The older an artist grows, the more he or she is likely to start pumping out the live albums -- souvenirs, every time, of what might well prove to be the last time (and proof, cynics smirk, that the legs haven't quite gone just yet). And so it is with Cliff Richard, although, as The World Tour rumbles on, it's sometimes easy to forget that you are listening to (or, on the companion DVD, watching) a man who was then staring 64 in the face. Recorded during the U.K. leg of the outing in 2003, The World Tour is predictably little more than a showcase for the "greatest hits live," although with around 125 U.K. chart singles to choose from, there is still plenty of room for surprise -- "Born to Rock 'n' Roll," from the musical Time is one such; a sugar-sweet "I Honestly Love You" is another. But the highlights are those that you could list with your ears closed -- the opening flourish of "We Don't Talk Anymore," an energetic blast through "Move It," and a bunch of '50s rockers to prove where his heart has always been. In terms of all-around action, the DVD necessarily leaves the CD in the shade -- if nothing else, it boasts more tracks. But the 14 songs on the CD can rightly claim to be the best of the batch.
Track #
Track
Time
Composer
1
We Don't Talk Anymore
4:35
Tarney
2
Move It
3:14
Samwell
3
What's Love Got to Do With It
3:23
Britten, Lyle
4
Let Me Be the One
4:09
Eaton
5
All Shook Up
4:19
Presley, Blackwell
6
Like Strangers
4:15
Bryant
7
I Honestly Love You
3:45
Allen, Barry
8
Some People
3:57
Tarney
9
Dreamin'
3:49
Sayer, Tarney
10
Born to Rock 'N' Roll
4:44
Clark, Daniels, Soames
11
Medley: Too Much/Don't Be Cruel
3:41
Presley, Rosenberg, Weinman, Blackwell
12
No Particular Place to Go
3:22
Berry
13
Medley: Come Go With Me/Dream Lover/Since I Don't Have You
5:27
Beaumont, Darin, Lester, Martin, Quick, Rock, Taylor, Vogel, Verscharen
Cliff Richard's Silver, recorded to commemorate his 25th anniversary in music, is a fairly solid if slightly inconsistent piece of early-'80s pop/rock, tinged with elements of funk and soul. Some of it is a little too languid, or predictable, or just plain tuneless for its own good, but there are also some eminently danceable tracks that might've been handled just as well by the late-'70s Bee Gees -- "Never Say Die (Give a Little Bit More)," the single off of the album, and "Silver's Home Tonight," "Baby You're Dynamite," and "The Golden Days Are Over," are enjoyable later-era Richard rockers, and balance nicely with the gorgeous ballads "Ocean Deep" and "Please Don't Fall in Love." While some of the rest seems predictable and rather clunky, other tracks, such as "Love Stealer," show valiant (if not really successful) attempts by Richard to generate a harder rocking sound. The album was reissued on CD in 2002 with two bonus tracks, both previously unanthologized B-sides from the same sessions -- "Too Close to Heaven," which is a ballad with a hard electric guitar part that's as good as anything on the original LP, and "Lucille," done in a strange arrangement that runs from minimalist synthesizer accompaniment to full band with outsized percussion, all keeping a slow, funky beat. [The CD was remastered and reissued in 2002.]
With the Love Songs compilation having just returned Cliff Richard to the top of the U.K. chart and I'm No Hero having maintained the quality of his last couple of studio records, hopes were high for Wired for Sound, his first new LP of the 1980s. And, for the most part, the album lived up to those expectations. One might cringe a little at the lyrics to the title track -- the man's a musician; of course he likes listening to music. There really was no need to write a song about the fact. "'Cos I Love That Rock 'n' Roll" betrays a similar sense of built-in redundancy. Elsewhere, though, Wired for Sound continues driving into fresh (for Cliff Richard) territory, even as songs like "Say You Don't Mind," "Summer Rain," and "Young Love" restate the moody balladic parameters that he always stalked. Certainly nobody could have expected him to cover a Wreckless Eric number, but "Broken Doll" (from Eric's Big Smash album) sounds great in his hands, and one can only regret that Richard never got the chance to handle "Whole Wide World" as well -- according to Wreckless, he wanted to, but only if he could change some of the lyrics. The writer rightly refused. Alan Tarney's production is sharp and, this being the early '80s, bang up to date -- an attribute that does, sadly, tend to date the album just a little today. But it's still an enjoyable outing, one signaling that Richard's creative star remained firmly in the ascendant. [This U.K. edition features two bonus tracks, the non-album B-sides "Shakin' All Over" and "Hold On."]
