The Shadows are a British instrumental rock group, and Cliff Richard's backing band, with a total of 69 UK-charted singles from the 1950s to the 2000s, 35 of which are credited to the Shadows and 34 to Cliff Richard and the Shadows. The group, who were in the forefront of the UK's beat-group boom, were the first backing band to emerge as stars in their own right. As pioneers of the four-member instrumental format, the band consisted of lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar and drums. Their wide stylistic range covers pop, rock, surf rock, and ballads with a jazz influence.

The Shadows' core members are Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch and Brian Bennett, though there have been numerous changes of personnel throughout its history. The band's unique sound was originally produced by a combination of American Fender guitars, British amplifiers made by Vox and echo units Meazzi Echomatic tape and Binson magnetic disc. The Shadows, with singer Cliff Richard, dominated the British popular music scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s in the five years before the Beatles. Although they lost ground in the late sixties, the band enjoyed a second spell of success and interest from the late seventies until the present day.