Exactly 50 years ago today (10 December 1961), Cliff Richard’s third film, The Young Ones, received a start-studded premiere in London’s West End.
Directed by Sidney J Furie, and written by Peter Myers and Ronald Cass (who also wrote most of the songs), the film tells the story of how Cliff and his friends try to save their youth club from an unscrupulous millionaire property developer (played by Robert Morley).
The film was originally intended to feature The Shadows in major acting roles alongside Cliff, Robert Morley and Carole Gray. But Richard O’Sullivan ended up taking the role intended for Hank Marvin and Melvyn Hayes played the part written for Jet Harris. The Shadows mainly appeared in the film as musicians.
The Young Ones soundtrack album went on to reach No. 1 on the UK album chart, while the title song – written by Sid Tepper and Roy Bennett – also topped the charts as a single.
Other classic Cliff songs featured in the film included ‘Living Doll’, ‘Lessons In Love’ and ‘When the Girl in Your Arms is the Girl in Your Heart’. The Shadows also performed a couple of instrumentals – ‘Peace Pipe’ and ‘The Savage’ – and wrote the songs ‘Got A Funny Feeling’ and ‘We Say Yeah’ for the soundtrack.
“When I became a ‘film star’ it was a very exciting time,” Sir Cliff remembers. “Suddenly, when The Shadows and I came onto the set, we’d have our own chairs with our names on the back. We’d have our own dressing rooms – no more sharing.
“If you were late filming on location you had a hotel. You didn’t have to go and find your own digs, which is what we’d been used to in the previous year or two when we were on tour and couldn’t afford hotels. So ‘film stardom’ brought a treatment that was absolutely phenomenal.
“When I look back on it now, I’m so glad we took the attitude of saying let’s just have fun together.”
Fans of Sir Cliff Richard are being given a chance to relive his recent Soulicious live arena tour with the release of a new DVD titled The Soulicious Tour: Live At The O2.
Also available in a deluxe Special Limited Edition, the DVD includes 18 of Cliff’s classic hits and fan favourites, plus live versions of the soul classics and brand new songs featured on his recent Soulicious duets album.
Joining Sir Cliff on stage at the O2 are legendary Motown songwriter Lamont Dozier, Fred Payne, Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davies, Jr., Percy Sledge, James Ingram and Jaki Graham.
Sir Cliff Richard is reportedly in talks with Olivia Newton-John to stage a series of shows together in Las Vegas.
Over the past six decades, the 71-year-old singer has had hits all over the world and has sold over 250 million records worldwide. But he has so far failed to crack the American market (although his single ‘Living Doll’ promised much when it reached No. 30 on the US charts in 1959).
Sir Cliff is hoping that a residency in Las Vegas will increase his chances of success with US audiences.
“Acts like Elvis and Little Richard were the reason I started, so it would mean a great deal to have at least one success over there,” Sir Cliff recently told Women’s Weekly magazine. “I’ve had nine Top 30 hits in America but never an identity. If I could just have one big hit I’d feel so much satisfaction.”
He added: “Olivia Newton-John and I have talked about joining forces to find a Las Vegas venue to perform at. Elton John recently told me: ‘I can’t understand why you never cracked it’. And I can’t either. It’s the land of rock ‘n’ roll – like Wimbledon is to tennis.”
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Despite being in his 53rd year as a singer, Sir Cliff Richard can still surprise his fans. In October he’ll be performing classic soul songs live onstage for the first time, alongside ten of the world’s greatest soul legends.
He’ll also be releasing an album of soul duets, titled Soulicious, which he recorded inMemphis with legendary Motown producer Lamont Dozier.
An eight-date Soulicious UK tour in October will see Sir Cliff performing onstage duets with his ‘soul partners’ from the album – including The Temptations’ Dennis Edwards, The Stylistics’ Russell Thompkins Jr., Candi Staton, Percy Sledge, Deniece Williams, Billy Paul, Lamont Dozier, Freda Payne, Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr., and Brenda Holloway. The soul stars will each sing one of their own hits onstage.
Produced and directed by TV celebrity David Gest, the tour will kick off with a show at the Capital FM Arena in Nottingham on Saturday 15 October. It will then visit the Manchester MEN Arena (17 October), Liverpool Echo Arena (19 October), Birmingham LG Arena (22 & 23 October), London O2 Arena (25 & 26 October) and Newcastle Metro Radio Arena (28 October).
