Rhythm & Blues

Cliff Richard was strongly influenced by Elvis in his early days. He clearly imitated him in both looks and singing style and freely admits to this. Fortunately his true individuality soon emerged to become the most popular singer of the time and later the most enduring.

Meanwhile the Shadows were coming to prominence. It is said that Hank Marvin had the first Fender Stratocaster in Britain around 1960. He had it imported specially. The Shadows were originally called the Drifters and used that name as Cliff Richard's backing group for the first 5 singles, i.e. up to and including Living Doll. By the time of the next, Travellin' Light, late 1959, they had changed their name to The Shadows. Incidentally, these singles were all released on 78 RPM versions as well as the usual 45 RPM.

They had no independent success until 1960 when they had become the Shadows and had a hugely successful single, Apache. They continued to be very successful with many top 10 singles, some of which reached number one. Instrumental music was popular in the singles charts in the early 60's. Their last big hit was The Rise and Fall of Flingel Bunt in 1964.

Most of the early singles by Cliff Richard were written by British songwriters, many by Ian Samwell in fact. Members of the Shadows wrote some of them.

A large industry built up around Cliff Richard, making use of existing studio resources and orchestras. All of this was of very high quality considering the time. The quality of music and sound was excellent and is clearly evident on the recordings. Much of this infrastructure was already in place because British music was at a high standard of excellence from the world of light orchestral music.

There was a view at the time that real success was to be found in the more conventional 'show' type music and not rock and roll. At the same time there was always this lurking feeling that rock and roll would die out. This attitude is evident from the lyrics of Move It: "They say its gonna die but please lets face it, we just don't know whats going to replace it". Rock and roll had an amateurish image, and not taken seriously by the establishment of the music industry. As a result many singers were encouraged, and perhaps welcomed, moving into the more serious light music. Tommy Steele had gone down that path. Cliff Richard also began recording the more conventional type of songs and moved away from rock and roll. However the Shadows, as a guitar based band remained a restraining force in Cliff's music and helped to keep that rock element.

Cliff was very successful in films, and these kept all the ingredients of the music, i.e. using orchestral music but also retaining the Shadows, who also appeared in the films. There are at least 3 versions of the song "The Young Ones" both with and without orchestra, but always with the Shadows playing their essential part to this song.

Well Cliff Richard gradually parted from the Shadows and his songs became more orchestral. Nevertheless there were some really beautiful songs and much success. His material continued to be distinctly British and he was almost unique in upholding a certain tradition of that style of British popular music. Surprisingly he recorded a song composed by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, When Blue Turns to Grey. Congratulations in 1968 was a successful entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, coming in second place after La La La, and was a big hit. Throw Down a Line was a great song released in 1969 and written by Hank Marvin.

In 1976 Cliff had a new surge of popularity with the excellent Devil Woman in a much more rock-like style. This was followed by I Can't Ask for Any More Than You. Up-tempo and rhythmic and very different from anything he had done before by featuring some excellently performed falsetto singing. At this time was a very successful album "I'm Nearly Famous".

Meanwhile the Shadows had a minor comeback. They had a surprising vocal single, Let Me Be The One in 1975 which was a successful entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, coming second to Ding Dinge Dong (need I say more!). Then more success with instrumentals in 1978-1980 with Don't Cry for me Argentina, Theme from the Deer Hunter, and Riders in the Sky, but never had any more success with singles.

In 1981 Wired for Sound was another great song for Cliff with a distinctive video where he was roller skating wearing a Walkman.

He famously became a Christian and incorporated Christian music in his repertoire, particularly his live shows. Later he was knighted to become Sir Cliff Richard. He has the unique distinction of having had a number one hit in each of 5 consecutive decades, the 50's 60's 70's 80's and 90's.

Around 2003 Channel 4 did a survey of the most successful pop star in Britain, based on record sales. Cliff Richard came top, beating the Beatles and Elvis.

A note on Shadows records

The great original singles are on Shadows 20 golden greats. These are original recordings, but are still of excellent sound quality which shows the high standards of the time. The album String of Hits is misleading because contains all new work of the time of its release and not their original hits. The double CD 50 golden greats has versions of the original hits but I think I read that these had been re-recorded.

Links:

The official Sir Cliff Richard site: www.cliffrichard.org

Big discography site: www.cliffandshads.co.uk

Fanatical Shadows site: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/johndyhouse/welcome.htm