THE SHADOWS as SONGWRITERS
History with a difference!
It's 1958 !
Hank and Bruce had not long joined Neil Johnson, Gerry Furst and Pete Chester in The Chesternuts. Even at this early stage of their careers, when singers sang and songs were written by song writers, they were making their first attempts at song writing influenced by music being imported from the USA. Leslie Conn, of Carlton Records was the first person to believe in and encourage the lads to write their own music and even arranged some time in a Phillip's Studios in Stanhope. In a short session two songs were put down, "Teenage Love" and "Jean Dorothy", but alas these did not set the charts alight.
Some early credits.
Lots of exciting developments were happening in 1958 of course, the Drifters had been formed as a backing group for Cliff and one casualty in the search for the best band possible was Ian Samwell despite which he made his name with songwriting and production. Of course, Ian wrote "Move It" which has been labled the first Rock & Roll song written by a Briton which became such a hit for Cliff. Ian co-wrote "Gee Whiz It's You" with Hank, which appeared on the "Me And My Shadows" album. Also credited to Ian were "Don't Be A Fool With Love" and "Feelin' Fine" with Pete Chester which became the Drifters first single. Following the release of this record, Cliff and Ian encouraged Hank, Bruce and Jet to start writing more. Their second single was penned by Jet ("Jet Black", which was written in a coach** whilst on route to an appearance in Grimsby) and the flipside by Hank ("Driftin'"). These were encouraging signs of raw talent but showed the group were plainly capable of writing good original music** despite not entering the charts. Inspiration and encouragement was also taken from the success of Duane Eddy^^ in the USA.
They were however not above using ideas from other sources; "Cerveza", an early item in their repetoire seems to have been used as the model** for "36-24-36". Similarly "Guitar Boogie" recorded live at The Colosseum in South Africa in 1961, metamorphosed*** into the popular "Shadoogie" within 6 months to appear on the first album.
The Shads with a vocalist who's name escapes me for the moment
Pete Chester also wrote "Lonesome fella" and co-wrote "Saturday Dance" with Hank which were featured on single number 3. Other notable titles were "Left Out Again", and "Tell Me" and "Please Don't Tease" with Bruce which were all recorded by Cliff.
How to write a song
Mike Read in his 1983 history records how on a flight back from the States Ian Samwell and Hank were strumming their guitars when a stewardess asked how they went about writing songs. "We'll show you", the pair piped up and wrote an instant song for her there and then,
Who's that walking down the street
Picking up her pretty little feet
Who's the one that catches my eye
Every time that she walks by.....
"Gee Whiz It's You" took 10 minutes to write and reached number 4 in the singles charts for Cliff in the following year.
New developments
A new manager in 1960, in the shape of Peter Gormley, took control of The Shadows career and told them that they weren't matinee idols and advised them to develop the song writing aspects of their talents.
By the end of that year Bruce's "I Love You" was recorded by Cliff and was heading for the number one spot. The first album also included many fine original songs including "Nivram". The title of which indicated a penchant for humorous song titles of which many examples were to be seen over the years, such as "Stars Fell On Stockton", "Tales Of A Raggy Tramline", "Benno San", "The Flyder And The Spy" and " Voyage To The Bottom Of The Bath". (Do you have any favourite titles? Let me know and I'll run a poll.)
Brian Bennet was also showing his song writing talent at this time, with "Jack's Good"; recorded with the Krew Kats.
The Original Shadows
Some complications must have been evident since we are told that although "FBI" was credited to Peter Gormley it was actually co-written by Hank, Bruce and Jet. The song was attributed to Peter because of contractual difficulties although he did let them have the royalties! By 1965 Bruce is quoted as saying that The Shads were writing and composing from 10 am to 5 pm. Norrie Parramor said that even though they could not read music (see below), The Shadows were terribly inventive and imaginative musicians. The Times newspaper wrote of a 1978 concert, "The playing of numbers like "Apache" and "Wonderful Land" had a rythmic bite and variety of tone colour that placed it at a very different remove from the raw monotonous blur from which it used to be hard to escape."
