I’ve recently returned from a short summer holiday, before the young ones break up from school. After a day on the beach I was prompted to put together a 20 song Cliff Richard playlist you didn’t know you needed. Every one of these is great, honestly. 65 years since Move It. Imagine this set in the legends slot at Glastonbury?
This clip is from 1960. 18 months after Move It was released and two years before Love Me Do. This was all so new and he was right there making it up as he went along. I know, its Cliff, but he was one of the first. I think he’s well overdue reappraisal
During a playback when this popped up on the playlist I literally laughed out loud. 80s lovers will remember The Farmers Boys version but this is absolutely glorious. Cliff nails it, those harmonies on “poor man’s wine”. Bloody hell. As for this video…..
So many great songs to focus our attention on. I included 2 songs from 2018’s Rise Up. The title track which is an anthem for our times by the way. Cliff really is the people’s poet. How about this duet with Olivia Newton John which is Cliff again tapping into something. It’s his Day In The Life
OK, my last choice from my 20 Song Cliff Richard Playlist You Didn’t Know You Needed is the sublime Just Don’t Have The Heart. A SAW production on a par with Donna Summer’s This Time… I bloody love these songs.
Cliff was always behind the times, following the latest trend. Rock n roll Cliff, 70s MOR Cliff, post punk Cliff, Stock Aitken and Waterman Cliff but he did it all so well. In a 65 year career there’s going to be some clunkers but these songs (21 because I had to include The Young Ones Young Ones) are all worthy of your time. No they’re better than that. Better than many other solo artists who get much more credit for releasing poorer songs. The run of late 70s early 80s singles I’ve included are up there with anyone and that’s a hill I’m prepared to roller skate on. I’m sure I’ve done Cliff here before but you know what I don’t care. I really hope you listen and enjoy this 20 (21) Cliff Richard Playlist You Didn’t Know You Needed
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7ju1jb3dsPb7s0jHdsqk2F?si=zGn2wZN5RzymqdCXJIYGQw
Looks like you (or Cliff) broke the board. Did you use the box by any chance?
I don’t use Spotify. Any chance you could just list them. I’d be interested to see your choices.
Move It
Living Doll
Don’t Talk To Him
Do You Want To Dance
The Young Ones
Summer Holiday
On The Beach
Out In The Country
Goodbye Sam, Hello Samantha
Power To All Our Friends
Devil Woman
We Don’t Talk Anymore
Carrie
Wired For Sound
Miss You Nights
Some People
I Just Don’t Have The Heart
Saviours Day
Rise Up
Everybody Is Someone
Living Doll with the Young Ones
When we lived in New Plymouth a few years ago there was a small photocopied black and white notice on the board of the local large DIY stores (Bunnings?) for the Taranaki Sir Cliff Richard Meeting House who “get together to share all things Cliff”.
It always seemed a very niche thing as NP was/is quite a small place. Looking back now, I wished I’d have gone just to see what they were up to, but I never did.
I dread to think what DD is going to say…but since he’s not here, way too much from the all-round entertainer years IMHO. Missing eg:
Dynamite, High Class Baby, Mean Streak, Please Don’t Tease, Travellin’ Light, Nine Times Out of Ten, Gee Whiz It’s You, Apron Strings…
But it would be a poor old world etc…
Strange thing to say.
Cliff nailed about ten Rock ‘n’ Roll songs, some you mention (High Class Baby, Dynamite, Move It). No Brit pre-Fury comes anywhere near that achievement.
It’s scandalous, and not a little sad, how completely written out of the story of pop music he has been.
A radio station – now defunct – thought they’d have a laugh at his expense a few years ago in a publicity exercise – Cliff outlived the radio station and actually outlived the main protagonist.
Very fond of this cover from ‘59. Almost every 50’s-70s album has a gem, particularly Tracks n Grooves from the velvet jacket years. Also his self written 31st of February album would be regarded better if it didn’t have the “Cliff!” name on it. Maybe Bob Stanley will do a biog that doesn’t focus so much on his sexuality, religion and political views.
My list is very much a collection of hits. I’m tempted to start picking up the vinyl albums as they are everywhere for next to nothing. Any early ones you’d recommend?
The very first one Cliff is good, Cliff sings is not so good, but Me and my Shadows is another goodie. The problem for today’s ears Norrie kept on getting him to do syrupy ballads with strings and choir. Cliff was a tryer, so he had a stab at most styles, from Beat to Psychedelia to 70s singer/songwriter. Here’s a twister
and one more from his singer songwriter years, pre the big comeback
Me and My Shadows is the best. The only one that doesn’t include ill-advised stabs at standards and show tunes.
