SLAUGHTER ON 10TH AVENUE
(Richard Rodgers)
Ventures: November 1964 A-Single
Shadows: October 1969 A-Single
Chalk and cheese here. In the hands of The Ventures, the composition was transformed into an amazingly exhilarating stomper, a group anthem one might say – or one of them anyway – first in the studio for a single in 1964 and regularly thereafter one of the key ingredients of their live act. Captured early on record on the album Live In Japan ’65, this is surely one of the true wonders of the golden decade of instrumentals. The latest robust studio recut arrived on the 1999 CD from Japan, V-Gold.
The Shadows, or rather Brian Bennett, contrived a variegated, dignified-sounding version supported by a full orchestra and also an organ (Alan Hawkshaw being a recent recruit); this was one of the tracks destined for an album of film themes that never saw the light of day, as Hank Marvin (mercifully) broke loose from the Grow Old Gracefully With The Shadows kick to ply his trade with less cultured-sounding pieces like ‘Goodnight Dick’ and ‘Break Another Dawn’.