"The Frightened City" is a song by British group

the Shadows The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters) were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the pre- Beatles era. They served as the backing band for Cliff Richard ...

, released as a single in April 1961. It peaked at number 3 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

Background and release

"The Frightened City" was composed by Norrie Paramor as title music to the

gangster film A gangster film or gangster movie is a film belonging to a genre that focuses on gangs and organized crime. It is a subgenre of crime film, that may involve large criminal organizations, or small gangs formed to perform a certain illegal act. The ...

'' The Frightened City,'' and it was performed by a

studio orchestra A studio orchestra is an orchestra that exists only for the purpose of studio recording. That is, it does not perform in public concerts or for audiences generally. Studio orchestras are typically run by movie and television studios to produce fi ...

. Prior to the film's release, the Shadows recorded and released their own version of the tune in April 1961. It was released with the B-side "Back Home", written by Jim Goff, Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch and Jet Harris. "The Frightened City" was the group's second recording of a film tune, having released a version of " Man of Mystery" in November 1960. Reviewing for '' Disc'',

Don Nicholl Donald Nicholl (August 9, 1925 – July 5, 1980) was an English-American screenwriter and producer. His production company Nicholl Ross West (with Mickey Ross and Bernie West) wrote for the situation comedies ''All in the Family'', ''The Jeffer ...

wrote that "The Frightened City" "has the sort of steady dark drama in it which fits their kind of music perfectly". He also wrote that "Back Home" "has the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

in it. Gently tuneful and away from the conventional Shadows sound here and there".

Track listing

7": Columbia / DB 4637 # "The Frightened City" – 2:22 # "Back Home" – 2:41

Personnel

* Hank Marvin – electric lead guitar * Bruce Welch – acoustic rhythm guitar * Jet Harris – electric bass guitar *

Tony Meehan Daniel Joseph Anthony Meehan (2 March 1943 – 28 November 2005), professionally known as Tony Meehan, was a founder member of the British group the Drifters, with Jet Harris, Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch, which would evolve into the Shadows. ...

– drums

Charts

Cover versions

* In 1965, Norrie Paramor and His Orchestra covered the song on his album ''Shadows in America''. * In 1996,

Peter Frampton Peter Kenneth Frampton (born 22 April 1950) is an English musician and songwriter who was a member of the rock bands Humble Pie and the Herd. As a solo artist, he has released several albums, including his major breakthrough album, the live ...

covered the song on the various artists

tribute album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records coll ...

'' Twang!: A Tribute to Hank Marvin & the Shadows''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frightened City (song), The 1961 singles 1961 songs 1960s instrumentals The Shadows songs Columbia Graphophone Company singles Song recordings produced by Norrie Paramor