Listening now. It’s great proper rock n roll, 2 minute bursts of energy and feels a little bit dangerous. Love it. Thanks
Move it, Devil Woman, Wired For Sound, (maybe) Carrie.
What else is needed? I shall investigate to check my prejudices
I don’t know much Cĺiff and will check out Dave’s suggestions when I get the chance, but I’d immediately add Miss You Nights to that list. And also Power To All Our Friends.
All in. It’s very much a populist list..
It’s easy for us over here in musoland to be unaware of what’s going on over there in the real world. I had a colleague back in the last century, of our age group, so grew up in our times with our charts and all that. She was as dedicated a fan of Cliff Richard as we are to our bands, and I respect that dedication. Plenty more like her too; he was and is huge.
Yep, I worked with a guy like that. His Cliff collection was complete and he seemed to be at a Cliff gig once a month
The movies, though, remain rolled gold stinkers.
(which I never miss whenever they’re on)
This is the truth…
The song clips can be good though. This from 1961
I remember John Peel no less, having a soft spot for Cliff – describing the “young ones” , I think it was, as “Its crap – but good crap if you know what I mean”. Spot on.
Could be translated as “I know its great but I can’t say it’s great”
A pedant writes: the fArmER’s bOys
the wonderful Baz, Mark, Frog and Stan … Get Out and Walk is a great album with a smile on its face
Noted…
I think you’d like the Farmer’s Boys Dave. Going on your other 1980s tastes there’s probably a lot there for you to enjoy. The album came out again on Cherry Red a few years back I think.
A pedant writes: the fArmER’s bOys.
The Cherry Red CD was 2009, even though it only feels like last week. I also have a 2001 CD copy of follow-up album With These Hands on Vinly Japan, which is the one featuring In The Country, and the early compilation, Once Upon A Time In The East.
All out of print, yet all available with ‘help’. Cough.
I also have the fantastic Muck It Out! picture disc:
https://www.discogs.com/release/2942891-The-Farmers-Boys-Muck-It-Out
I see your FB’s purchases @fentonsteve … and I raise you, I have all those, plus the original vinyl albums and the Whatever Is He Like, More Than A Dream singles and For You double pack. I was quite a big fan…
Me too but, despite our combined best efforts, they didn’t crack the charts. I actually sent some of my single sleeve scans to the bloke who ran the (now defunct) FB website, and pestered Iain at Cherry Red until he released the GO&W CD. I’m guessing it didn’t sell well enough for him to release WTH as well.
I have been known to play out Funky Combine, John! (b-side of Muck It Out!) during my DJ sets. It usually prompts at least one “who is this?”
Flatmate just thinks I’m a jerk
But then he’s young and out of work
Getting out I don’t eat much
Nearly always out to lunch…
Funky Combine John was thrashed to within an inch of its life on the uni radio station program I was part of.
@fentonsteve That’s fantastic about Funky Combine John!
I remember that old website by the way. Did you ever hear the post FBs albums by The Avons or The Great Outdoors?
I picked up a (the?) The Great Outdoors album in a bargain bin. Have nowt by The Avons, though.
I think there are two Avons albums but I’ve only got the first one. One song, Facial, is on youtube I think.
I am afraid I have a compulsion to say what I think when I am familiar with the subject. The songs I know are competently and professionally made. Not without merit. I remember when We Don’t Talk came out. The view was it was actually very good for Cliff. People were surprised and impressed. There is that smarmy persona though. It comes over in his performance. I can’t get past that.
That is fair enough. It can make your toes curl no doubt. I wonder if he’d been a hard drinking bad boy if he would be held in a higher regard? But then he wouldn’t be Cliff I suppose.
I have the feeling that, as far as the British market is concerned, Cliff has always suffered from being British himself. If he’d been from somewhere like Little Rock, Arkansas, he’d be up there with a lot of American singers in the pantheon, rather than sidelined into the ‘entertainers’ bracket that muso snobs, particularly Brit ones, look down upon.
When I bought my first little Sanyo cassette player from a pal for £11 he threw in a couple of cassettes which I suspect he ‘borrowed’ from his older sister’s bedroom. At the same time that I was taping LPs of King Crimson and Yes, one such buckshee cassette was a Greatest Hits of The Shadows & Cliff, and I quickly realised it was a foot-tapping belter full of great choons.
I’m not afraid to acknowledge both of them as pioneering originals, head and shoulders above most of their British pop contemporaries, and Cliff’s subsequent career longevity emphasises the point.
Oh, Boy. I do actually own a handful of Cliff records – the Love Songs compilation and a couple of the good singles like Wired for Sound which were picked up cheaply, but being a Beatles fan from 1963 immediately made Cliff old hat – he was from the previous era and he seemed to desperately want to be a middle of the road all round entertainer…and those films! I’ve never got past that, and his snitty comments about the Beatles always grated.
