THE SHADOWS/SHADOW MUSIC SX 6041 (-66) UK MONO

 

The band's fifth album, among other things containing three tracks earlier part of "The Babes In The Wood" pantomime, performed at the London Palladium Christmas 1965. The rest a mix of self-penned and Shadows signature cover versions of known jazz, art music and pop numbers. I've seen it getting luke warm or even bad reviews. To my ears maybe not their most exciting moment, but still a well executed effort providing good listening. The vocal tracks "Stay Around", "In The Past", "One Way To Love" and "I Only Want To Be With You" are all good period pop, the guitar version of Serbian Stanislav Binicki's "March On The Drina" quite catchy and the covers of "Fly Me To The Moon" and "Razzmataz" entertaining enough. I know this kind of guitar band music is seen as dated by many today and maybe you must have been there then to appreciate it fully. I'm glad I was cause that allows me to enjoy this from first track to last. Issued and reissued pretty much all over the world on vinyl and/or CD through the years, though I can't find a trace of any US release. EU 1998 CD on EMI (7243 4 95151 23) came with all tracks in both mono and stereo. Premiere UK had label as shown here in a laminated flip/back cover. (CXÄ*)