Which group played Wonderful Land.... Instrumental and what else did they record?

It wArtist: The Shadows
Album: Original
Year: 1995
Buy album
Tower Records

Tracks 1. Wonderful Land
2. Shindig
3. Atlantis
4. F.B.I.
5. The Savage
6. Guitar Tango
7. 36-24-36
8. Midnight
9. The Rise and Fall of Flingel Bunt
10. Shazam!
11. Dakota
12. Slaughter on Tenth Avenue
13. Rumble
14. Walk, Don't Run
15. Geronimo
16. Peace Pipe
17. Perfidia
18. Riders in the Sky




It was The Shadows, Cliff Richard's backing group. Here are some other of their classics.


The Shadows Real Name: Brian Robson Rankin (Hank B. Marvin)
Birth Date: 28th October 1941
Birth Place: Newcastle Upon Tyne
Bruce Welch
2nd November 1941
Bognor Regis, Sussex

Real Name: Terence Harris (Jet Harris)
Birth Date: 6th July 1939
Birth Place: Kingsbury, London
Daniel Meehan (Tony Meehan)
2nd March 1943
Hampstead, London


The Shadows evolved from a group called the 'Five Chesternuts' which went under the stewardship of Pete Chester, son of broadcaster and comedian Charlie Chester. The line up of the new group was soon to look like that shown above and became Cliff Richard's backing group 'The Drifters'. Although the original bass player had been Paul Samwell, he was soon replaced by the more skilled guitarist, 'Jet Harris'. 'Sammy' then concentrated his efforts on songwriting and was responsible for some of the finest examples of British rock and roll which would become several of Cliff Richard's hits- including the now legendary 'Move It!'.

The group were signed to the same EMI, Columbia.label as Cliff Richard although Norrie Paramor used session musicians on Cliff Richard's earliest recordings. The 'Drifters' as they still called themselves cut two unsuccessful singles under this name before renaming themselves the 'Shadows' to avoid confusion with the US group who were gaining UK popularity at the time. Despite Cliff's immediate record success, none of the group's first three releases were successful including those which included their own vocals.

However, 1960 brought them 'Apache' written by singer/ songwriter Jerry Lordan. Despite also being recorded by the popular British guitarist Bert Weedon, the Shadows' version became the smash hit. The number was so strong that it provided the template for the many Shadows hits that followed and gave inspiration to a myriad of other British guitar groups.


The Shadows have a large number of EPs credited to them, but the one shown on the left (SEG8094) is one of very few to show the original line up. Interestingly, the sleeve notes written by James Wynn of the New Muscal Express lead us to believe that bassist, Jet Harris was the leader of the group at this time.
Despite the group's seemingly endless string of successful hits, both Meehan and Harris announced their departure from the group and they were quickly replaced by Brian Bennett (b. 9th February 1940, London) and Brian Locking respectively. However, Locking was soon replaced again by John Rostill (b. 16th June, Birmingham). Despite now being in competition with former group members Harris and Meehan, the new line up restarted along the same series of successful hits as the original group. By the mid-1960s competition from the 'beat boom' had grown and their chart placings were not generally as high as they had been but they sustained regular chart appearances until 1967.

The early 1970s were troubled times for the group which had ceased to play regularly in 1969. Worst of all was the loss of John Rostill in 1973 who was electrocuted by his electric guitar. Nevertheless by 1975 they had reformed to enter the Eurovision Song Contest with 'Let Me Be The One' which also gave them their first chart entry of the decade. They went on to a new series of hits including 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina' and 'Theme From The Deer Hunter (Cavatina)' , both of which reached the top ten. The Shadows remain the most popular UK Instrumental group of all time.



1950s & 1960s 45rpm UK Discography

Upper list includes UK 45 singles releases only
Collector's Items are shown In Red
See lower list for EP releases.


Columbia DB4263 1959 Feelin' Fine/ Don't Be A Fool (As The Drifters)
Columbia DB4325 1959 Driftin'/ Jet Black (As The Drifters)
Columbia DB4387 1959 Saturday Dance/ Lonesome Fella
Columbia DB4484 1960 Apache/ Quartermaster's Stores #1
Columbia DB4530 1960 Man Of Mystery/ The Stranger #5
Columbia DB4580 1961 F.B.I./ Midnight #6
Columbia DB4637 1961 The Frightened City/ Back Home #3
Columbia DB4698 1961 Kon-Tiki/ 36-24-36 #1
Columbia DB4726 1961 The Savage/ Peace Pipe #10
Columbia DB4790 1962 Wonderful Land/ Stars Fell On Stockton #1
Columbia DB4870 1962 Guitar Tango/ What A Lovely Tune #4
Columbia DB4948 1962 Dance On/ All Day #1
Columbia DB4984 1963 Foot Tapper/ The Breeze And I #1
Columbia DB7047 1963 Atlantis/ I Want You To Want Me #2
Columbia DB7106 1963 Shindig/ It's Been A Blue Day #6
Columbia DB7163 1963 Geronimo/ Shazam #11
Columbia DB7231 1964 Theme For Young Lovers/ This Hammer #12
Columbia DB7261 1964 The Rise And Fall Of Flingel Bunt/ It's A Man's World #5
Columbia DB7342 1964 Rhythm 'n' Greens/ The Miracle #22
Columbia DB7416 1964 Genie With The Light Brown Lamp/ Little Princess #17
Columbia DB7476 1965 Mary Anne/ Chu-Chi #17
Columbia DB7588 1965 Stingray/ Alice In Sunderland #19
Columbia DB7650 1965 Don't Make My Baby Blue/ My Grandfather's Clock #10
Columbia DB7769 1965 War Lord/ I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Arthur #18
Columbia DB7853 1966 I Met A Girl/ Late Night Set #22
Columbia DB7952 1966 A Place In The Sun/ Will You Be There #24
Columbia DB8034 1966 The Dreams I Dream/ Scotch On The Socks #42
Columbia DB8170 1967 Maroc 7/ Bombay Duck #24
Columbia DB8264 1967 Tomorrow's Cancelled/ Somewhere
Columbia DB8326 1968 Running Out Of World/ London's Not Too Far
Columbia DB8372 1968 Dear Old Mrs Bell/ Trying To Forget The One You Love
Columbia DB8628 1969 Slaughter On Tenth Avenue/ Midnight Cowboy



