The Shadows are Britain's most successful instrumental and vocal group with a total of 69 UK hit charted singles: 35 as 'The Shadows' plus 34 as 'Cliff Richard and The Shadows', from the 1950s to the 2000s.
According to the Guinness Book of Hit Singles and Albums (19th edition), The Shadows are the 3rd most successful UK charted hit-singles act, behind Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard.
The Shadows were the original pioneers of the four-member rock-group format (consisting of 2 guitars, bass and drums) in the UK. They enjoyed a second wave revival spell of success and interest in their music from the late-1970s until disbandment in 1990. Their unique guitar sound was originally produced by a combination of American Fender guitars, British amplifiers made by Vox and an Italian Meazzi Echomatic echo unit.
With their lead singer, Cliff Richard, The Shadows totally dominated the British popular music scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s (ie the 5 year "Before-Beatles" period: 1958-1962), before The Beatles' first year in the charts in 1963.
John Lennon once claimed that "before Cliff and the Shadows, there had been nothing worth listening to in British music." As the first backing band to emerge as stars in their own right, they were early trailblazers for the beat-group boom that eclipsed them. - The Times. Nov 30th 2005.
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