Loved the Shads though!
“…made Cliff old hat – he was from the previous era”
Yet he was younger than John Lennon…has always seemed desperate to prove his credibility by quoting statistics to all and sundry.
We Don’t Talk Anymore is brilliant, have always thought so. Wired for Sound not bad, with an incredibly cheesy video. Can probably find half a dozen others in a 60 plus year career that are ok. Strange bloke, we will miss him when he’s gone though
Anyone like his Christmas songs?
Saviour’s Day is great. The others are dreck.
It’s in the list. I had to include one and it is a cracker.
i have a soft spot for 21st Century Christmas, mainly for the excellent Saint Etienne cover of it … even if the lyrics feature an at the time innocentish reference to Jimmy Saville
and the cover
My mum’s pal Dotty went to school with young Harry Webb in Waltham Cross and Cheshunt. “A very shy boy”, apparently.
Russ Ballard saw him playing with a skiffle group in a youth club, pre fame “He looked amazing, dynamic” & Ballard’s dad said “He’s better than Tommy Steele”
12 months later, Harry Webb was Cliff Richard.
I’ve known the woman for over 45 years and only just realised there’s a joke in plain sight.
I’ll start with “He’s always been a friend of Dorothy” and you can write your own punchline.
I have written at some length about “ I Just Don’t Have the Heart”. A jaunty SAW toe-tapper, dancing girls, Cliff grinning ear-to-ear throughout. Happy days, yes? Well, no…
“The feeling’s gone it’s been missing too long
I just don’t have the heart to tell you
Such a shame that it’s ending this way…
Love has ended – can’t be mended
But I can’t bear to see you cry…
There’ll be no goodbyes
There are no words to say
When you realise
That I’m far away“
What a spineless bastard! No wonder he’s a bachelor.
There’s also the mind-bending situation the lyric describes. He’s saying that he “doesn’t have the heart” to tell her directly and there are no words to say and she’ll only realise when he’s legged it.
It would make more sense if he sings “I just don’t have the heart to tell HER”
“But I can’t bear to see HER cry”
“When SHE realises that I’m far away”
Easily explained: she can’t hear him as she is locked up in a trunk..
Dark Cliff lyrics is another sub thread. The trunk situation Sewer Robot mentions. Just Don’t Have The Heart should really be Just Don’t Have A Heart. Listening to Some People this morning. Cliff takes on coercive control. Blimey…
Some people they tease one another
Take pride in themselves
Keeping the other one down
Well I’m not like that at all
Some people they hurt one another
They love to see
Hurt in the other one’s eyes
Well I’m not like that at all
Daddy’s Home has a dark underbelly too. Where’s he been? What did he do? He’s been a bit of a bounder again I’ll bet, knowing him.
The lyric is addressed to his spouse/partner saying he’s coming home to stay.. But it’s a bit weird isn’t it though, to call himself “Daddy” to her. I might refer to my wife as “Mum” in front of the children but I wouldn’t call her that when it’s just us.
Not sure it makes any difference, but that was a cover of a Shep and the Limelites song from the 50s. Another of their tunes was called What Did Daddy Do?
In light of this information, Cliff is off the hook.
Strange subject matter for two pop songs by the same artist, though. Maybe the first one was an unexpected hit and a follow up along the same lines was needed.
After all, I think Let’s Twist Again is better than the first one.
We are none the wiser.
Did I do wrong
By coming home?
Have you found
Somebody new?
I’ve called you twice
No answer at all
By telephone
I’d like to know
What did daddy do
Ooh-hoo hoo, ooh-hoo hoo
Surely they must have explained it to him when they served him with the restraining order?
As someone who bought quite a few Cliff singles as a teenager I think it’s perfectly possible to create a really good playlist of Cliff songs. However, for me it would have to include more of the earlier songs and particularly ‘Voice In The Wilderness’ ( from Expresso Bongo) and ‘I’m Looking Out The Window’ and fewer of the later songs and the Eurovision pap. Maybe ‘The Day I Met Marie’ would be a good addition as well. The only later songs I would add are ‘Carrie’ and ‘Devil Woman’.
I love the start (verse) of “The Day I Met Marie”, but then it gets a bit oompah oompah for the chorus
I wanted it to be a broad spread but following @mikethep‘s advice I listened to Me and My Shadows today and I’ll track down your suggestions too.
Miss You Nights is hands down one of the best sad songs of all time.
Yep. It really is. Glad I put it in.
Can I add the Abbaesque “When Two Worlds Drift Apart”, to the list? Very mature Cliff.
Bought the first Fender Stratocaster imported to Britain – donated to Hank Marvin; Bruce Welch played his Gibson J200 on Apache & Cliff played the Chinese Drum on the intro & outro
His fame came at a time when there was no clear path for singers other than being an “all round entertainer”
Doesn’t Bruce Welch still have the Fender? I remember some controversy over it?
