Wednesday's Forgotten Oldie...

The Shadows of Knight are an American rock band from the Chicago suburbs, formed in the 1960s, who played a form of British blues mixed with influences from their native city. At the time they first started recording, the band's self-description was as follows: "The Stones, Animals and Yardbirds took the Chicago Blues and gave it an English interpretation. We've taken the English version of the Blues and re-added a Chicago touch," to which noted rock critic Richie Unterberger commented: "The Shadows of Knight's self-description was fairly accurate." Their first big hit, released in December 1965, was "Gloria", which made it as high as #7... maybe. Most rock historians agree the song probably reached as high as number one or two on the charts, but because their label was not a national one (Dunwich Records) the song suffered a staggered national release as well as little credit from Billboard because it was a cover of Van Morrison/Them's single from a year earlier. Their follow-up single "Oh Yeah" suffered the same staggered release issues. It was also a cover, this time of a Bo Diddley song. Although it only reached #39 nationally, Oh Yeah flew off the shelves and was actually hard to find in many markets... quite simply the demand exceeded the product. If a bigger company would have had the record, it easily could have been a top 20 song.