Not an artist in the traditional sense of the term (he couldn't play or sing at all) producer Joe Meek has nonetheless been belatedly recognized as an important, even inimitable, figure of early British rock & roll. Like Phil Spector, Meek developed idiosyncratic production techniques that, much more than the artists he worked with, stamped a... [+] Read More

Not an artist in the traditional sense of the term (he couldn't play or sing at all) producer Joe Meek has nonetheless been belatedly recognized as an important, even inimitable, figure of early British rock & roll. Like Phil Spector, Meek developed idiosyncratic production techniques that, much more than the artists he worked with, stamped a vision of mad genius on his recordings. In Meek's case, this usually amounted to super-compressed sound, wavering sped-up vocals, ghostly backing violins and choruses, spooky echo and reverb, ticky-tack variable-speed piano, and all manners of Halloween and outer-space sound effects. The recordings were all the more remarkable for being produced not in a state-of-the-art studio, but in Meek's own bedroom-sized facility, located over a shop within the flat he rented.

Meek couldn't rightly be compared to Phil Spector -- he favored gawky, dippy teen idol fare for gawky, dippy teen idols, not the gutsy soul- and R&B-infused Wall of Sound. But he was a trailblazer in his own right -- even before Spector, he set up shop as rock & roll's very first independent producer of note, making recordings on his own terms and leasing them to labels for distribution. In the United States, he only scored big with the Tornados' "Telstar" (the first British rock & roll record to top the American charts, a year before the Beatles) and the Honeycombs' "Have I the Right." In the U.K., he produced scores of records, many of them flops, and many others hits, for the Tornados, Honeycombs, Screaming Lord Sutch, John Leyton, Heinz, the Outlaws (featuring Ritchie Blackmore for a time), and many more. Highly prized by some collectors, Jello Biafra noted in the book Incredibly Strange Music, Vol. 2, "You can tell a Joe Meek record a mile away."

Meek's business and production methods may have been ahead of his time, but his actual musical tastes actually started to run behind the times with the advent of the self-contained groups of the British Invasion. He actually recorded a few respectable efforts in the R&B/mod vein, but his career was in a severe spiral by the time his life ended in tragic circumstances in early 1967, when he shot his landlady and himself. John Repsch's book The Legendary Joe Meek (published in the U.K. only) is a biography of this fascinating figure. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Originally Cliff Richard's backing band, the British quartet the Shadows began recording on their own in 1960 and had a major hit with the instrumental "Apache." They were built around guitarists Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch, with an ever-changing rhythm section (Terry "Jet" Harris and Tony Meehan, the original bassist and drummer, were the most... [+] Read More

Originally Cliff Richard's backing band, the British quartet the Shadows began recording on their own in 1960 and had a major hit with the instrumental "Apache." They were built around guitarists Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch, with an ever-changing rhythm section (Terry "Jet" Harris and Tony Meehan, the original bassist and drummer, were the most famous, and went on to success on their own in the early '60s); originally dubbed "the Drifters," they adopted their more famous moniker during their first tour with Richard to avoid confusion with the popular American R&B group of the same name. Often erroneously thought of as England's answer to the Ventures, the Shadows' sound was polished, crisp, clean, and metallic, making up for its inherent sterility and lack of soul thanks to a knack for drawing out melodies in their most haunting form; their biggest hit was "Apache," but they also scored with smash singles including 1960's "Man of Mystery" and 1961's "Kon-Tiki." By 1962, both Harris and Meehan had exited, and the remaining duo of Marvin and Welch continued backing Richard in his many film roles, adopting a distinctively exaggerated brand of choreography widely imitated by other guitar-based groups of the era. Subsequent chart-toppers including 1963's "Wonderful Land" and 1963's "Foot Tapper" followed, and although the Shadows were largely lost in the shuffle of the British Invasion they continued backing Richard until 1968, at which time Welch quit. Many more reunions and breakups were to follow in the coming decades, and in one form or another the Shadows continued to record well into the 1990s. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide [-] Hide

