The Shadows, 1960. The genuine article. The OG. The first version, right there. Cliff Richards' backing band, fer chrissakes. Rock on.


OK, so AllMusic says that this dude Jorgen Ingmann did a cover that was the hit in the U.S. , I think it in 1961 ("utterly overshadowed" is their term). I couldn't get a clip of Jorgen working out on YouTube; here is a Eurovision clip to keep you--er, me--happy.



The Surfaris, of course, re-did it around this time, in 1964. All I could drum up YouTube-wise was footage from a 2005 German concert.



And who can forget this clip, a recently forwarded web meme, probably originating from a post from WFMU's addictive Beware of the Blog. It's Danish singer Tommy Seebech. I like how he ad-libs 70s-era Native American-positive things like, "they must be free." But it's the evil laughs that get to me.



Another band that covered "Apache" is Sir Henry and His Butlers. Again, no Apache dice. So here's another Eurovision clip.

Frustrated, I seached for "Apache Hank Marvin ," referring to the John Major general English-issue bespectacled guitarist of the Shadows. Here, he's performing the song at the Strat Pack concert at Wembley a few years back. Where also, destiny would have it, Paul Rodgers and Brian "Is God" May performed "All Right Now" one of the first times.



The song gets new life, of course, with the Incredible Bongo Band's remake in 1970, one the most sampled records in the world. It was a hit in its day, but, 7-8 years later, it's cut up by the new DJs in what's called a "sample."



And here's DJ Jazzy Jay telling us how it was done. There should also be a video by the Sugar Hill Gang here somewhere with their version of "Apache," but maybe later.





The only ones I can find are with people dancing to it. Here's what I think is the original clip that promoted Apache-dancing, from the Fresh Prince.



Which has apparently spawned skads of imitations on the web. (See here, here, here, and here.)





Some dudes dancing in matching khakis and white gold shirts.




Of course, as I went through my search results for a word like "Apache," I came across such horrible things as "3 kill's [sic] from a u.s [sic] Apache hell yeah." It's also called "Apache helicopter incident" in another entry. (Warning: People getting killed in this clip.)

Labels: Riffs, Saint Rose