5 minute read
SIR CLIFF RICHARD
CELEBRATING HIS 80TH BIRTHDAY
FEW artists can lay claim to the kind of stellar career that Sir Cliff Richard has enjoyed – and even fewer can say they are still touring successfully. He is, though, amazingly celebrating his 80th birthday this year (2020). And it’s probably no surprise that this celebration involves a new tour.
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It is certainly a tribute to the man and his music that demand for The Great 80 Tour means that two shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall have already been added and ticket demand is likely to be extremely high. It would be very easy to dismiss the bulk of those fans as being older – and he certainly has a great many loyal followers who have been there for him for several decades. But the reality is that Sir Cliff has managed to keep in tune with the times very astutely throughout his long career. He is the only singer in the history of music to have a No.1 hit in the 1950s, ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s and 1990s. He is the third artist, after Elvis Presley and The Beatles, with the highest number of No.1 hits in the UK and more Top Ten hits than any other artist.
In 1989, he became the first British recording artist to release 100 singles with The Best of Me.
Behind all the statistics, however, lies a genuine home-grown music legend who helped to build the UK’s music reputation over all those decades and since. The man has musicality running right through his veins.
That was all obvious to fans even when the young Cliff burst onto the rock ‘n roll world of the 1950s. Music was just moving away from the Sinatra crooning years and offered exciting possibilities to young fans across the world who were, finally, getting music that belonged just to them. Cliff Richard was young, good-looking and considered the UK’s answer to America’s Elvis. His first hit single Move It in 1958 appeared to confirm that and Cliff - with his quiffed hair, moody looks and sexy moves - soon became a screamable star at home and abroad.
He had a good voice and savvy management as he quickly moved into films in 1959 with Serious Charge in which he played a young tearaway, adding to his then “bad boy” image. He also sang Living Doll in this film, creating just one of his popular classics.
The same year, he appeared in another film, Expresso Bongo, in which he prosaically, played a young singer at the start of his career. The Young Ones followed in 1961 and then in 1963 he and his backing group, The Shadows, made Summer Holiday.
The wealth of hits from this feelgood film really helped cement his reputation in the home market and across the world. He made three more films – Finders Keepers in 1966, Two a Penny in 1967 and Take Me High in 1973 – which also pleased fans but by then Cliff was box-office gold wherever he went.
Interestingly, Cliff was a great admirer of Elvis. “He was my idol from the beginning,” he has said. “Even today, when I’m alone, I’ll often put on the King Creole album. He’s produced the most exciting pop music sounds of all time.” For Cliff, We Don’t Talk Anymore in 1979 proved to be his best-selling single, notching up more than five million sales worldwide. Private Collection in 1988 was his best-selling album with almost two million copies sold.
His reputation now settled into being a wholesome entertainer with fans across the age divide. Cliff was chosen to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1968 with Congratulations and in 1973 with Power To All Our Friends. With the former, Cliff was beaten to the title by just one point when the Spanish entry – long forgotten – won. Ironically, Congratulations has endured to enjoy the same international popularity as Happy Birthday as a celebratory song. His long popularity has been underlined by a whole clutch of awards over the years. He won the British Record Industry Award for British Male Solo Artist n 1977, the British Phonographic Industry Award for British Male Solo Artist in 1982 and a Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution in 1989.
In 2004, he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame for his outstanding contribution to British music and as an integral part of British music culture. He is still recording and in October, 2019, collaborated on a duet, Samstag Nacht, with Howard Carpendale, and the album Symphonie Meines Lebens was released physically and digitally worldwide. Cliff Richard and the Shadows: The Best of the Rock ‘n Roll Pioneers was also released in November last year, focusing solely on Cliff’s output with The Shadows and featuring many of his top hits. Born in Lucknow, India, as Harry Rodger Webb, Sir Cliff always had a strong family with three sisters. He has never made a secret of the fact that he is a Christian and has been perceived by all, not just his fans, to have lived a wholesome life.
This may explain the outcry in 2014 when his home was very publicly searched by police following an historic allegation of sexual abuse of a minor. Sir Cliff was questioned by police but not arrested and the allegation was subsequently dropped. His many fans were never in doubt of his innocence and his popularity remains undimmed.
Although he has always been generous in praise of his pop peers throughout the decades, Sir Cliff’s own remarkable, record-breaking success has not always been acknowledged. As he stated himself: “My only gripe is when critics writing the history of rock ‘n roll leave me out altogether.
For Sir Cliff, entering his eighth decade still on-song and still entertaining the fans, longevity in the notoriously fickle world of pop is obviously just not an issue.
