From: Shadsfax Issue 31 (2001) 8–9
The Shadows
"Kon-Tiki: de beste 1960–1980"
EMI Norway 7243 531809 2 8
Released 2001
Apache / Quatermasster’s Stores / Man Of Mystery / FBI / The Frightened City / Kon-Tiki / Shadoogie / Nivram / The Savage / Wonderful Land [true stereo version] / Guitar Tango / Little B / Dance On! / Foot Tapper [mono single version] / Atlantis / Shindig / Geronimo / Theme For Young Lovers / The Rise And Fall Of Flingel Bunt / Don’t Make My Baby Blue / Turn Around And Touch Me / Let Me Be The One / Don’t Cry For Me Argentina / Theme From The Deer Hunter / Song For Duke / Riders In The Sky [single version] / Equinoxe (Part V) [7" edit]
This is a beautifully produced CD, which climbed to No.3 in the Norwegian Album Charts and and went gold (awarded for sales of 25,000; it looks as if eventual sales will be in the region of 40,000); a limited edition is on offer with a card wrap-around sleeve. The twenty-seven tracks are made up in the main of singles, all of which are documented in the well-informed track-notes. Nine of them made it into the Norwegian hit parade: the earliest was Kon-Tiki, which climbed to No. 7; three just failed to reach the top spot, Wonderful Land, Dance On! and the Eurovision vocal.
First, a couple of points about musical content. It is good to see the grossly underrated Quatermasster’s Stores given another airing, but surprising that no room was found for the equally exhilarating The Boys, a Norwegian single in 1962. On a different tack, it looks as if Nivram has been lifted, complete with a set of minor but irritating clicks, from The Original Chart Hits or a related source; there are no such blemishes on the Early Years issue, for example.
However, everything else about this release is impressive. A 16-page booklet offers an account (in Norwegian, by Dag Johnsen) of The Shadows’ career with special reference to their trips to (and close ties with) Norway, backed up by snapshots of visits made in 1961, 1980 and 1981: the Kon-Tiki Museum at Oslo, to which Hank Marvin refers in a brief comment on the back cover, is naturally an important focal point.
Dag records the detail that Song For Duke had a working title of The Norwegians prior to the announcement of John Wayne’s death.
Add to all this a striking front-cover design, and a series of high-grade colour shots of cover pics from Norwegian singles, along with newspaper cuttings documenting the country’s tight links with the band.
All I can say in conclusion is: warm congratulations to Dag Johnsen, Jan Arne Flatby and their associates on this handsome Norse tribute to The Shadows and their music! If only there were more compilations of this calibre on the market.
Thanks to Hans-Jørgen Olsen for reports on the chart fortunes of this CD.
P.S. Do we know for certain that Norrie Paramor contributed the piano part on The Rise And Fall Of Flingel Bunt? Also, on Equinoxe, there is no piano, so presumably no "C. Hall" either.
MC