Track Listing

1. Don't Forget To Catch Me
2. Voyage To The Bottom Of The Bath
3. Not The Way That It Should Be
4. Poem
5. The Dreams I Dream
6. Average Life Of A Daily Man
7. Somewhere By The Sea
8. Banana Man
9. Girl On The Bus
10. The Magical Mrs Clamps
11. Ooh La La
12. Here I Go Again Loving You
13. What's Behind The Eyes Of Mary
14. Maggie's Samba
15. High And Dry
16. Girl You'll Be A Woman Soon
17. Mr Nice
18. What's More I Don't Need Her

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49087 in Music
• Released on: 2007-03-12
• Number of discs: 1

Mojo July 2007
By 1968 Cliff and the Shadows had been clocking up Top 10 hits for a solid decade, something none of their contemporaries could claim. Established 1958, their last studio album, was made up of 14 tracks written by the group that lightly grazed country, even reggae ... but was basically an update of the super-clean, acoustic pop that had always served them well: What's Behind The Eyes Of Mary is soft and woodwind driven; The Dreams I Dream and Maggie's Samba are Latin floaters; the chunkier Average Life Of A Daily Man and Here I Go Again are A-grade, Hollies-esque pop-psych. Their imminent split means the whole effect blushes with an odd melancholy that should sway non-believers. Bonus tracks include an atmospheric, almost funky version of Neil Diamond's Girl You'll Be A Woman Soon. ***

Customer Reviews

Still good 40 years on
Actually, I've always liked this album. I enjoy the mix of tracks: some Shadows instrumentals, some Shadows vocals, and, of course, some Cliff vocal work. The best Cliff tracks are "Don't Forget to Catch Me" which is rather syrupy and predictable but pleasant none-the-less and "What's Behind the Eyes of Mary" which is simply a pleasing, melodic number. Those must be Hank's rather rough vocals on "The Average Life of a Daily Man," a song I like for its upbeat character, and the other Shadows vocal I could keep listening to is "Here I Go Again Loving You." As for the instrumentals, I find I keep coming back to the toe-tapping "Banana Man" while I really appreciate the smooth "Maggie's Samba."
This album, released in 1968 to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the "establishment" of Cliff and the Shadows gives a pleasing mix of tracks that while dated are still enjoyable. I think the late sixties period was close to Cliff's best . . . when the Shadows sang along with him.

Est.1958 (although actually 1968!)
I meant to review this album as soon as I received it but I didn't get round to it. Now however I felt compelled to give my opinion!
This really is a return to the classic Cliff and The Shadows sound, and we hear a far rockier Cliff on this album than on any of his "solo" albums released around this time.
The first 14 tracks are the original album tracks and are all written by The Shadows, showing they could still write some fantastic songs. The 4 bonus tracks are all from 1968 and also have The Shadows playing on them, however they have quite a different feel to them.

1 Brilliant, lovely smooth mid tempo with Cliff sounding fabulous
2 Shadows instrumental - To my ears the most dated: a "heavy" cutting guitar moving into honky tonk piano, it is however very catchy!
3 Very pleasant mid tempo with nice harmonies
4 Shadows instrumental - Very evocative & schmoochy, nice with a glass of wine!
5 Another good mid-tempo with (again) nice harmonies
6 Shadows with them providing the vocals this time; nice hard hitting lyrics
7 Probably the quirkiest song I've heard Cliff sing - and I LOVE it, worth the price of the album!!
8 Shadows instrumental (sounds a bit like the "Grange Hill" theme), very catchy!
9 A sort of country pastiche, a love song to a girl on the bus, listen to the last line-I won't spoil it for you!!
10 Shadows instrumental - another sort of country pastiche of a rather different sort - certainly different!
11 A very sixties sound and lyric - very enjoyable!
12 Shadows (with their vocals); sounding reminiscent of The Hollies with very high tight harmonies and another catchy chorus!
13 Another lovely sixties lyric and sound (sounds like it's from one of those sixties films with a long haired girl travelling around in a summer full of love!)
14 Shadows instrumental. The Shadows "do samba"! Again very catchy, great for shaking your bits while preparing dinner!
15 B side of Congratulations. Great song if somewhat similar to the A side
16 Nice to hear Cliff's version of this classic track which he handles very well
17 Good pop tune (sounds a little like La Marseillaise in places!), well sung
18 Great lyrics and Cliff makes them really believable

I've had this album now for several weeks and it keeps finding its way back into the CD player on a very regular basis; it has made me realise how much I like The Shadows and how fantastic they are when teamed with the gorgeous vocal talents of Cliff. For my money it's a must have for Cliff and The Shadows fans!!

Have I missed the point?
Hmmm.... this album is just weird. Described as a return to the classic Cliff and The Shadows album, well I just don't get it. I don't own any earlier albums by Cliff and if this is anything to go by, I won't be venturing any further back. There is only one decent song - "Don't forget to catch me". The rest are mediocre at best or just plain [...], "Voyage to the bottom of the bath" and "Somewhere by the sea" being the most [...]. Sad to say [...]!!!