The Shadows of Knight

Initially formed in 1964 as simply the Shadows, the band learned in spring 1965 of an existing British group, the Shadows. Whiz Winters, a friend who worked for their manager, Paul Sampson, in his record shop, came up with the name "The Shadows of Knight" to tie into the British Invasion in music of that time, and because all four of the band members attended Prospect High School in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, whose sports team had the name the "Knights".[2]

They released three albums in their first five years of existence. Founding members included Warren Rogers (lead guitar), Roger Spielmann (rhythm and lead guitar/vocals) Norm Gotsch (rhythm guitar), Wayne Pursell (bass guitar), Tom Schiffour (drums) and Jim Sohns (vocals). Sohns was 16 at the time.[3] During 1965, Joe Kelley was recruited to play bass, replacing Pursell. Kelley swapped bass and lead duties with Rogers in late 1965 - at the time of the "Gloria" recordings. Guitarist and vocalist Jerry McGeorge replaced Norm Gotsch in late 1965 after Gotsch was drafted into the U.S. military. David "Hawk" Wolinski, who later worked with Rufus and Chaka Khan, replaced Rogers on bass in late 1966.

After performing in and around Chicago's northwest suburbs in 1964 and 1965, The Shadows of Knight became the house band at The Cellar in Arlington Heights, Illinois, owned by Sampson. They attracted more than 500 teenagers every Saturday and Sunday at the "Cellar" for more than six months until Sampson began booking other bands, giving them a break. A recording of a Shadows of Knight performance at The Cellar was released in 1992 by Sundazed Records as Raw 'n' Alive at the Cellar, Chicago 1966!.

A performance in support of the Byrds at Chicago's McCormick Place in early summer 1965 attracted the attention of Dunwich Records record producers Bill Traut and George Badonski. During that show, they performed "Gloria" by Van Morrison's band Them. The band signed with Dunwich shortly thereafter and recorded "Gloria" as a first effort.

Released in December 1965, "Gloria" received massive regional airplay. The band had slightly altered the song's lyrics, replacing Morrison's original "she comes to my room, then she made me feel alright" with "she called out my name, that made me feel alright" after influential Chicago station WLS had banned Them's original version. This simple change overcame the prevalent AM radio censorship of the era and got The Shadows of Knight's cover version of the song onto the playlist of WLS, which had censored the original.[4] The single reached the No. 1 position on the radio station's countdown, as well as on local rival WCFL. On the Billboard national charts, "Gloria" rose to No. 10. The secondary publication Cashbox ranked "Gloria" as high as No. 7.[5] In Canada the song reached No. 8 on the RPM Magazine charts. "Gloria" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A.[6]

The Shadows of Knight soon released the Gloria album, followed by the Back Door Men LP, in the summer of 1966. Subsequent singles included their version of the Bo Diddley song "Oh Yeah" (which reached No. 39 nationally), "Bad Little Woman" (No. 91), and the powerhouse "I'm Gonna Make You Mine" (No. 90), which can be seen as a precursor to hard rock. However, none of these releases approached their initial commercial success. Failure to find a winning followup to "Gloria" handicapped the band's earning power and led to its disintegration. Tom Schiffour left the band in spring 1967, first to be replaced by a young local fan of the band, Bruce Bruscato. He was subsequently replaced by Tom Morris. The original band fragmented further when McGeorge departed for acid-rock band H.P. Lovecraft, while Kelley left to front his own blues band. Hawk Wolinski also left the band to form Bangor Flying Circus with Schiffour and guitarist Alan De Carlo. Schiffour was later replaced by drummer Michael Tegza, also of the (by then-defunct) H.P. Lovecraft.

By mid-1967, the only original member of the Shadows of Knight remaining was vocalist Jim Sohns, who, through simple default, inherited the band's name and legacy. Contrary to claims Sohns owns the band's name. The band name is now solely owned, via trademark registration (trademark numbers 5529482 and 5255086). Roger Spielmann quit the band in 1967 in order to avoid the Vietnam draft, and currently lives in Canada. In 1968, Dunwich sold the master tapes to its Shadow of Knight recordings to Atlantic Records for one dollar. Sohns then moved the band from Chicago to New York, where it signed with Buddah Records.[2] Sohns had hoped to take the band in a British power-rock direction, but the Super K record label pulled them into a more commercial orientation, pairing the band with bubblegum groups such as the 1910 Fruitgum Company and the Ohio Express on tour. In 1969, the second generation Shadows of Knight released "Shake" on Buddha's short-lived subsidiary Team Records; the track eventually climbed to No. 46 (No. 37 Canada Dec.68). That same year, without the band's knowledge or consent, the unsuccessful update "Gloria '69" was released by Dunwich. It consisted of new bass and guitar tracks overdubbed by Peter Cetera (later of Chicago) and Jim Donlinger (a member of Aorta), both Chicago rock veterans.