EP Discography

Collector's Items are shown In Red
See Upper List For Singles releases
Stereo Versions are indicated by parentheses

It was the Shadows

Wonderful Land, FBI, Apache and many others.

Hank Marvin is still going strong today.

The Shadows, cliff richards 'band', did loads of instrumentals; apache, foottapper, fbi etc

The Shadows.. once Cliff Richard's backing group..

most famous tracks are FBI, Apache, and many others.
their later stuff tended to be cover versions.

The Shadows. They had lots of hits, Hank's the Man!!

If you are talking about years ago I think It was The Shadows ,Apache was another one ,It was Cliff Richards Backing group Until they went on there Own

There's also an instrumental called "Wonderland by Night" by Burt Kaempfert.

yes, it was the shadows, early sixty's, they made lots of others, Apache, f.b.i dance on, and many more

the shadows They also did apatche

The shadow as they say:))

Wonderful Land was composed by Hank Marvin, and the Shadows played it as an instrumental. In fact most of Cliffs hit records were composed by Hank marvin. Bachelor Boy, Summer Holiday, Move it. Etc.

Wonderful Land - The Shadows

The band started out as the backing band for Cliff Richards, but eventually broke away in to their signature instrumental style.

In 1960, the band released "Apache", an instrumental by Jerry Lordan, (not by guitarist Hank Marvin, as many believe) which was to top the charts for several weeks. Further hit singles followed, notably "Wonderful Land", another Lordan composition with lush orchestral backing showing a very different side to the group and staying at the top of the charts even longer than Apache.

The group remained active in the charts through out the 1960's. The group went through many personel changes, but Hank Marvin, who basically was the sound of the Shadows remained constant. They broke up in 1968.

The Shadows as a group reformed in 1973 with Welch back on rhythm guitar but also with John Farrar on guitar and vocals. Following the death of John Rostill, the group decided not to replace him permanently but instead to book top session bassists for recordings and tours. Dave Richmond and Alan Tarney, who had each provided bass support for Marvin Welch & Farrar, both continued in this role for the reformed Shadows. An album, Rocking With Curly Leads featured Hank using vocoder to modify his distinctive sound. Some tracks used Farrar as a second lead guitarist, making this album sound fresh and different.

The group were chosen by BBC Boss Bill Cotton to perform the Song for Europe in the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest. The Shadows recorded a number of alternatives and played a song each week on a six week television show hosted by Lulu. The public then voted for the song they liked the best and eventually, "Let Me Be The One" by Paul Curtis was chosen to go to the finals in Stockholm. The group didn't win, coming second to Teach In's "Ding-A-Dong".

The group then performed and recorded frequently until 1990, with most of their 1980s albums performing well in the charts. With the exception of Guardian Angel which was an album of new material, most of their 1980s albums featured cover versions of then current or classic pop songs, with little original material. In 1990, the band stopped touring and Hank went solo again.

The group re-formed in 2004 for a 'farewell tour', and recorded a new track "Life Story" (written by Jerry Lordan) to accompany a new greatest hits package of the same name which featured 1980s re-recordings of all their 1960s and 1970s hits. This opportunity to see Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch and Brian Bennett, joined on keyboards by Cliff Hall and bass by Mark Griffiths, "one last time" was so successful (and enjoyed by all members) that they decided to embark on an extension to the tour in 2005, this time of Europe. The line-up was almost the same, but Warren Bennett, son of Brian, came in on keyboards instead of Hall. Notwithstanding that this was to be a tour of other countries, they played a final date back in the UK in Birmingham.

If you love the instrumental music of The Shadows, you might want to check out their American evil twins The Ventures. They sound strikingly alike. It would be difficult to say which band coined the haunting deep reverbed lead guitar instrumental song, as both bands broke on to the scene in 1960. I believe The Ventures were first, but will not swear to it without proper research.