Easy to play and shivering with hormonal fire, Them’s “Gloria” was a staple in nearly every ’60s garage band’s diet. But the Shadows of Knight were the band that attained the most visibility with the raw and rumbling song, as their version climbed to No. 10 on the national charts in the spring of 1966.
The cut appeared on the Shadows of Knight’s debut, which was also titled Gloria and yielded a further hit, a foot-stomping take of Bo Diddley’s “Oh Yeah” that peaked at No. 39. The rest of the album included a slew of similarly savage blues-laden bruisers, prompting the Chicago, Illinois band to be called something of America’s answer to the Rolling Stones.
Back Door Men, the Shadows of Knight’s second album, was not only even tighter and tougher than Gloria, but was dabbed with diversity, touching base on folk rock and psychedelic exploration. Yet the album did not fare as well as Gloria, and although the Shadows of Knight continued on, they never repeated the widespread success they achieved early on. Changes in personnel and labels came into being, but the band still produced moments of value and remained popular on a local level.
A non-album track, “Someone Like Me” (Dunwich Records) captured the Shadows of Knight as they combined trademark spit and snarl attitude with stabbing brass sounds. Exploding with power and energy, the song grooved to a high-octane beat of rocking heft and danceable soul rhythms, while rousing choruses and slashing breaks rounded out the plot.
The flipside of “Someone Like Me” was “Three For Love,” which was featured on the Back Door Men album. Bathed in reams of ringing guitars, billowy harmonies and tasty melodies, the song beamed brightly with Byrds flavored folk rock aspirations.
Tautly performed and as contagious as the chicken pox, “Someone Like Me” deserved a far better showing and is just one of the Shadows of Knight’s many masterstrokes. The band’s material has been heavily reissued, so there’s no excuse not to hear this cool song, along with plenty of other goodies of the garage-rock variety.
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