Wonderful land
Wonderful Land is an instrumental piece written by Jerry Lordan that was recorded by The Shadows and released as a single . It was number 1 on the British charts for eight weeks in 1962, longer than any Beatles piece.
Lordan had already written the very successful Apache for the Shadows in 1960 . Wonderful Land was recorded in May 1961 by the original Shadows cast of Hank Marvin , Bruce Welch , Jet Harris and Tony Meehan . The strings were then mixed in by their producer Norrie Paramor . By the time the single was released in February 1962, Tony Meehan had already left the group to be replaced by Brian Bennett , who was named as co-author of B-side Stars Fell on Stockton . The group was in a phase of transition at the time, and while the single was still at number 1, Jet Harris also left the Shadows to be replaced by Brian Locking .
Charts
The instrumental was released in February 1962 and quickly rose to number 1 on the UK charts, where it remained for the next eight weeks. Only the Archies , Shadows and Elvis Presley managed that in the 1960s - none of the Beatles' number one singles stayed up there that long. Wonderful Land was also released in the US on Atlantic Records , but did not make it into the Billboard Top 100 .
| Chart (1962) |
position |
|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart | 1 |
| Australia | 2 |
| Belgium | 13 |
| Germany | 23 |
| India | 9 |
| Ireland | 1 |
| Israel | 1 |
| Italy | 12 |
| Netherlands | 2 |
| New Zealand | 1 |
| Norway | 2 |
| South Africa | 1 |
| Sweden | 6th |
Cover versions
Wonderful Land has been re-enacted by many artists, including Mike Oldfield , Mark Knopfler and Tony Iommi . Iommi's version appeared on the CD Twang !: A Tribute to Hank Marvin & the Shadows .
Individual evidence
- ^ David Roberts: British Hit Singles & Albums , 19th. Edition, Guinness World Records Limited, London 2006, ISBN 1-904994-10-5 , pp. 135-6.
- ^ Jo Rice: The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits , Enfield, Middlesex, 1982, ISBN 0-85112-250-7
- ^ Jo Rice: The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits , Enfield, Middlesex, 1982, ISBN 0-85112-250-7
- ^ Number 1 Singles of the 1960s . EveryHit. Retrieved November 21, 2010.