“I’ve always sung with soul,” says Sir Cliff, “although no-one would have expected me to sing a bunch of soul songs. But I’m going to do my soul; they’re going to do their soul; and together we should end up sounding ‘soulicious’.”
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Sir Cliff Richard is to celebrate his 70th birthday with a series of six spectacular concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall between Monday, 11 October and Sunday, 17 October 2010.
The only night Sir Cliff won’t be performing during that week is Thursday, 14 October – his 70th birthday.
Accompanied by a Swing Band, Cliff will sing many of the hits from his 52 year career, along with a selection of songs from his forthcoming album, Bold as Brass.
The special 70th birthday shows follow Sir Cliff’s solo 50th Anniversary concerts in 2008, and his 36-date reunion tour with The Shadows in 2009 and 2010.
Sir Cliff – who had his first hit in 1958 with ‘Move It’ – has sold more than 250 million records to date. He is the only UK artist who has had a Number One hit in each of five decades from the 1950s to the 1990s.
Sir Cliff is also said to be launching his own brand of sparkling wine to mark his landmark birthday. He owns a vineyard in Portugal’s Algarve region, where he already produces his own brand of wine called Vida Nova.
Despite reaching the big ‘70’, and planning to perform on a gruelling six nights out of seven, Cliff insists he is as fit as ever … an inspiration to any Sh-Boom! readers who have also had to blow out 70 candles this year.
“I’m still driven,” says Cliff. “I never feel I’ve reached my peak.”
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While more and more over-50s are starting to get the hang of downloading music tracks from online retailers such as iTunes, Sir Cliff Richard says he’ll never be one of them.
He complains that the sound quality of downloaded music is inferior to the “unbeatable” sound from CDs.
“It’s very hard to beat a CD,” he told the BBC News website.“I like putting six CDs in the machine and playing them for two or three days.”
The 67-year-old pop legend also revealed that his favourite format is the 12″ vinyl album because, he said, you can read the sleeve “without getting a magnifying glass.”
Sir Cliff is hoping to top the UK singles chart again this weekend with his latest single ‘Thank You For a Lifetime’. If he manages to reach the top spot, it will be his fifteenth Number One.
Most significantly, though, he’ll become the first artist ever to score Number One hits across six decades.
However, Sir Cliff admitted that achieving a Number One hit in 2008 “did not have the same cachet” as topping the chart with ‘Living Doll’ in 1959 – at the start of his career.
“In those days, when you released a single, it was potentially a million-seller,” he told the BBC. “That’s completely out of the question now, because people just don’t buy singles.”
Many of Sir Cliff’s loyal fans are still buying singles though. Some are reportedly buying up hundreds of copies of his new CD single in an attempt to make sure it gets to Number One.
Even if Sir Cliff fails to top the charts again, it’s unlikely that his existing landmark achievement – scoring number one hits across five decades – will be beaten by any other artist. After all, these days many artists don’t even last five years, let alone five decades.
Johnny Nash’s reggae song ‘I Can See Clearly Now’ has been named the most-played summer song of the past year in a new survey undertaken by the UK’s Performing Right Society (PRS).
Originally written and recorded by Nash in 1972, ‘I Can See Clearly Now’ has been covered by many artists over the past three decades, including a 1993 hit version by Jimmy Cliff.
‘Walking On Sunshine’ by Katrina & The Waves came second in the PRS survey, with the Bryan Adams hit ‘Summer Of ‘69’ taking third place even though it only ever reached No. 42 on the UK charts.
The Kinks’ hit ‘Sunny Afternoon’ – written by the band’s Ray Davies – came fourth. Don Henley’s ‘The Boys Of Summer’ (apparently a common nickname for baseball players in America) is listed at Number 5 in the survey.
“The summer’s been a bit of a wash-out, so it’s great to hear these classic summer-time songs that remind us of the best of British weather,” said PRS chairman Ellis Rich. “All these summer songs have stood the test of time, which goes to show the importance of music in our lives and the nostalgia it brings, no matter what the weather forecast.”
The survey’s results are based on data compiled by the PRS in order to pay accurate royalties to its 60,000 composer, songwriter and music publisher members whenever their music is broadcast or publicly performed.
The full Top 10 is:
1. ‘I Can See Clearly Now’ – Johnny Nash (1972)
2. ‘Walking On Sunshine’ – Katrina & The Waves (1983)
Exactly 50 years ago today (10 December 1961), Cliff Richard’s third film, The Young Ones, received a start-studded premiere in London’s West End.
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