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Britain's answer to Elvis Presley, Richard (born Harry Webb) dominated the pre-Beatles British pop scene in the late '50s and early '60s. An accomplished singer with a genuine feel for the music, Richard's artistic legacy is nonetheless meager, as he was quickly steered toward a middle-of-the-road pop direction. Several of his late-'50s... [+] Read More

Britain's answer to Elvis Presley, Richard (born Harry Webb) dominated the pre-Beatles British pop scene in the late '50s and early '60s. An accomplished singer with a genuine feel for the music, Richard's artistic legacy is nonetheless meager, as he was quickly steered toward a middle-of-the-road pop direction. Several of his late-'50s recordings, however, were genuinely exciting Presley-esque rockers -- especially his first hit, "Move It" (1958) -- and gave British teenagers their first taste of genuine homegrown rock & roll talent. Backed by the Shadows -- clean-cut instrumental virtuosos who became legends of their own -- Richard embarked on a truly awesome string of hit singles in Britain, scoring no less than 43 Top 20 hits between 1958 and 1969. One of these, although it was by no means one of the more successful, was an actual Mick Jagger/Keith Richards composition (the ballad "Blue Turns to Grey").

In his homeland, Richard's popularity was diminished only slightly by the rise of the Beatles, but in his prime, he had a much rougher time in the U.S., hitting the Top 40 only three times (with "Living Doll" in 1959, "It's All in the Game" in 1963, and "Devil Woman" in 1976). Richard belatedly cracked the U.S. Top Ten in 1976 with "Devil Woman," and racked up a few other hits ("We Don't Talk Anymore," "Dreaming," "A Little in Love") in a mainstream pop/rock style. He remains an institution in Britain, where he is one of the nation's most popular all-around entertainers of all time. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide [-] Hide

In 1960, Joe Meek -- already thinking in terms that couldn't be constrained by the limits of the day's technologies and marketing strategies -- devised a "concept LP" of sorts that speculated about the nature of life on the moon (this was almost ten years before Apollo 11). Working with a group of musicians he dubbed the Blue Men, this "outer... [+] Read More

In 1960, Joe Meek -- already thinking in terms that couldn't be constrained by the limits of the day's technologies and marketing strategies -- devised a "concept LP" of sorts that speculated about the nature of life on the moon (this was almost ten years before Apollo 11). Working with a group of musicians he dubbed the Blue Men, this "outer space music fantasy" tried to conjure the mood of the cosmos with the clavioline, a Hawaiian guitar, a rinky-dink piano, and then-futuristic electronic noises and sound effects. Listening today, the largely instrumental work sounds futuristic in a very dated way, especially the Chipmunks-like, electronically sped-up voices that were meant to simulate those little green men. As Monty Python's Flying Circus would say, it all sounds a bit silly, but it's an interesting insight into his unique production techniques -- the sounds he sculpted for "Magnetic Field," for instance, are a clear forerunner of the electronic pulses that open and close "Telstar." Only four tracks from the opus were released at the time, on a super-rare EP; 30 years later, the RPM CD I Hear a New World presented the full work to the public for the first time. The 2001 RPM "Special Edition" release of I Hear a New World adds a 35-minute spoken monologue from 1962 in which Meek talks about his life, career, recording equipment, and production/working methods. The fidelity is hissy and scratchy (although quite comprehensible) and it gets dull as Meek takes a detailed tour of his studio sans visuals, but if you're enough of a Meek fan to seek out I Hear a New World in the first place, it's likely you'll find this a significant bonus. There's also an enhanced CD track with a three-minute 1964 TV interview clip of Meek, though it's playable only on PCs, not Macs. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Albums are all fine and well, but if you really want to know what made a band tick during the first half of the 1960s, you need to listen to the singles. It was singles, after all, that consumed the lion's share of the market -- singles by which a band's fame and acclaim were judged, and singles by which their star rose and fell. Three hits in a... [+] Read More

