Fact #154504
When:
Short story:
Man Of Mystery by The Shadows enters the UK Popular Singles Chart where it will peak at No5, during a fifteen-week run on the chart. This song will inspire the guitar part on the 1977 Elvis Costello hit song Watching The Detectives
Full article:
Elvis Costello : I used to read a lot of Raymond Chandler's books and I was trying to write a mystery story in a song (with Watching The Detectives). There are certain reggae records that I took ideas from, and Down By The River by Neil Young is in there somewhere, you know, interns of the rhythm guitar part. There's also the guitar theme for Man Of Mystery, certain spooky Bernard Hermann themes for Hitchcock films and the music for The Twilight Zone. I was trying to incorporate all that but I didn't have access to an orchestra and it was done with a combo band. That's the way a lot of pop music works. You're trying to evoke things that are done with much grander sounds, and you end up doing them with old tin cans and elastic bands.
(Source : Interview with Spencer Leigh of BBC Radio Merseyside)
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(Source : Interview with Spencer Leigh of BBC Radio Merseyside)