UK remastered reissue of 1981 album for the British institution once known as 'Britain's answer to Elvis Presley'. 13 tracks including two non-LP B-sides as bonus tracks, 'Shaki...
Pop singer Cliff Richard never achieved the superstar status in the United States that he enjoyed at home in England, but he did have a handful of memorable hits. Two of those hits, "Dreaming" and "A Little in Love," came from 1980's I'm No Hero. Producer/arranger/bass guitarist Alan Tarney wrote most of the songs on I'm No Hero, a pleasant pop album. The Top Ten single "Dreaming" -- co-written by Tarney and '70s pop star Leo Sayer -- is a brilliantly catchy song with a great chorus and passionately aching vocals from Richard throughout. "A Little in Love" is more easygoing but no less enjoyable. "Take Another Look" and "In the Night" are winners too. Richard and Tarney stretch pop's elasticity with interesting arrangements on "I'm No Hero" (with hints of rockabilly, ska, and new wave) and the ballad "A Heart Will Break Tonight." The cover of the original U.S. I'm No Hero album features a shadowy photograph of Richard, whereas the U.K. CD reissue uses a silly illustration picturing Richard as a boxer. This U.K. CD also includes the B-sides "Dynamite" and "Keep On Looking" as bonus tracks.
UK remastered reissue of 1980 album for the British institution once known as 'Britain's answer to Elvis Presley'. 12 tracks including two non-LP B-sides as bonus tracks, 'Dynam...
Green Light is one of those "lost" late-'70s Cliff Richard albums, dating from the period in which he'd finally made his sound contemporary, but no one was paying too much attention. Everything here is a dead match for "Devil Woman," every bit as appealing and memorable and even better produced, with rippling lead guitars, crisp acoustic rhythm guitars, and elegant piano as part of a high-energy band sound. There isn't a bad song on the album, though the highlights include the title track, "Free My Soul," "While She's Young," and "Please Remember Me," the latter sounding like nothing less than a lost Eagles' number with its harmonies and guitar hooks. This is Richard at his most commercial and appealing, and is a record that deserved to be more widely heard, especially in the United States. Reissued on CD in 1992 paired off with the live album Thank You Very Much, and in 2002 with bonus tracks. [The set's 2002 reissue included three bonus tracks.]
Placing his rock & roll revival on hold for a few days, Cliff Richard and his regular band decamped to Abbey Road studios in January 1977 to cut a new inspirational album, Small Corners. With Richard himself producing, the entire album was bashed out in just three days, January 17-19, and the finished thing would retain that spontaneous air to emerge the most enjoyable and, in many ways least pious, of all Richard's religious offerings. Highlights are the two lightest-hearted numbers, "Good on the Sally Army" and "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music," but a lovely version of "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" is also sterling stuff -- in fact, the weakest number on the album is that selected as its one and only single, "Yes He Lives." Much of the credit for the album's strength must go to the musicians, who hit every number with the same force they normally employed on the rock records, but Richard himself seems determined that the fans should enjoy themselves, too, and the result is an album that fits snugly in alongside the remainder of his late-'70s output. [The 2007 reissue includes four bonus tracks.]
2007 Digitally Remastered Reissue in a Series of Releases that Makes Classic Albums by Sir Cliff Available in the Digital Age. All Titles in the Series Feature Tracks that were Pre...