Albums are all fine and well, but if you really want to know what made a band tick during the first half of the 1960s, you need to listen to the singles. It was singles, after all, that consumed the lion's share of the market -- singles by which a band's fame and acclaim were judged, and singles by which their star rose and fell. Three hits in a row, you were the biggest thing in the world. A flop for the fourth and you were dead meat. Most compilations today prefer to avoid this simple fact, preferring to delve into albums and archives in a desperate attempt to wrest away the last buck in the buyer's pocket. But there's still a handful that know how history is best served -- the Rolling Stones' Singles Collection and Cliff Richard's six-LP Story paramount among them -- and The First 20 Years at the Top is a worthy addition to that roll call. Three CDs compile every A-side and the majority of the B-sides the Shadows released in the U.K. between their formation in the late '50s and their departure from EMI in 1980. Programmed with strict chronology, the box paints a picture of the band that no other collection has ever managed -- and that includes the six-CD 1958-1966 box set. The set opens with the two 45s the band cut as the Drifters during 1958-1959, before they encountered a better-known American band of the same name. There, listeners hear the young rockers at their most guileless, innocent, and derivative; there, too, listeners discover that "Mary Anne," the 1965 single that introduced their singing voices to the record-buying public, was not that much of a departure after all. Both the band's first and third 45s (plus the occasional past B-side) were also unashamedly vocal numbers. Still, it was as instrumentalists (and, courtesy of Hank Marvin, guitar gods) that the Shadows made their name, and across the rest of disc one, and great swathes of the other two, their prowess is as breathtaking today as it ever was at the time. Even more rewarding is the discovery that the band's mid- to late-'70s output is often as striking as their '60s material. Having disbanded in 1969, the Shadows reformed in 1973 and, as though they'd never been away, proceeded to unleash both some startling pop ("Let Me Be the One") and some virtuosic instrumentals. "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," "Cavatina," and even Blondie's "Heart of Glass" aren't simply executed with consummate style -- that, after all, was the Shadows' raison d'être. They also pack a passion that is undimmed from the halcyon days of "Apache" and "Wonderful Land" -- 20 years at the top indeed! ~ Dave Thompson, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Though he never dredged the same depths as Elvis, there is little doubt that Cliff Richard made some really horrible movies. There were three of them -- Finders Keepers, Two a Penny, and the truly execrable Take Me High -- and one could search the earth for the rest of one's life and still never find anyone who would admit to enjoying them. So... [+] Read More

Though he never dredged the same depths as Elvis, there is little doubt that Cliff Richard made some really horrible movies. There were three of them -- Finders Keepers, Two a Penny, and the truly execrable Take Me High -- and one could search the earth for the rest of one's life and still never find anyone who would admit to enjoying them. So it's absolutely astonishing to discover that not only do the accompanying soundtracks stand proud alongside some of Richard's regular albums, they don't look too shoddy up there with his best ones, either. And the fact that category includes two other soundtracks just goes to prove your old granny was right all along. You really can't judge a movie score by the movie. At the time of his breakthrough, in 1958, Richard was (in the parlance of the day), "the boy who rocked the world." Little Richard was passe, Elvis was past it, Jerry Lee was, well, we've all seen Great Balls of Fire, so let's just leave it at that. So far as the British entertainment industry was concerned, America had already had its rock & rolling day; now it was their turn, and Cliff Richard was still coming down from his first hit single, the magnificent moodiness of "Move It," when he was co-opted for his first film, Serious Charge. The gritty realism of the movie's theme summed up Cliff's box office appeal. He was rough, he was tough, and the songs he performed on the soundtrack, "No Turning Back" and "Mad About You" (both making their CD debuts here), adhered perfectly to that image. So did a third number, the rollicking "Living Doll," but Richard soon changed that. Although the singer loved the song, he disliked its up-tempo rock arrangement, and by the time it became his first number one, "Living Doll" had been transformed into his first major ballad, and the template around which much of his subsequent career would be designed. Certainly it's no surprise that many of Richard's biggest hits over the next five years should also be ballads, or that the musical highlights of his next three movies would supply many of the most memorable examples. "A Voice in yhe Wilderness" and the magnificently maudlin "The Shrine on the Second Floor" (from Expresso Bongo, 1959); "When the Girl in Your Arms" (The Young Ones, 1961); and "Bachelor Boy" and "The Next Time" (Summer Holiday, 1962) are no strangers to a thousand best-of collections, and the only injustice is that their radiance often blinded listeners to some equally deserving material. Spread over two discs, and amply annotated in the accompanying booklet, At the Movies goes a long way toward remedying this travesty. Trimming the fat from the original soundtrack albums, it bolsters what's left with a handful of unissued alternate takes, and several more CD debutantes. And though the collectors' interest does wane as the second disc progresses toward Take Me High, still, At the Movies ends on a high note, with the original, and radically different, movie mixes of "The Young Ones," "Lessons in Love," and "Bachelor Boy," plus a sensational bazouki-powered "Summer Holiday." ~ Dave Thompson, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Twenty of Meek's most notable hit singles and misses from 1960 to 1966. Includes his biggest hit productions (the Tornados' "Telstar," the Honeycombs' "Have I the Right," Heinz' "Just like Eddie," Mike Berry's "Tribute to Buddy Holly," John Leyton's "Johnny Remember Me"). Just as intriguing, though, are the more obscure items, some of which are... [+] Read More

