From: Shadsfax Issue 26 (2000) 7–8
Cliff Richard & The Shadows
"The Best Of Cliff Richard & The Shadows"
Reader’s Digest B99001 BB3 [5CD]
Released 1999 (UK and elsewhere)
100 tracks: 68 Cliff, 32 Shadows, tracks in mono are asterisked.
CD1 (B 99 001 BB 3/1): Cliff’s No. 1 Hits: Livin’ Doll* / Travellin’ Light* / Please Don’t Tease* / I Love You* / The Minute You’re Gone* / The Young Ones* / The Next Time* / Bachelor Boy* / Congratulations / We Don’t Talk Anymore The Shadows’ Golden Hits: Apache / Man Of Mystery / FBI / The Frightened City / Kon-Tiki / The Savage / Wonderful Land (true stereo version) / Guitar Tango / Dance On! / Foot Tapper* (single version)
CD2 (B 99 001 BB 3/2) Hit Memories With The Shadows: Maria Elena / Las Tres Carabelas / Chattanooga Choo-Choo / Walk Don’t Run / Little ‘B’ / Good Vibrations / Granada / Classical Gas / Bridge Over Troubled Water / Bright Eyes With Love From Cliff & The Shadows: All My Love / A Voice In The Wilderness (EP Version, in stereo) / Fall In Love With You* / I’m Lookin’ Out The Window / A Girl Like You* / When The Girl In Your Arms (Is The Girl In Your Heart) / True True Lovin’* / Let Me Be The One / It’s All In The Game* / True Love Ways / Visions
CD3 (B 99 001 BB 3/3) More Of The Shadows’ Golden Hits: Atlantis / Shindig / Geronimo / Theme For Young Lovers (mismastered double note at start) / Genie With The Light Brown Lamp / Riders In The Sky (single version) / The Stranger / Don’t Cry For Me Argentina / Rodrigo’s Guitar Concerto / Theme From The Deer Hunter Cliff Classics: Theme For A Dream* / Lucky Lips* / Don’t Talk To Him* / Constantly* / I Could Easily Fall (In Love With You)* / The Day I Met Marie / Throw Down A Line (with Hank Marvin) / Blue Turns To Grey* / Devil Woman / Miss You Nights
CD4 (B 99 001 BB 3/4) Cliff & The Shadows’ Movie Hits: Summer Holiday / On The Beach* (with count-in) / We Say Yeah / The War Lord / Wonderful Life / The Shrine On The Second Floor / I’ll Love You Forever Today / Time Drags By / Finders Keepers / Take Me High Rockin’ With Cliff & The Shadows: Move It* / High Class Baby* / Do You Wanna Dance* / Reddy Teddy* / Livin’ Lovin’ Doll* / It’ll Be Me* / Mean Streak* / Nine Times Out Of Ten* / Razzle Dazzle (stereo: lacks Shads backing vocals) / Dynamite* (original B-side version)
CD5 (B 99 001 BB 3/5) The Hits Keep On Comin’: Dreamin’ / Some People / The Best Of Me / She Means Nothing To Me / I Just Don’t Have The Heart / From A Distance / Peace In Our Time / All I Have To Do Is Dream (with P. Everly) / Misunderstood Man More Chart Toppers & Great Hits: Power To All Our Friends / Goodbye Sam, Hello Samantha / The Joy Of Living (with H. Marvin) / My Kinda Life / Carrie / Wired For Sound / Daddy’s Home / My Pretty One / Mistletoe And Wine / Saviour’s Day
First, find the music-carriers. It is probably better not to rummage through the hinged flaps of this standard 2CD-sized box before looking at the leaflet provided: this offers an elaborate diagram illustrating the whereabouts of the five discs. Next, put the contailer on a flat surface: the flexure in the trays is such that a disc could easily be damaged if removed in a hurry. What about the music itself? Page 17 0f the 28–page booklet (nearly all of the text by Rob Finnis concerns Cliff rather than The Shads) expresses the belief that this compilation is “the most comprehensive and satisfying yet to be packaged on compact disc, an invaluable historical document …” Hmm.
In fact, what we have is a pretty haphazard assortment, not especially well organised: Cliff’s No.1 hits in one bit, more chart toppers in another; Shads hits here, more Shads hits somewhere else; Let Me Be The One lurking in a batch of Cliff’s ‘Love Songs’. No selection devoted to his rock output should pass over the album ‘Me And My Shadows’. Is the minor hit When Blue Turns To Grey really a “Cliff Classic”? Is The War Lord the best representative of The Shadows At The Movies? Chronology seems not to matter either. And it is time in my opinion that Cliff compilers got their act together. All too often murky mono tracks are used when perfectly good stereo versions are available: there are too many of the former in the present collection.
So, is there anything out of the ordinary? Well, this is the only UK CD, I believe, that offers Cliff’s True True Lovin’ (also on ‘Wonderful Cliff’, Fremus CDFR 0564, Italy 1994). It is also the only CD to offer a comical Las Tres Carabelas: what on earth have they done to the sound balance on this one?
MC