A straightforward summary of the Shadows' first three years of habitual hit-making, opening with the pounding flurry of "Apache," then tracing through the next eight smash singles, with a handful of attendant B-sides (and one EP cut, the title track from The Boys) to round the package out.

There is no denying the sheer brilliance of this early sequence.

Hits like "Wonderful Land," "FBI," and "Man of Mystery" utterly rewrote the guitar's role in rock, not only musically, but culturally as well.

Unquestionably, the Shadows' importance and impact diminished as the years passed, but at the outset of their career -- the period documented here -- they were untouchable.

It is for that reason that The Shadows' Greatest Hits is still regarded in some quarters as the finest Shadows album of them all, an accolade which no other compilation (and goodness knows, there's been enough of them) has ever been able to dismiss.

Even the sleeve screams "masterpiece.".