Twenty of Meek's most notable hit singles and misses from 1960 to 1966. Includes his biggest hit productions (the Tornados' "Telstar," the Honeycombs' "Have I the Right," Heinz' "Just like Eddie," Mike Berry's "Tribute to Buddy Holly," John Leyton's "Johnny Remember Me"). Just as intriguing, though, are the more obscure items, some of which are hard or impossible to find on other compilations. Among these are the wild horror-rock of Screaming Lord Sutch's "'Til the Following Night," the super-creepy Moontrekkers instrumental "Night of the Vampire," the soul-pop of the Riot Squad (with Mitch Mitchell on drums), brassy femme pop by Glenda Collins, and a couple of excerpts from I Hear a New World, his bizarre outer-space opus. There are many other interesting Meek discs out there for those who want to go further, but this is an excellent introduction. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide [-] Hide

The Shadows enjoyed 20 British hits between 1960 and 1965, and this is their first American compilation. So we probably don't even want to wonder what that says for the Great American Record-Buying Public, smug, snug, and secure behind their piles of Ventures vinyl and sorry surf compilations, blissfully oblivious that a mere ocean away, entire... [+] Read More

The Shadows enjoyed 20 British hits between 1960 and 1965, and this is their first American compilation. So we probably don't even want to wonder what that says for the Great American Record-Buying Public, smug, snug, and secure behind their piles of Ventures vinyl and sorry surf compilations, blissfully oblivious that a mere ocean away, entire generations were shaking to the Shads. You know the songs, of course, effortlessly magnificent guitar standards one and all: "Apache," which Jorgen Ingmann took to copycat heights back in 1960; "Wonderful Land," which Mike Oldfield later executed with heart-aching majesty; TV's "Thunderbirds Theme," "FBI," and "Perfidia." These melodies are scored into your brainpan regardless of whether you know, or even care, that the Shadows used to be Cliff Richard's backing band, or that the horn-rim headed Hank Marvin has been cited as a major influence by every guitarist from Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page on down. The Shadows' story isn't all rosy, of course. As the smashes dried up in the mid- to late '60s, their efforts did become desperate and drippy. Shadows Are Go!, though, has no time for torment; it's just bang bang bang, through the hits till they hurt -- and with a cutoff date of 1966, there's not a vocal cord in sight. Through "Kon Tiki," "Atlantis," "Guitar Tango," and "Frightened City," its 23 tracks take your senses by storm, easy listening burned through with a vitality that makes a mockery of the unhip reputation the band (like their boss man) acquired après Beatles. Indeed, though later sensibilities found the band's music frequently included in the lounge kitsch hall of fame, the Shadows shake that specter off in the same way as Elvis Presley retained his rock sensibilities long after his life turned to schmaltz. The fact is, this band was kicking butt while you were still saying "bottom," and this isn't a retrospective after all. It's a manifesto. ~ Dave Thompson, All Music Guide [-] Hide