Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

While Hank Marvin has done some great instrumental covers with The Shadows and in his solo efforts, I find myself wondering why he has not recorded more original instrumental material in the latter stages of his career.

The very early Hank Marvin instrumentals have become classics and I tend to view tracks such as "Shindig" very differently than I do the covers of such songs as "Woman", "Nights in White Satin" and even "Don't Cry For Me Argentina." I am not suggesting that these works have not been successful or that they are not well done, but the original instruments still shine more brightly to my way of thinking and they do not compete with our memories of the original vocal release.

Marvin is forced to add changes to his covers to keep our attention, otherwise they do tend to fall into the "elevator" music category. So what is beneath Hank's decision to use covers rather than an all original instrumental CD?
Does it matter to you whether he is covering a song or not?

It is really Peter a matter of having to acquiesce to the power of record labels.

It is they who dictate to some degree what they want, the last orignal album released by The Shadows was Guardian Angel bt it sold very poorly whereas when they released albums of covers they seemed to sell far better.

So in essence it is a case of record albms that are in some instance fairly forgettable or don't record at all.

I agree with Roy's view of this. Making music for a professional musician is a business and you have to be able to make a product that has a chance of selling.

As always, interesting comments Roy and Brian.

You have reminded me that sometimes there is more beneath the covers than meets the eye.

I have heard Marvin say that he goes out of his way to change the arrangments of the covers to make them interesting.

I have to acknowledge the tremendous success that Marvin has had in his release of instrumental music.