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The Guardian Review of 1 June lists what it regards as the best number ones since 1952. Apache is considered the best number one of 1960 - 'more than any other pop star they (The Shadows) made music that was a mirror to a generation raised on adventure stories and westerns...Apache prompted the likes of Jimmy Page and Brian May to get serious with their guitars'. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/series/ ... -1-singles
Not so sure about some of the other choices though! (But do agree about 1962 - Ray Charles's I Can't Stop Loving You.)
Tim

Ray Charles' I Can't Stop Loving You the best UK number one of 1962?

No chance.

That was the year that Wonderful Land and Telstar hit the top spot, both of them way more influential and better-remembered than any of RC's spate of C&W records!

JN

Well said Jim!! Hear! Hear! Couldn't agree more. "Wonderful Land" and "Telstar" - two of the greatest ever instrumentals of all time.

Rob

Then at the end of '62 cane Dance On and the first Beatles release.

I thought my view about Ray Charles ICSLY would bring that comment! Telstar influential? Not sure about that! Actually Joe Meek gets the vote for 1961. Wonderful Land is my favourite Shads record, but Apache was ground breaking in a way that WL wasn't. And the Beatles had no top ten hit in 1962 and did not have a number one until 1963 - in fact From Me To You is the most influential number one for 1963 in the Guardian's view.
Tim

He! He! Tim....you are as entitled to your opinion as anyone. Of course, this being the main Shadows site...you can indeed not have been surprised by Jim's response. 1962 only saw 12 No.1s- the fewest for any year in the 60s. Cliff was there with "The Young Ones" and Elvis had 4 No.1s that year. 1962 was a great year for instrumental No.1s - "Wonderful Land", "Nutrocker" and "Telstar". 1963 was notable for "Dance On!", "Diamonds" and "Foot Tapper". Thereafter the only instro No.1s of the decade were "The Good, the Bad & the Ugly" and "Albatross". "Apache" was indeed groundbreaking and it's great that it was chosen for 1960. Indeed - Joe Meek / John Leyton won with "Johnny Remember Me" for 1961. I love both "Wonderful Land" and "Telstar". Certainly the latter deserved an award for incredible production and sonic wizadry. Bruce Welch regularly tells Clem Cattini that he wished Joe Meek had given "Telstar" to the Shadows. Curiously enough, "Telstar" came to be written because The Tornados were about to release their version of "The Breeze And I". Then Clem Cattini discovered that the Fentones were about to relase their version and that the Shadows had also recorded an interpretation of Ernesto Lecuona's classic melody (in the event the Shads' version remained unused for several months - but Clem wasn't to know that!!). In fact - here's a new Shadows statistic. The Shads had 50% of all instrumental No.1 hits of the 1960s!!! (5/10). Factor in Jet & Tony & 6/10 had Shadows' connections.

Rob

It should have been Quartermasters Stores

Rob
1962 was such a great year for music: amazing to think of all the fantastic records made in that year - including Ray Charles!! I didn't know that about the Breeze and I and the Tornados. Thanks for the info. The Shads' version of the Breeze and I is up there with WL as a favourite of mine - I prefer it to the Fentones' version. Brings back so many memories - they used to play it a lot at my local fair in 1963. I love Telstar and some of the follow ups as well: but I am always put off by the fact (?) that Mrs Thatcher is quoted as saying Telstar was her favourite record. I am sure it wasn't and she was given the quote by a speech writer to make her look trendy!! As if! Bet she wouldn't have approved of Joe Meek, if she'd known who he was.
Quatermasster's Stores is good, but if it had been the A side as originally planned I just wonder what the future would have held for the Shadows. Apache is so evocative.
When I was looking at the list in the Guardian, I realised yet again how lucky I was to be a teenager in the 1960s. I haven't heard of most of the 'artists'/records post 1990!
Tim

Hi Tim,
Yes...1962 was a great year for music. Your post brought back many memories for me too. The Thatcher connection....some slight distortion of facts. I know Clem Cattini and Roger LaVern quite well. Roger actually has a letter from 'La Thatcher'. Both Mark & Carol Thatcher (about my age LOL!!) were the ones who really loved "Telstar" apparently. Thus - Mrs T was quite fond of it...but really - it was the youngsters who were 'blown away' by it (I believe that it was Mark T who actually bought a copy).

Best wishes,

Rob

PS: I too love the Shads version of "T B And I"

Tim wrote:I thought my view about Ray Charles ICSLY would bring that comment! Telstar influential? Not sure about that!

Well, you ought to be. Telstar was the first British rock record (perhaps the first British record) to get to the top of the American charts, and its influence is still felt.

An earlier season of the highly-regarded drama serial "Mad Men" (season 3, set in 1962) used Telstar as an episode play-out music. The producers of that show are way too cute to use anything with no resonance for an American audience.

Tim wrote:Actually Joe Meek gets the vote for 1961.

For John Leyton's Johnny, Remember Me, an important record, but highly derivative and not a trend-setter. Oddly, Telstar came from the same team (Joe Meek and Geoff Goddard) but was a ground-breaking new sound.

Tim wrote:Wonderful Land is my favourite Shads record, but Apache was ground breaking in a way that WL wasn't. And the Beatles had no top ten hit in 1962 and did not have a number one until 1963 - in fact From Me To You is the most influential number one for 1963 in the Guardian's view.
Tim

I'd have to disagree with The Guardian (certainly not for the first time) over several of their sixties choices. The Beatles have to be taken to represent 1963 in the same way that The Shadows are the faces of 1960 (and of 1961 and 1962 - there was just no-one else to challenge them), But From Me To You? Not while Please Please Me is still available, not to mention I Want To Hold Your Hand. Both records were markedly greater than FMTY (which is not to trivialise that very worthy record, which, had it been the work of almost anyone else of the period, would have been the culmination of their career).

Yes, I am aware that many people claim that Please Please Me didn't hit number one - but, actually, it did.

JN