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Hi Guys,
I'm sure someone can answer my question,- what are the origions of "Sweet Dreams",- was it a vocal,from a show perhaps ?
Des.

According to The Pocket Guide To Shadow Music, Sweet Dreams was written for the film, The Boys. The Shadows recorded it for the film in 1962, but the the version used was not theirs!

Interestingly, it was later recorded by others (including The Strangers), as a vocal with a change of title to 'Sweet September'.

Thanks Noel,
I've known the tune since always but just couldn't remember where I had first heard it. I did see "The Boys" at the time so that must have been it.
Des.

It's one of my all time favourite Shadows numbers. The key change from F to Eb is so subtle that it's easy not to notice it unless you are playing it.

Wasnt it written for piano originally?

The composer, Bill McGuffie, was well-known jazz pianist and library writer at the time. He even had his own weekly 15 minute solo TV show on ITV (probably made by Rediffusion in London, but certainly seen in the north, on Granada). Although I already knew that Bill was the composer, I can vividly remember being surprised by his playing Sweet September (the correct and proper title) on that TV show, probably some time in 1963.

I recall a 1962 interview with The Shadows in the New Musical Express, around the time that the EP "The Boys" was released. Bruce Welch was quoted as remarking during the conversation something along the lines that not all of the EP's contents were the Shads' own work, and that one of the tracks was a Bill McGuffie composition. He actually used Bill's name, an indication of the fact that Bill was so well-known that it would mean something to readers of a pop music weekly.

There is some indication online to the effect that Sweet September was written a couple of years prior to the making of "the Boys". That is, it is said (on several websites, though apparently from a single source) that it won an Ivor Novello ward in 1960. But there is at least one website where the date is given as 1963 (which ties up more neatly with the film).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_McGuffie
http://www.jazzprofessional.com/interviews/Bill%20McGuffie_1.htm
http://www.millenniumeffect.co.uk/audio/tributes/index2.html

In my opinion, Sweet September (Dreams) is one of the two or three the most melodic pieces of music ever recorded by The Shadows. It is a wonderful composition especially in the almost imperceptible way it modulates between keys, and I'm glad that it still keeps Bill's name alive.

JN

Sweet Dreams in the Shadows' version written by Bill McGuffie has a copyright date of 1962 referring to the sheet music.

Quite some time ago there was a sheet music for auction on eBay with the name Sweet September which was written by Bill McGuffie and some others which I could not identify. On the sheet music there was a list of recording artists given: The Shadows, Pete Jolly (?) Trio, Bill Evans & his Orchestra and the Bill McGuffie Quartett.
As the Shadows are listed it will be the same composition, but as there are more people listed as writers of the tune could it be that Sweet September is used for a vocal version?

Ulrich