THE SHADOWS – "Dance On!"

A title that promises business as usual; a song that delivers just that. Solid Shadowy entertainment that only really takes off when the guitar decides to turn into a mountain bike and kick up some dirt.

Score: 5

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CLIFF RICHARD – "The Next Time"

JET HARRIS AND TONY MEEHAN – "Diamonds"

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wichita lineman

14 May 2008 22:32

Tom, I wish I could tear into you for the shortest analysis yet. But what to say? Only that Atlantis, a Jerry Lordan-penned atmospheric blinder that settled at number 2 later in the year, was once voted the greatest record of all time on a Liverpool radio station. Dance On defines cruise control, shoulda been Top 5 at best. Neil Young probably didn’t have it in mind when he namechecked Hank B Marvin on the back of Buffalo Springfield Again.

Tom

14 May 2008 22:43

The blurb for Elvis’ “Good Luck Charm” is shorter!

I’m very glad to see comments on some of these older entries by the way. Most of the ones from ’56 or so on used to have a healthy few comments – not the 100+ epics we get now, but half a dozen or so – and they were all lost when we switched comments systems. So the old entries can look like a bit of a wasteland.

Mark G

11 February 2010 17:32

The trouble with a lot of the Shad’s stuff with fairly generic titles is remembering which one is which!

I was about to take issue and say “but what about the drum/guitar playoff?” but that was Foot Tapper, wasn’t it?

Anyhow, there was a period in the mid sixties between their “big hits” and before they took to the MOR “ding ding ding” instrumental versions of vocal tracks, where they cooked up some great stuff. Check out CD2 and 3 of the “Complete singles” 4CD set!

Lena

15 June 2011 12:56

More on The Shadows here: http://musicsoundsbetterwithtwo.blogspot.com/2011/06/strand-of-sand-shadows-atlantis-html

Mark G

15 June 2011 13:42

link dnw (edit: I see what happened)

http://musicsoundsbetterwithtwo.blogspot.com/2011/06/strand-of-sand-shadows-atlantis.html

wichita lineman

15 June 2011 13:51

The recently departed Kathy Kirby had a vocal hit with Dance On. And it was written by The Avons, who had the UK hit with Seven Little Girls Sitting In The Back Seat. And, err, still not much else to say… I like the octave switch down.

“Shads stuff with fairly generic titles”… the b-side’s called All Day… no memory of it at all!

Has anyone heard Pet Clark’s vocal version of Foot Tapper??

lonepilgrim

23 January 2015 13:30

this is The Shadows at their dullest for me – it’s polished and polite with little sense of wanting to try something new, just keep your head down and dance on

Gareth Parker

2 June 2021 12:13

Perky and appealing. I would go with a 6/10 here.

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THE SHADOWS – "Dance On!"

CLIFF RICHARD – "The Next Time"

JET HARRIS AND TONY MEEHAN – "Diamonds"

Latest comments on Popular