"Shake" and its B-Side, "From Way Out to Way Under" were actually recorded by Sohns and a number of studio musicians, on the understanding that a Shadows of Knight reassembled by Sohns would record the follow-up album. That album, Shadows of Knight is today regarded as a distinct recording oddity, being an attempt to mix punk and bubblegum music.[7]

The four years after the breakup of the original Shadows was a dark creative period with little financial success. The band's repertoire consisted mostly of pop cover songs, which allowed them to survive by playing clubs. The second iteration of the band consisted of John Fisher, former lead guitar of the Glass Menagerie, on bass, Woody Woodruff and Dan Baughman on guitars, and Ken Turkin on drums. Turkin was replaced in early 1969 by Paul Scarpelli, and in 1970 Jack "Hawkeye" Daniels replaced Woodruff on guitar. The band's lineup remained the same for two years, and it recorded "I Am the Hunter," which did well in several B markets. John Fisher was replaced by Edgar Winter alum Jorge Gonzales on bass in 1971, who was subsequently replaced by John Hardy the next year. He was then replaced by studio bassist Don Ferrone.

Over subsequent decades, Sohns fronted varying incarnations of the group on the oldies circuit. He also spent a period of time reflecting on his future in the music business, choosing to become the road manager of the band Skafish from 1978 to 1980. He would join the band to sing "Gloria" as the band's encore. In 1978, Sohns punched Sid Vicious at the Harrah club in New York City, throwing him down a flight of stairs.

Commencing as of the 1990s, the Shadows of Knight enjoyed a resurgence in public interest, in significant part due to the 1998 release of their first two albums, in remastered form, by Sundazed Records. In 1992, Performance Records (aka "Donewitch" Records) released The Shadows Of Knight-Live, Featuring "Gloria". This was an unreleased performance recorded live in Rockford, Il, in 1972. The performance featured Lee Brovitz on bass (later of Blue Angel)[8] and Paul Roy on guitar. As one reviewer noted in relation to the album, "If you subscribe to the theory that the '60s actually survived a couple of years into the 1970s, then this is a prime slice of 1960s garage punk." The album is also noted as containing "a wonderfully blistering guitar-laced extended version of Willie Dixon's 'I Just Want to Make Love to You'", which is nearly twelve minutes long.[9] Also in 1992, another live recording, Raw 'n' Alive at The Cellar, 1966, was released by Sundazed Records. As noted by Richie Unterberger, "This is one of the very few live garage band tapes from the mid-'60s of relatively decent sound quality (considering the standards of the era). The song selection of this set should also please fans of one of the most famed '60s garage bands, captured here at a club in their home turf of Chicago in December 1966."[10] In 1994, Rhino Records released Dark Sides: The Best of The Shadows of Knight. Unterberger had mixed feelings about this collection, particularly in view of the absence of "I Just Want to Make Love to You".[11] "I Just Want to Make Love to You" was included in a 2005 Atlantic release, Rhino Hi-Five: The Shadows of Knight, a five-song EP that also included "Gloria" and "Oh Yeah".

In 2006, the Shadows of Knight headlined Little Steven's cross-country "Underground Garage" tour with The Romantics. The Shadows also joined Cheap Trick's Halloween show ("Cheap Trick or Treat"), along with guest appearances by members of the Romantics and the Charms. This performance was subsequently televised on VH-1 Classic. At shows on the 2006 tour, they were joined onstage at various times by Rick Mullen (of Van Morrison, Commander Cody, Don McLean), Vince Martell (Vanilla Fudge), Mark Stein (Vanilla Fudge), and members of The Romantics. Also in 2006, a CD of new material, A Knight to Remember, was released co-produced by Bobby Messano and Lee Brovitz. The music on A Knight to Remember, which contains a reworked version of "Gloria", has been compared to that of The Sonics.[12]

In 2008, the band toured as part of "The Psychedelic Shack Tour", which also featured a re-formed Nazz, Vince Martell and, on occasion, Henry Gross. Also in 2008, a new CD was released, Rock 'n' Roll Survivors, containing a further reworking of "Gloria".

As of 2015, Sohns still carries on the legacy of the Shadows of Knight and performs many shows annually.

Joe Kelley died on September 1, 2013, after a brief battle with lung cancer. He was 67.[13]

On August 20, 2016, the surviving members of the original lineup of The Shadows of Knight reunited and performed in concert for the first time in 49 years.

On May 27, 2020, classic-era members Jimy Sohns and Jerry McGeorge teamed up with producer/musician Michael Weber to release their first new single together in 53 years, "Wild Man." [14] On November 6, 2020, the record, along with its B-side remake of "I Ain't Got You", was released on Steven Van Zandt's Wicked Cool Records and debuted the following week on Sirius XM's Underground Garage as Coolest Song In The World.

Current

• Jim Sohns – vocals (1964–present)
• Jerry McGeorge – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (1965-1967, 2016, 2020–present)
• Michael Weber - lead guitar, backing vocals, drums, keyboard (2014–present)
• Jeff Millar-Sax – percussion, backing vocals (2012–present)

Past Members

• Hawk Wolinski – bass, keyboards (1966-1967, 2015, 2016)
• Tom Schiffour - drums (1964-1967, 2016)
• Joe Kelley – lead guitar (1965-1967)
• Warren Rogers - bass, rhythm guitar, vocals (1964-1966)
• Norm Gotsch - rhythm guitar (1964-1965)
• Wayne Pursell - bass (1964-1965)

• Official page on Facebook
• Shadows of Knight Japanese Tribute Site: "The Original Punks from The Windy City".