The Shadows Of Knight
The roots of The Shadows of Knight can be traced back to early 1965 when five friends from Prospect High School in the Northwest Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights first got together. Calling themselves The Shadows, singer Jim Sohns was joined by rhythm guitarist Norm Gotch, lead guitarist Warren Rogers, bassist Wayne Pursell and drummer Tom Schiffour. Later in the year, Pursell departed and was replaced by Joe Kelly. After months of rehearsing, the band organized a concert at Paul Sampson's Cellar Club, hoping to attract a record producer. During the show, they covered a song called "Gloria", originally recorded by the Irish band, Them, an early Van Morrison group. Impressed by the band's rendition of the tune, Bill Traut and George Badonsky offered to sign them to their newborn Dunwich Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records. In December, guitarist Jerry McGeorge took the place of Norm Gotsch just before the band entered the recording studio to lay down "Gloria", along with a B-side called "Dark Side". Record company executives now realized that the band had the same name as the back up group for English rocker Cliff Richard and a new moniker would have to be chosen. They suggested The Tyme, which was immediately rejected by the band who had built up a sizeable following as The Shadows. Just before the record labels were printed, singer Jim Sohns suggested The Shadows of Knight, because it had and English sound to it at a time when everybody was emulating British bands. The rest of the group agreed and would later say that it was only coincidence that their high school varsity teams were called The Knights.
"Gloria" was released on the 31st of January, 1966 and immediately began to get air-play on local Chicago radio stations. Reaction was swift and the record sold over 100,000 copies in ten days. By the middle of April, the song had entered the Billboard Hot 100 where it climbed to #10 a few weeks later. The Shadows of Knight were a hot commodity and quickly joined Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars, touring the United States with The Outsiders, Question Mark And The Mysterians and The Seeds.
For a follow-up to "Gloria", the band chose a Bo Diddley song called "Oh, Yeah", which also cracked the U.S. Top 40, peaking at #39 in the Summer of 1966, selling half a million copies. Dunwich also released two albums over a six month period, "Gloria" and "Back Door Men". In November of that year, Dave 'The Hawk' Wolinski, a former keyboard session man with the band, took over for Warren Rogers who had been drafted.
By the Spring of 1967, internal strife began to tear the group apart. Jerry McGeorge left and later joined a band called H.P. Lovecraft. Soon after, Kelley and Schiffour split too, reappearing the next year with the Joe Kelley Blues Band, while Wolinski wound up with Bangor Flying Circus. All the while, singer Jimy Sohns and new members of The Shadows of Knight kept releasing new material, trying to duplicate the magic of "Gloria". They released "Bad Little Woman", which stalled at #91 on the Billboard Pop chart. The group had high hopes for a tune called "Gonna Make You Mine", which sold 100,000 copies in the first two weeks of release. Unfortunately the song was soon banned by most radio stations because the lyrics were deemed "too suggestive." The objectionable lines were "I believe in me, that's how I live, I'm gonna take, you're gonna give, I'm gonna make you". After three weeks, the record was pulled off all ABC Drake affiliates, which then accounted for about 75% of all the stations playing a Rock format, and the song stalled at number 89.
By 1968, after a string of failures, Dunwich Records gave up on the band, selling their master tapes to Atlantic for $1. Jim Sohns was determined to keep the act going and moved the band to New York, where they signed with Team Records, a division of Buddah and joined the bubble gum empire of Jerry Kasentz and Jeff Katz. Here they recorded anonymously on tracks credited to Ohio Express, The 1910 Fruitgum Company and many others. In 1969 The Shadows of Knight found a gleam of success again with a single in their own name called "The Shake", which sold respectably, climbing to #46 on the Billboard Hot 100. The relationship with Team Records finally reached an end in 1969 over non-payment of royalties and the company's decision to release an album without the group's permission, assembling rejected pieces originally written for other bands.
Over the years, "Gloria" has sold over eight million copies, showing up on various compilation albums. Vocalist Jim Sohns had the fore site to copyright the band's name and as of 2006 was still on tour with The Shadows of Knight. In 2008, the band toured as part of The Psychedelic Shack Tour, which also featured The Nazz, Vince Martell and Henry Gross. That same year, a new CD called "Rock 'n' Roll Survivors", containing a further reworking of "Gloria" was released.
Bassist Joe Kelley died on September 1st, 2013, after a brief battle with lung cancer. He was 67. As of 2016, Jimy Sohns was still carrying on the legacy of the Shadows of Knight, performing at venues across the United States. A reunion of the original band was took place on August 20th, 2016 at the Q-Bar in Glendale Heights, Illinois. It marked the first time they had played in public in 49 years. The following year, an album called "Live and Dirty (1974-2004)" was released, but met with limited success.
On May 27, 2020, Jimy Sohns and Shadows Of Knight guitarist Jerry McGeorge teamed up with producer/musician Michael Weber to record a song called "Wild Man", their first new single together in 53 years. On November 6, 2020, the record, along with its B-side, "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'. In March, 2022, Jimy Sohns released his only solo single in collaboration with Jon Povey, formerly of Pretty Things and the Italian group, Technicolour Dream. The single included two songs, "Born Again" and "Isis Calling", both written by Marco Conti and Fabio Porretti of the Technicolour Dream and Jon Povey.
Sadly, Jimy Sohns died of complications from a stroke on July 29, 2022, at age 75.
For more, be sure to read Gary James' Interview With Jimy Sohns