John Rostill
Bruce wrote of John^ that his bass playing and song writing were among the strengths of The Shads between 1963 and 1969. He wrote some great songs both music and lyrics, including a number recorded by Olivia Newton-John which sold in their millions in the USA and helped to launch her career. John was a very accomplished musician playing guitar, bass and keyboards. His bass playing was adventurous, playing the bass part and "bits of chords" at the top to fill in holes where he could find places to put them. A sort of opposite strategy to Chet Atkins on guitar. Hank describes John^ as a daring and adventurous bass player, a virtuoso on the instrument. John also had a knack for picking song titles, another to add to the above list from John was "I wish I could shimmy like my sister arthur".
More on song writing from Bruce
EXTRA: Extract from an interview with Bruce Welch by Tony Hoffman of SHADSFAX
Marvin, Welch and Farrar
Some songs and their origins
Summer Holiday
Another song that happened very quickly was "Summer Holiday". Bruce and Brian decided to write a title song for the film. Bruce picked up his guitar and immediately started singing,
We're all going on a Summer Holiday
No more working for a week or two
It all just came straight out. Brian went to the piano and the same thing happened with the midddle section,
We're going where the sun shines brightly
We're going where the sea is blue
It was all over in about 20 minutes and put straight down on to a starlight recorder. It was later recorded and became a number one for Cliff within a year. After the film was recorded, Norrie Paramor rang Bruce in something af a panic saying another song was needed because of an under-run by several minutes. Bruce was actually with Cliff and by tea-time "Batchelor Boy" was ready!
The Dreams I Dream
Hank recalls that one night (in1966) whilst watching a film the melody came to him for this song. He immediately started working out ideas on the piano and eventually recorded it in his front room, putting down bass, drums, guitar and piano himself. The recording quality wasn't too good it was great fun, the others were knocked out with it when they heard it and it was recorded as their next single. Hank says that the verses came in a couple of hours and the whole song took about half a day to write. At the completion, he had several middle eights and had to eliminate all but one. This was not a common occurence since a song was often started, put aside and finished some time later, when viewed afresh to
get over being "stuck".
Silvery Rain
Another song that Hank wrote which became a hit for Cliff. It was inspired by a book ("The Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson) which Hank had just read. It left a strong anti-pesticide feeling in Hank which led him to write a song about these feelings. It was also recorded by Olivia Newton-John on her album "Physical" 15 years later.
The Day I met Marie*
While filming "Finders Keepers" with Cliff, Hank befriended a young dancer who was to later become his wife. Carole did not sing as well as Marie, the way the song was written. Hank had the idea of writing about someone coming into your life and making a great impact. In an allegorical tale, he writes about an experience, of falling asleep, a girl and a transient relationship. When he awakes (?) he is not sure if it was real or just a dream. Still one of Cliff's favourite songs.
End notes
Hank does not read music and therefore tends to prefer performing to session work, he enjoys performing but does not like to be away from home for too long. He finds that he needs time for writing which he finds relaxing. Bruce doesn't read either but Jet is said to have been able to read but not sight-read music.
Brian Bennet had been studying music for a long time, he has made a career for himself which includes writing, arranging, recording and occasionally performing including some session work. His television work is now well known and includes the music for "The Ruth Rendel Mysteries" and "Nomads Of The Wind", "The Knock" and "Global Sunrise". Of his '96 tour with Hank** he said, " It was great fun going on tour with Hank and the boys, I'd love to do it again but I daren't take the time out from my work as a composer."
References
Unless otherwise indicated, the material is taken from Mike Read's "The Story Of The Shadows", 1983
* RECORD COLLECTOR, Number 218, October 1997, page 67
** Information taken from articles in VARIOUS ISSUES OF SHADSFAX by Tony Hoffman.
*** Sleeve notes from The EP Collection Volume 2 (See For Miles release) by Rob Bradford.
^ FUNNY OLD WORLD by Rob Bradford, foreword by Bruce Welch
^^ Sleeve notes from Everything Of Value, Rarities 2, by John Tobler
These pages were last updated 24th November 1997