I'm Nearly Famous is the album which marked Cliff Richard's return from the commercial and, in many ways, creative void which had consumed him since the end of the 1960s. Recorded with former Shadow Bruce Bennett in the production chair and boasting the most consistently excellent clutch of songs and performances Richard had mustered in over a decade, the album was previewed by the lovely "Miss You Night," opened with the neo-disco "I Can't Ask for Anything More," and peaked with "Devil Woman," a rocker which became his first ever U.S. Top Ten hit. But they were simply the best-known standouts. "It's No Use Pretending" was an anthemic ballad with more than a hint of Elton John around its execution -- quite coincidentally, it was John's Rocket label which oversaw the album's American release. From the same writing team of Michael Allison and Peter Sill, the riff sodden rocking title track, too, has ghosts of John around it -- think "Crocodile Rock" meets "Bennie & the Jets." The tide flows both ways, however. Of course the two artists sound alike, but there was a time, when John was first breaking through, when a lot of people thought he sounded like Richard. Chicken? Meet the egg. There are a couple of less than stellar moments -- "Lovers" is basic big ballad by numbers, "Junior Cowboy" is the kind of ersatz country rocker which Richard had done much better in the past. What's important, however, is that once these would have been the highlights of a new Richard album; either that, or indistinguishable from all the other ballads and country rockers on board. This time around, they were simply a lull before the next masterpiece rolled out. I'm Nearly Famous rates, alongside David Cassidy's The Higher They Climb, among the most surprising albums of the mid-1970s, a record which was made in the face of both critical hostility and public indifference, yet managed to completely redefine its creator in the eyes of both. Cassidy, of course, never followed up his renaissance. Richard, on the other hand, hasn't looked back since. [The 2001 reissue adds six extra songs, including "Honky Tonk Angel" and "It's Only Me You've Left Behind"]
Cliff Richard has utilized a lot of guises and personae as a performer -- '50s rock 'n' roller, '60s pop/rock vocalist, Christian musician, '70s rock vocalist, and, since the 1980s, a general U.K. entertainment institution, with a knighthood. But how many listeners ever thought of him as a singer/songwriter? 31st of February was only ever issued in England, and is built on the work of Cliff Richard as a singer/songwriter. He was never known for his composing during the 1960s, and he proves amazingly good at it here; perhaps he was in the same boat as George Harrison, having stockpiled a brace of excellent original songs that just weren't appropriate for use in his earlier situation, but whatever their chronological origins, the original songs, mixed with some well-chosen outside compositions, make 31st of February a bit stronger than his solo albums of the late '60s and early '70s. It's something of a concept album as well, opening and closing with the same haunting Richard-composed tune, and featuring the same tastefully elegant accompaniment throughout; and there are some self-referential moments to his past, such as the very ornate, string orchestra-dominated remake of "Travelin' Light," sounding a bit like "Eleanor Rigby" or "Martha My Dear"; but most of it is hooked around newer material, such as "There You Go Again" and "Our Love Could Be So Real" (both Richard originals). His singing is expressive and subdued, and the elegance of the sound, including the amazingly restrained use of a string orchestra behind a moderately amplified electric accompaniment, coupled with the unified romantic nature of the songs, call to mind those Jimmy Webb/Richard Harris collaborations A Tramp Shining and The Yard Went on Forever, as well as Sinatra's concept albums of the '50s and early '60s. The best moments here are the reflective acoustic-textured songs, such as "Going Away" and the title track, but it's all pleasing and enjoyable, if rather short-lived as a career move. Richard's next studio album would be I'm Nearly Famous, with the career-redefining hit "Devil Woman." [The set's 2004 reissue featured four bonus tracks.]
Digitally remastered UK reissue, originally released in 1974 & only in England, features 18 tracks including 4 B-side bonus tracks, 'Celestial Houses', 'Days Of Love', 'Ashes To As...
Back to the topCliff Live at the Talk of the Town (Remastered)
Review by Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
Released:
1970
Label:
EMI Music Distribution
Rating:
Styles:
Contemporary Pop/Rock
AM Pop
Cliff Live at the Talk of the Town is one of the stranger live albums that anyone is likely to hear from a world-class performer, affording Cliff Richard the chance to sing in a relatively small-scale club setting. Dating from 1970 and produced by Norrie Paramor (who also conducts the orchestra), the record was -- typically for Richard's work of this era -- never released in the United States, but it was apparently reasonably successful in England, where it was released on the mid-priced Starline imprint. It's a strange and frustrating -- yet also eminently successful -- record, somewhat akin to Don't Stop Me Now, Richard's 1967 attempt at updating his music. He embraces a variety of sounds and repertoire here, including American R&B, Northern soul, Broadway show tunes, folk-rock, and pop/rock, and Richard proves good at all of it -- the only problem is that he doesn't stay with any particular repertoire for more than a song at a time, proving himself a powerful all-around entertainer in the process. Opening with a decently effective rendition of "Shout" backed by the female singing group the Breakaways (probably consisting of Vicki Haseman, Margot Quantrell, and Jean Ryder), he slides into the pop "All My Love," then into a strong performance of "Ain't Nothin' But a House Party," which he follows with a show tune medley that includes "If Ever I Would Leave You," and then an impassioned rendition of "Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon." Richard salutes his Shadows bandmate Hank Marvin with a medley of the latter's compositions, including "The Day I Met Marie" in a more engaging performance than the standard's single. He even works in his own solo guitar version of "A Taste of Honey" -- Hank Marvin need not have feared new competition, to judge from the evidence, but Richard does surprisingly well with the piece, and also accompanies himself on Tim Hardin's "The Lady Came from Baltimore." His version of "When I'm Sixty-Four" is a little embarrassing, featuring a rather broad, clunky brass-heavy band sound and lots of mugging, coming after Richard discussing his being referred to as "the old man of rock & roll." He then moves into Richard Harris territory on "What's More (I Don't Need Her)." He's in excellent voice throughout the performance and the recording is of exceptionally good quality, with a close, rich sound displaying lots of presence whether it's the core band backing Richard or the full orchestra. The only problem for most people will be the repertoire, which shifts too easily between pop, rock, and soul, with little acknowledgement of the singer's rock & roll roots, apart from his talk to the audience and memories of his work with Hank Marvin. [The remastered 2007 EMI edition features six bonus tracks.]
