The Shadows
"Best Now"
EMI TOCP–9104
Released June 1991
Spring Is Nearly Here / Friday On My Mind / Driftin’ / Perfidia / Blue Star / Thunderbirds Theme / Bombay Duck / Apache / FBI / Tonight / Stardust / Sleepwalk / Theme For Young Lovers / Guitar Tango / Kon-Tiki / Shindig / Foot Tapper / A Place In The Sun / Slaughter On 10th Avenue / The High And The Mighty
Much more generously filled than the 1990 The Best Of The Shadows at twenty tracks amounting to 54:33 running time, this release has THUNDERBIRDS in mono out of necessity, and the Single version of FOOT TAPPER in mono out of choice (a better choice in fact than the stereo cut); unusually, the solitary Drifters’ track, DRIFTIN’ (studio version), is presented in mock-stereo guise: see CD Guide 2005 p. 307 for discussion of its provenance and distribution. Other than that, there are no CD firsts. Some Japanese favourites found on The Best Of recur here; also this time round room is found for the popular THUNDERBIRDS THEME. Eleven tracks of the present collection started life as UK Singles; but no fewer than fourteen served this function in Japan itself, including the pairing FRIDAY ON MY MIND / STARDUST from the Jigsaw Album in 1967. STARDUST incidentally is credited to “Harry Carmichael”, while FBI is said to be the work of one “Golmely”! There are other such eccentricities on other CDs in this survey, but these two will suffice to remind us that the Japanese were not exempt from a sloppiness that afflicts record companies who do not even have the excuse of working in an alien tongue.
The front cover shot occupies the first page of a 12–page booklet with no further pics, but with close on seven pages of text, in Japanese, dealing with the group’s career and providing track-analysis.