At sixties concerts, Bruce Welch would sometimes step forward after the Shadows’ own set and tell the audience that he’d like to introduce "... our vocalist ..." This seems to underline the approach Malcolm has taken in this companion volume to his earlier "Shadows On CD" reference work, and the text treats all Drifters/ Shadows and Cliff Richard records featuring the group as part of the same narrative story - effectively as all part of the same act.
The main part of the book deals with exhaustive annual surveys of releases each year from 1959 to 1980 inclusive. Starting in January 1959 with the Cliff Richard & The Drifters Livin’ Lovin’ Doll single (the first of Cliff’s records to feature Hank and Bruce), and continuing through to 1980’s "Another String Of Hot Hits" Shadows LP, Malcolm works methodically and painstakingly through all the original-format UK discs, accurately placing each within its musical and historical context. As with its predecessor volume, the overall approach is scholarly and detailed, with full examination of alternative versions, "overseas exclusives", composer-credit overviews, "tracks issued subsequently" and foreign compilation albums of the time, some of which managed to get the Shads’ singles onto microgroove (and sometimes into stereo) long before they were offered in LP format by EMI UK. A further section looks briefly at the Shads’ EMI vinyl releases after they had departed for Polydor ("The Shadows’ Vocals" etc.).
Along the way, all Cliff Richard tracks are distinguished by whether or not The Shadows appear (where do you stand on the question of When The Girl In Your Arms Is The Girl In Your Heart - credited on the label to Cliff and The Shadows? Malcolm’s classification is uncompromising - he doesn’t, for instance, include the "Cliff & Hank" 1969 single Throw Down A Line, counting it as outside the scope of this 464-page tome, along with Congratulations and others with nil Shadows involvement.
If anything, this book is even more relevant as a contemporary history of the careers of Cliff Richard and The Shadows than Malcolm’s last. If you were undecided before, I would unhesitatingly recommend this one. But having given it a perusal, you’ll want his previous book as well ...
