The Shadows
"The Best Of The Shadows"
EMI TOCP–6381
Past Masters Series
Released October 1990
Chattanooga Choo-Choo / Apache / The Lonely Bull / Spring Is Nearly Here / FBI / The Savage / Bossa Roo / Guitar Tango / Perfidia / The High And The Mighty / South Of The Border / Five Hundred Miles / Blue Star / In The Mood / Bombay Duck
The Japanese got in first in one broad respect: this is the earliest case of a Shadows CD bearing the commonplace title The Best Of. An LP The Best Of The Shadows had appeared in 1966 with which our CD displays clear points of convergence, sharing with it all the tracks marked in bold above. While program-length was modest (though not untypical for its time), fifteen tracks totalling a shade under 40 minutes, this selection included the first ever CD example of BLUE STAR, along with the first overseas CD airing of CHATTANOOGA CHOO-CHOO and (this concurrently with a Greatest Hits compilation from the EEC, Carnaby CD 552018) SOUTH OF THE BORDER. Among the fifteen tracks, ten were derived from UK primary Albums, though three of these were issued as Singles in Japan itself (A-side: SPRING IS NEARLY HERE; B-side: SOUTH OF THE BORDER, BLUE STAR). Japanese favourites are well represented: THE LONELY BULL, SPRING IS NEARLY HERE, PERFIDIA, BLUE STAR, BOMBAY DUCK.
The front cover shot occupies the first page of a 16–page booklet with colour and (small-scale) b/w pics, and text dated 1990, in Japanese, by Makoto Yagi. This provides an account of The Shadows; UK chart-placings of the major Singles (from APACHE to RIDERS IN THE SKY) together with Albums (extending from The Shadows to Life In The Jungle / Live At Abbey Road); and analysis of the fifteen tracks on the CD.
The back cover of the booklet has this pic (cf. reverse of jewel case, above):
And the centre pages this shot:
