Mistakes made during recording necessitated immediate retakes, and for that reason, multiple versions for some (if not all) tracks exist in EMI's tape vaults.

All of the tracks were recorded in several sessions over an eight-month period (nine session-days), during which singles were also recorded, including "Kon-Tiki", "She Wears Red Feathers" (unissued), "The Frightened City", "Wonderful Land", "36-24-36", "March of the Shadows" (unissued), "Peace Pipe", "The Savage", "Blues From an Unfurnished Flat" (unissued), "Happy Birthday to You" (unissued except in an overdubbed form on 21 Today), an LP by Cliff Richard.

Only Shadoogie, Nivram, All My Sorrows and Sleepwalk were used "live on stage" to promote this album in 1961-2.

Nivram has been used as 1st choice Shadows bass solo for live concerts from 1962 right through to 2010.

The track Gonzales was played live on a radio performance (late 1960) but never on stage until belatedly included on the final tour live set in 2004.