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Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard was born Harry
Rodger Webb in Lucknow, India, on October 14th, 1940, and is
Britain's most commercially successful solo singer. With over 100
chart hits to his name since the 1950s, only Elvis Presley can
match Cliff's amazing longevity, and of having at least one hit
in six decades.
Cliff began his career with The Drifters (not the American
version!), which ultimately became Cliff Richard and The Shadows.
In the summer of 1958 Cliff gained his first contract - with EMI.
He was moulded as a solo performer, and The Shads were his
backing band, before becoming stars in their own right.
The first recording Cliff made for EMI was the single 'Schoolboy
Crush', but the B-side, 'Move It!', proved to be initially more
popular, and so this Ian Samwell song became the A-side, and
zoomed to number 2 in the UK charts. It should be remembered that
at this time Cliff was regarded as an outrageous, even indecent,
performer by some. Pelvic gyrations were a culture shock for any
puritanical TV owners in 1950s Britain.
Cliff was soon to reach the top of the charts, with two records
in 1959 - 'Living Doll' and 'Travellin' Light'. He was to become
the biggest young British act until The Beatles. It was an
exciting time for British music, and it was the first time
British acts were to make any impression in America. Why Cliff
was not among those successes remains a mystery. Cliff and The
Shadows toured the States during the late '50s and early '60s,
and were well received. Maybe it was simply down to the fact that
British groups were in after The Beatles made it, and not so much
British solo singers - and, they already had Elvis. The Beatles
knew Cliff and The Shadows quite well, and would cite them as
influences.
In the UK, Cliff's success continued pretty much unabated. He starred in films such as 'The Young Ones' and 'Summer Holiday' - the catchy title songs both being number ones. He also topped the charts with his 1968 Eurovision Song Contest entry, 'Congratulations', and even appeared in the legendary Gerry Anderson animated series, 'Thunderbirds' - together with The Shadows!
Cliff re-evaluated his career on
becoming a Christian in 1964. His conversion, complete with
specs, stunned a lot of people. It seemed a bit strange that it
should, as a lot of American rock 'n' rollers were quite happy to
admit they were Christians, and, more recently, it's never done U2
any harm. Possibly because Cliff had seemed so outrageous early
on in his career, it was more surprising.
In the 1970s, Cliff's TV show, 'It's Cliff Richard', was a
success, but he wasn't having so much of an impact on the charts
- until the mid-late '70s, when he recorded a string of top-notch
pop songs for his acclaimed 'I'm Nearly Famous' album, including
'Miss You Nights', and his first American top 10, 'Devil Woman'.
Then, in 1979, his first UK number one for over a decade, 'We
Don't Talk Anymore'. Ironically, despite the emergence of punk
rock, Cliff seemed to be on the crest of a wave.
The enduring legacy of Cliff Richard is that he's never tried to be fake. If he's perceived as being unhip, he's never bent over backwards to fit in, and people of all generations have respected him for that. He's not been afraid to take on projects, and surprise the media, when, for instance, taking on the role of Emily Bronte's brooding Heathcliff.
The anarchic BBC sitcom, 'The Young Ones', was named
after Cliff's film and hit, and the show's anarchistic character,
Rik, is obsessed with Cliff - unhealthily so! The main characters
in this show joined forces with Cliff to give him his first
number one of the '80s, with a riotous re-working of 'Living
Doll' - in aid of the Comic Relief charity. Since then, Cliff has
had a number of top-selling Christmas singles, and has been
knighted - as much for his charity work as for his pop career.
Still a bachelor boy (oh how we laugh at that pun again!), he
has, in the past, been romantically linked with British tennis
star Sue Barker, and Australian singer, Olivia Newton-John. Fans
of Cliff have included The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler,
Freddie Mercury, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Phil Everly, Julian
Lennon, and Jimmy Page - to name but a few. Cliff also made the
top 100 Britons list (a BBC poll carried out to find the top
Briton of the past 1,000 years), and was as high as 56. Johnny
Rotten was among those thanking him for his influence! Cliff has
sold more singles in the UK than anyone else - over 20 million,
and only Elvis Presley and The Beatles have had more number ones.
Power to all our Cliff!
- Paul Rance.
| Amazon.co.uk Cliff Richard Stuff |
CLIFF
RICHARD UK Number 1 Singles
(date
listed, when first reached the top of the charts)
31st July, 1959 Living
Doll
30th October, 1959 Travellin'
Light
28th July, 1960 Please
Don't Tease
29th December, 1960 I Love You
11th January, 1962 The
Young Ones
3rd January, 1963 The
Next Time/Bachelor Boy
14th March, 1963 Summer
Holiday
15th April, 1965 The
Minute You're Gone
10th April, 1968 Congratulations
25th August, 1979 We
Don't Talk Anymore
22nd March, 1986 (with
The Young Ones) Living Doll
3rd December, 1988 Mistletoe
And Wine
8th December, 1990 Saviour's
Day
28th November, 1999 Millennium Prayer
International Cliff Richard Movement website
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