Track #
Track
Time
Composer
1
Intro: Congratulations
0:29
Martin, Coulter
2
Shout
3:33
Isley, Isley, Isley
3
All My Love
1:58
Arduini, Callander
4
Ain't Nothin' But a House Party
4:18
Fischer, Thomas
5
Something Good/If Ever I Would Leave You
4:14
Hammerstein, Loewe, Rodgers, Lerner
6
Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon
3:53
Diamond
7
Hanks Medley: London's Not Too Far/The Dreams That I Dream/The Day I Me
2007 Digitally Remastered Reissue in a Series of Releases that Makes Classic Albums by Sir Cliff Available in the Digital Age. All Titles in the Series Feature Tracks that were Pre...
Established 1958 was a tenth anniversary effort by Cliff Richard & the Shadows, reuniting singer and band after several years of establishing separate musical identities. It showcases the songwriting of the bandmembers -- Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch, Brian Bennett, and John Rostill, who, singly or in combination, wrote everything here -- and Richard's preferred style of the period, an adult pop/rock style not too far removed from what Neil Diamond was doing on the opposite side of the Atlantic (except that Richard didn't write songs). Seven vocal numbers feature Richard and seven mixed instrumental and vocal numbers showcase the band exclusively, but little of it ever gets near to the sounds contemporary to 1968, and it was albums like this -- far removed from Richard's efforts at sounding up-to-date, such as Don't Stop Me Now -- that pegged the singer as a British-only pop phenomenon for the next half-decade or more. "Oh La La" is the only up-to-date, real rock & roll number here, and it might've passed muster as a comeback single in the same manner that "Kentucky Rain" did for Elvis Presley, keeping his credibility alive at the time, separate from his movies, for those still listening -- it has some of the urgency and allure of Richard's best solo singles. Some of the other cuts, such as "Somewhere by the Sea," sort of rock, with a beat and some crunchy guitars out in front, and the novelty instrumental "The Magical Mrs. Clamps" shows off the most informal, comical side of the Shadows (who could sound like the early Nitty Gritty Dirt Band when they wanted to). Otherwise, this record is more identified by the slow, very sentimental ballad "The Girl on the Bus," which features Richard and the band with accompaniment arranged by producer Norrie Paramor, or "Maggie's Samba" by Brian Bennett, which sounds like part of a movie score in search of a film. It was a natural fit for U.K. listeners accustomed to Richard and with their own pop perceptions, but would have flown right past American listeners, although its has its moments and some nice, somewhat formalistic pop/rock virtuosity to recommend it four decades on. [The 2007 EMI reissue includes five bonus tracks.]
2007 Digitally Remastered Reissue in a Series of Releases that Makes Classic Albums by Sir Cliff Available in the Digital Age. All Titles in the Series Feature Tracks that were Pre...