In 2001 the late Rick Price wrote “He still owns the Red Stratocaster that Cliff gave to Hank back in 1959, the one we all lusted after. He has lovingly restored it to its original condition. That makes him a good bloke in my book. ”
(They worked together on the “Buddy ” musical – Rick on sound design, Bruce as musical advisor)
A test film featuring Cliff Richard And The Shadows which was recorded by Gerry Anderson and provided to the puppeteers to choreograph the band’s appearance in the 1966 feature film “Thunderbirds Are Go”.
I like this for the casual nature of the performance – they look like they’re just goofing off and not concentrating on being too slick.
Brilliant
Thanks for that @Sniffity, what the Afterword is good for things you didn’t know existed.
I think I’ll be in a minority of one, liking this Archies-style groover. This song can’t be more 1971 if it tried. Some neat moves in this cheapo promo, possibly filmed in a pub., Cliff looking like many hairdressers did at that time
Nope, that’s a cracker, and fairly conclusive proof that the gold is in those artists excluded from Mojo/Uncut etc. rather than in £275 box sets of out-takes by those who aren’t.
Significantly cheaper too.
That’s wisdom. Very true
“Archies style groover” means I’m sold before I’ve pressed play…
Edit.. Now I’ve pressed play he’s just being Davy Jones isn’t he? It’s brilliant. I need more of this stuff. And that shirt…
One final one – a nice bit of sunshine pop. I’m fond of Cliff because he had a good set of pipes and was the vehicle for many great songwriters. His earnestness is quite endearing and he’s always been a striver.
If there’s ever a reassessment of Herman’s Hermits, I’ll be there in a shot.
Thanks for your contributions @rexbrough all great choices which will prompt me to dig beyond the hits.
Thanks for raising the subject. Cliff’s a pop musician, no more no less and has a what the clever people call an extensive “body of work”. And sometimes good shirts.
Move It, Please Don’t Tease, On The Beach…good period songs, good fun and they deserve the praise they get.
However, the Mary Whitehouse link, the overbearing Christian preachiness, the singing at Wimbledon, the dreadful “keep Christmas special and uncommercial but here’s my latest Christmas single” hypocrisy and tackiness…not for me, so overall, no thanks.
That’s fair enough Nick. I’m finding lots to enjoy in this thread alone never mind in his 40 odd albums
For me Cliff’s golden period and his ‘sliding doors’ moment were those mid 70s albums – Im Nearly Famous, Every Face Tells a Story, Green Light. Some really great songs, well produced – actually felt like he wanted to become an artist again but alas he decided to piss it all away. But even into the 80s one or two gems surfaced like this
Thanks I’ll try those too…
I was trying to recall that one, so thanks for finding it. A great song.
That mid 70s revival was very much down to Bruce Welch. Cliff was just coasting by then “ so adept at recording that he could arrive for a three hour session at 7 pm and leave by 8:30. He would’ve put down his three vocal tracks in that time and gone home“
Welch told him that to be successful in the mid 70s “he would have a lot of hard work in front of him” & he “ Needed him involved in everything we were doing from beginning to end… Cliff had to become part of every single process”
What a superb thread! An AW classic.
You a fan Tigger? 😉
Not of Cliff, but I am of you. 😍
Oh, get a room, you two! 😀
A fantastic voice, with an iffy personality and singing material that (mostly) just doesn’t float my boat.
Even in this largely positive thread, there is a sense of Cliff being ever so slightly patronised.
Pre-Beatles – the biggest pop group ever, remember, everywhere in the world – no one in the UK comes anywhere near him. He influenced them.
I’m not surprised he comes over as a little fractious!
Agreed. The NME never had a good word for him. In the 50s it was along the lines of “must we expose our kids to this hip-swivelling filth”. The 70s onwards it was sneering and these days it’s all conspiracy theories. – Nowt about the music. Shame, because as you say, he was hugely influential.
NME…cuh!
“Interestingly” I saw a Sounds end of year chart for 78 or 79 recently and We Don’t Talk Anymore was well up there where you might expect to see Thin Lizzy or the Sabs or the Purps.
I would find a space for his in Dave’s original list. 1970, I think.
Definitely- fine record
We just arrived at our country cabin on Öland, and almost the first thing I saw, was a 1961 copy of Svensk Damtidning, a Swedísh women’s magazine, with a photo of Cliff and his mum on the cover.
I bought it last summer at a carboot sale.
Inside there is an article about the bright new star from the UK.
Much of the article is about his family and how close he is to them.
I suspect he is now pretty unknown to the modern Swedish music fan.