Apache chords by The Shadows

"Apache" is an instrumental written by Jerry Lordan. It has been recorded by many artists, but the first released version was recorded by British group The Shadows in June 1960 and released the following month. The song topped the UK singles chart for five weeks. In March 2005, Q magazine placed "Apache" at number 96 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. The recording was done at the EMI Abbey Road Studio in London. Singer-guitarist Joe Brown had bought an Italian-built guitar echo chamber that he did not like and gave it to Hank Marvin, who developed a distinctive sound using it and the tremolo arm of his Fender Stratocaster. Bruce Welch borrowed an acoustic Gibson J200 guitar from Cliff Richard, the heavy melodic bass was by Jet Harris, percussion was by Tony Meehan and Cliff Richard, who played a Chinese drum at the beginning and end to provide an atmosphere of stereotypically Native American music. Hank Marvin later told Uncut magazine that the track's use of echo was important. "First of all I came up with the drum introduction, and then CLANG DA-DA-DAAYI-YA, DA-DA-DA-DA-DAH, And I wanted to get some echo on the guitar that gave it a character. It's a multi-tapped echo-it's not too long, but you could hear the multi-taps coming through, and it gives a richness to the guitar sound, and a strange, haunting quality, behind the notes. I wasn't afraid of giving it a lot of echo, because I thought it was such a good and different sound it didn't matter. I was making a statement with this echo. I didn't want to be too discreet with it, because it needed to be almost in your face. You can hear the whammy bar shaking the guitar and getting vibrato, too." The track was used in film soundtracks, including Baby Love (1968) and Scandal (1988), as well as in adverts, such as one in 2012 that featured dozens of Hank Marvin lookalikes. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.