Cliff Richard's third movie was his first to be simultaneously granted a full soundtrack album, as opposed to the four-track EPs which accompanied Serious Charge and Expresso Bongo -- it was, however, also the first to be conceived as a full-fledged musical, and the soundtrack for The Young Ones captures the sheer exuberance and joy of that concept. The story of a millionaire's pop-singing son who helps save a local youth club from closing, The Young Ones was promoted upon its release as "the first film ever to have three hits in the Top 10" -- a stupendous claim which actually sold itself short. Richard's "When the Girl in Your Arms" and the million-selling title track were joined not only by the Shadows' "The Savage," but also by the inclusion of "Living Doll" in the vaudeville routine. Aside from the Shadows (appearing in both instrumental and vocal roles), Richard is also accompanied by singer Grazina Frame -- the pair duet on "Nothing Is Impossible," while Frame alone performs "No-One for Me But Nicky." The implausibly polite-sounding Michael Sammes Singers, too, throw their considerable weight behind several performances, including "Mambo" and the aforementioned vaudeville routine, an eight-minute medley of corny jokes and lighthearted music which, unfortunately (but hardly surprisingly) works a lot better on film than on record. As a listening experience, then, the highlights of The Young Ones tend to be those you would expect -- Richard's solo performances ("Got a Funny Feeling," "We Say Yeah," "Lessons in Love") and the hit singles. Nevertheless, it remains an historic release, as its title track became the first single by a British artist ever to enter the chart at number one (on January 11, 1962), and only the fourth overall. Another domestic record was set by the song's six-week tenure in the pole position, a record which Richard retained until the Shadows, of all people, snatched it for themselves. The soundtrack itself topped the chart for another six weeks, and spent longer on the U.K. listings than any other Cliff Richard album before or since. And finally, The Young Ones, All Music Guide
Track #
Track
Time
Composer
1
Friday Night
2:50
Myers, Cass
2
Got a Funny Feeling
2:56
Marvin, Welch
3
Peace Pipe
2:13
Paramor
4
Nothing's Impossible
3:29
Myers, Cass
5
The Young Ones
3:11
Bennett, Tepper
6
All for One
4:51
Myers, Cass
7
Lessons in Love
2:50
Soloway, Wolfe
8
No One for Me But Nicky
3:26
Myers, Cass
9
What d'You Know We've Got a Show & Vaudeville Routine: Have a Smile for
This Cliff Richard album served as the soundtrack to the movie The Young Ones. Remastered and full of memorabilia relating to the film, the CD includes a 'History of the Movie' ess...
Tracing Cliff Richard's progress through his first four albums, one can only marvel at the ease with which he fit into whatever mold the material demanded. Bursting out on Cliff, slowing down on Cliff Sings, rocking up for Me and My Shadows (1960) -- by the time of Listen to Cliff!, he was arguably the most accomplished, and certainly the most adventurous, vocalist to emerge from the entire rock & roll boom, British or American. And from a exhaustingly maniacal "What'd I Say," through to a dementedly infectious "Beat Out Dat Rhythm on a Drum," there's not a soul that could touch him for versatility. The musician credits place Listen to Cliff in precisely the context which producer Norrie Paramor had been striving towards across those past changes -- it really does feature something for everyone. The Shadows back him on eight of the 16 tracks; Paramor's own orchestra take over for four more; and the impossibly exotically inclined Bernard Ebbinghouse Band are the impetus behind the album's most adventurously atypical cuts, the jazz-tinged "Almost Like Being in Love," the sleazy torch "Sentimental Journey," a furiously Latin "Lover," and, of course, "Beat Out That Rhythm on a Drum," a magnificent performance which falls somewhere between a lost James Bond theme and a debauched gypsy hootenanny. The musicians never take the easy route out of any situation. A rocking "Blue Moon" would have made a distinctly utilitarian Shadows showcase, so the Paramor Orchestra steps in instead. Similarly, the Orchestra would have swamped "Unchained Melody" in syrup -- so Cliff performs it with the Shadows, and a Hank Marvin guitar which is as heartfelt as the lyric. And finally, the Ebbinghouse team could have executed "Temptation" in their sleep. So Paramor takes that one as well, and combines with Cliff to devilish effect. The boy may look goofy on the album's back cover, but his performance here is almost sinful. In the final analysis, there might be a little too much going on for Listen to Cliff to be a truly successful album, and too much chopping and changing to sustain the listener's attention. But the performances are exemplary, the material is strong, and Norrie Paramor's original liner notes are an absolute treat as well. "Cliff felt that he wanted to give you something unusual this time," the producer tells us. He certainly succeeded on that count!
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