My favourite song of the month, October 2022

I was watching the last episode of the first season of The Boyz on Amazon when I first heard this song. However it didn’t sound to me like if it was really the first time I listened to it.

The song is Sleepwalk by The Shadows, from their homonym 1961 album The Shadows (The original version of this song is from 1959, recorded by Santo & Johnny).

Rapidly I knew where I supposedly heard that song before. It was in a very similar song with same vibes and tone called Midnight, a cover made by Peter Green (founder of Fleetwood Mac) included in Twang!: A Tribute to Hank Marvin & The Shadows (1996). Twang! is a tribute album containing covers of songs by The Shadows performed by famous artists such as Brian May, Ritchie Blackmore, Mark Knopfler or the already mentioned Peter Green.

I don’t know if it is me or what, but both songs sound almost identical if you listen to them separately, and when this happens amongst multiple songs of an artist or band, most people tend to say things like “all of their music sound the same” with a negative connotation. Although that opinion might be right most of the time, in my opinion this is not the case. I think The Shadows have created a very personal and original tone that everybody with a bit of knowledge about this band can quickly recognize a song of theirs even if it is the first time they are listening to it.