number 1 spot on 12th February and, apparently, stayed there for six weeks, before being usurped by Fleetwood Mac's Rumours. I bought the album during the school holidays (possibly Easter) and my copy can be seen below. I remember EVERYONE talking about the album at the time and so many people that I knew either had it, or wanted me to copy it for them onto cassette. It was a phenomenon that must have come out of the blue for most people. One of my main memories was ringing one of my friends up for a chat and hearing the record playing in the background. I knew it was 20GG due to the track order! And to think, we were all about 13 at the time!

Many Happy Returns!

That's great Chris, I wish I was around back then!

It was a good time to be young. People tend to moan about the 1970s and say it was the decade that taste forgot or that it was all grey and gloomy (mostly orange and beige!) and don't forget the power cuts and the three-day week... But I look around the country and the world today and I think... yeah, it's so much better now! Not! Medical science and tech has improved, but not much else. The music has certainly got worse! 1977 was a brilliant year... incredible. One of the best years I can remember. 1979 was also brilliant. It's all been downhill since then!

thanks for bringing back a great memory, Chris. I was 47 then and remember it and the advert well. You are so right about the downhill music. Thank goodness we still have the recordings.

shadowriter wrote:thanks for bringing back a great memory, Chris. I was 47 then and remember it and the advert well. You are so right about the downhill music. Thank goodness we still have the recordings.

I'll be hitting 60 next year... which sort of makes me realise just how long ago it was! Yes, the TV ad and Hank and Bruce appearing on Multi-Coloured Swap Shop (Saturday morning, BBC1) were probably my introduction to the music of the Shadows... plus a friend played me Apache and a friend of my mum's lent me her old The Stranger / Man of Mystery single! The Shadows were suddenly everywhere and I don't think anyone - not even the Shads themselves - saw that coming! It was indeed a renaissance and their music was cool again after having been out of favour for a while. Even a girl I knew at the time - who was a couple of years younger than me - bought the album! Like I say, it was amazing!

oops! meant 37, memory not as good as I thought. Hope I'm still around and playing
shads golden greats when I do get to 92.

drakula63 wrote:Well, it's time to raise a glass to The Shadows 20 Golden Greats... which was released 45 years ago; February 1977.

I remember rushing to buy it, I already had all ot the tunes on singles or EPs, but they were mono only and with this album I could have most of the tracks in stereo...

Didier

...ironically, we still only had a mono record player at the time, but got a stereo a few months later!

I'm about the same age as you, Chris and I remember the release of Twenty Golden Greats too. I never saw the advert, though, as we weren't allowed to watch ITV in our house...with the exception of Saturday afternoon Wrestling and Randall and Hopkirk! I remember it being a big album and I remember shop window displays for it. I was just 'getting into' music at that age - via my grandparents' record collection, which included the Apache single which I thought was unbelievably brilliant at the time - and still do!

Even then, The Shadows weren't considered 'cool' by any of my school friends, however - who walked around with Led Zeppelin and Lynyrd Skynyrd LPs under their arms (NOT in bags!). But a few years later a lad at school noticed that I was wearing a Change of Address badge, and asked me if I knew that Hank lived quite nearby in Loom Lane, Radlett.

I had to own 20GG, though, and saved up my paper round money to buy it. I remember it was £3.99 from W.H. Smith. (I'd already bought the Duane Eddy double album Legend of Rock on the London label from our local record shop in Burnt Oak; that was £3.79...for 24-tracks. Better value, I remember thinking at the time!) The first time I saw The Shads live was in 1979 at the Hammersmith Odeon; the ticket was £2.50. And then at the end of the year (1977) Cliff's 40 Golden Greats double album came out...exciting times to be a teenager discovering ancient music!

Landmark release as 20 Golden Greats was for many in its time, the original Greatest Hits compilation was for me the definitive collection.


First issued in mono only in 1963, the stereo version didn't appear until 1974, and as I had all the mono singles, this is the release that really made the difference for me.

Bill