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artyman wrote:It's a tune that I play at the South Coast Shadows Club from time to time. Seems strange hearing a jazz style piano versions

Not just a jazz version, but a jazz waltz.

This was all the rage at the time, with contributions to the genre by Dave Brubeck, Oscar Peterson and many others.

The Strangers' version is performed in 4 (or 12), but all the others, including The Shadows' recording, are in 3/4.

Just had a listen to the excellent version by The Strangers and the time signature is 12/8 same as The Shadows.
Info kindly provided by a certain ex Shads bassist that I work with.

4/4 and 12/8 are very closely related. It's often a matter of preference as to which category is chosen, hence my provision of both.

What is certain is that the Strangers' version can be counted in 4, whereas none of the others can.

Great number! I transcribed it for my own learning purposes and reckoned it was in 6/8! I've heard in counted in in 4s and 3/4 and probably others!

I may have been responsible for the Watford Club "performance" that Iain Purdon referred to earlier - and possibly some subsequent misdemeanours.

Roger

A couple of years ago I had a chance to play Sweet Dreams with Brian "Licorice" Locking, the bass player on the Shadows record from -62. It was during a jam session at the hotel room bed the night before the ShadowDania event in Nyborg, Denmark. We discussed about tunes that are not so often played live. So here it is, just me on a borrowed guitar, echo and amp and "Licorice" on bass. We had some trouble getting it going, sorry for the bum notes

Kurt

I love the track. Hank plays it just right. Shame it's quite short though.
Bloody hard to play though!

Fenderman wrote:I love the track. Hank plays it just right. Shame it's quite short though.
Bloody hard to play though!

In terms of the key(s) - F, modulating into Eb - and the non-intuitive way in which the tune moves all over the fretboard, Sweet Dreams is similar to Thunderbirds (in Eb). Luckily, there is just enough instinctive "feel" about both to keep the player on track.