The Shadows ( B8 )

 The packaging of hits in Twenty Golden Greats by EMI in 1977, which led to a number one album prompted the group to re-form once more for a 'Twenty Golden Dates' tour around the UK, featuring Francis Monkman (formerly of Curved Air and soon to be in Sky) on keyboards and Alan Jones on bass guitar. Francis left after that tour and the line-up settled as Marvin, Welch and Bennett, supplemented on records and gigs by Cliff Hall (keyboards) and Alan Jones (bass). It was this line-up that reunited with Cliff Richard for two concerts at the London Palladium in March 1978. Highlights of the concert, including four solo Shadows tracks, were released the following year on the top ten charting album Thank You Very Much. On the back of this The Shadows recorded an instrumental version of "Don't cry for me Argentina" from the west end production "Evita", released as a single at the tail end of 1978. The record eventually reached number 5 in the singles chart thereby giving the group their first top ten single since the 1960s.

In 1979, their version of "Cavatina" also became a top ten hit, and they recorded ten more tracks with bassist Jones and keyboardists Dave Lawson and Alan Hawkshaw for the album String of Hits on EMI which topped the British album charts. The success of this led to EMI issuing a follow-up album with 13 old tracks (including a Marvin solo track) and one unreleased track from the 'String of Hits' sessions. These tracks came from albums released earlier in the group's career of cover versions of hit singles; this was eventually released as Another String of Hot Hits in 1980.

1980s

After 20 successful years together the Shadows parted ways with their record company EMI and the group signed a 10-year contract to Polydor Records. 

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