(27th August 1960)
Hot weather music: languid and evocative but also precise and unshowy, every note placed with minimum energy for maximum effect. The echo on the lead guitar does two things - it conjures a shimmer of desert heat, and it also emphasises the fingerwork. It’s very easy to see why people loved the Shadows - their expertise and simplicity beckons you to find a guitar and try “Apache” yourself. 7
Written by Tom on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2004 | 1,784 views |
The UK's 1000+ Number One Hits since 1952, reviewed, in order, irregularly, for as long as I can bear to keep doing it. A history of pop in the shape of a chart.
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Tom invented Freaky Trigger on a bus journey in the mid-90s. Typically, it took him 5 years to do anything about it.
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FT's Doctor Mod on October 16th, 2006
I remember the version by Danish guitarist Jorgen Ingman, which was a big hit in the states. (Was it possibly the first Euro-rock hit in the States? It was surely the first Scandinavian rock hit.) I didn’t hear the Shadows version until many years later, and I’m not sure which followed which–I don’t think it was an original in either case.
After hearing both, I prefer Ingman’s. It’s much more subtle and possesses a sort of virtuosity that the Shadows didn’t have. I particularly liked the little touch Ingman had of quietly making the guitar strings sound like arrows zinging.
No doubt one of the high points, either version, of the instrumental trend that was so strong at the time.
I still recall dressing myself in “Indian” garb and dancing around the living room to it–when I thought no one was watching.
R Friday on May 17th, 2007
was jorgen Ingman in the American Army from 1959-1961 in Germany?
and did he cut one more record in that time ?
TKs R
FT's rosie on May 26th, 2008
So this was number one when I started school. I was probably aware of the piece at that time too; I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know Apache, but I knew nothing of charts at five years old (I was a late school-starter on the Wirral, partly down to Cheshire being out of step with the rest of the country in its school year. In a few years they’d fall into line, resulting in me missing a whole year from my education. The results of that can’t be quantified but I’m quite sure there was a disadvantage for me in it.)
Anyway, for a long time to come it was what you plucked out when you found yourself with a guitar in your hand. And its lagacy lives on - a Barrow busker was playing it in Portland Walk the other week.
FT's rosie on May 26th, 2008
PS, no it wasn’t number one when I started school. That was a year earlier! Doh!