bhowells

I'll put my hand up and yes I do. He's dropped some clangers in his time,"Heatchclffe." "Misletoe and WINE." "Millenium Prayer." but its a pity he gets slagged off so much.

He recorded some decenct enough stuff in the seventies from "Miss You Nights" onwards.

I like his late sixties period when he did covers of Neil Diamonds,"Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon" and Tim Hardins "Hang on to a Dream.

Admittedly early sixtes stuff like,"Theme for a Dream" was very twee,

I would have to say that in his rock and roll days at the beginiing he was no match for Elvis.

Its highly unkikely that he wil ever be critically re-apraised in years to come but hell like him or loathe him he is a national treasure.

Harleybloke

Our two office ladies at work.......they're both over 60.....................

.....You couldn't hear it, if they were shooting at me with howitzers!

Grey Wyler

I can't say i'm all that keen on the man, but Throw Down A Line from 1968 is an absolute classic song. Certainly a Desert Island Disc for me .

Marky B

I wouldn't say I am a big fan of him,but I do have a lot of respect for him for his longevity in the music business. I would say for the amount of time he has been in the charts - six decades - I would seriously rate him as pop music's number 1 survivor.
My late sister was a big fan of him,and so is my sister in law.
Ta Ta
Marky B

I once shot an elephant in my pyjamas - how he got in my pyjamas,I'll never know

Jackdaw

I thought he was good with The Shadows in the late 50's and early 60's, but he fell victim to the "all-round entertainer" aspiration, and very soon he was doing soft-shoe shuffles and singing dreadful show numbers with the boys and girls.
His problem seems to be that he still sees himself as cutting-edge and can't understand that he's got no rock credibility. He traded that in for a showbiz career many years ago, and he can't have it both ways.
Pity, because he's a pretty good singer.

billy bentley

You can't record a tune like "Congratulations" and not expect to get some stick. Still "Move It" and "Wired For Sound" aren't bad at all.

davidb

i was going to say wired for sound ! remember him doing it on pebble mill at one !

donna

Have to admit had a big poster of him on my wall in the early 60s... oh well.

David Brent

Cliff Richard and the Shadows commence a 50th Anniversary Celebration Tour in Australia next month.
They are mostly playing small venues and clubs but have a very loyal fan base.

You have to pay Cliff and the Shadows their dues - 50 years in the business and some 250 million record sales worldwide.
They were never quite as big away from the UK but they certainly recorded some great tunes in the 50's and 60's.

Dave.

scholes

'Please don't tease' was my favourite, although 'Wired for sound' revitalised his career in 1981, when he was still young enough to compete with contemporaries of the time.
The Christamas songs became tedious and culminated in 'The Lords Prayer '.
I dont really have a problem with Cliff though.
The Young Ones was a very memorable film for me as a Junior.

David Brent

I imagine there are a lot of guys on this forum who grew up standing in front of a mirror, armed with a cricket bat, imitating Hank Marvin's guitar playing and movements.

Come on - admit it guys.

Dave.

donna

In the Glasgow Palais we had a dance we did copied from the Shadows, how sad is that.

earlb

As a sound engineer at Radio Luxembourg in the 60's I recorded his radio series. I would state that he is a thoroughly decent Gentleman and in all the time I knew him I never heard a cross word to or about anyone. I still have the tapes. A photo of me and Cliff can be seen at
208 It was Great Radio Luxembourg - Home

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

ShirlGirl

You can be sure the majority of his audiences in Oz will be female, over 60, and English-born.

Personally I can't stand him. I liked him in the 60s, but haven't taken much notice of him since then. He seemed to become rather arrogant and full of himself over the years. I saw him on YouTube just the other day and realised just how much I didn't like him any more. He was ruining a good song and I switched off. I know he had to update himself to keep his career going, but I don't like his style one little bit.

Mr Cosmo

Not sure why people feel compelled to snigger and slag off Cliff Richard. I own up to having grown up with Cliff & The Shads music in the house and bought many of his singles and I have around 12 of his albums - some of which I only got last year and some of them are excellent.
Not every track has been a classic. I can't stand "Congratulations" but a track like "Help It Along" more than makes up for that.
Filmwise I have the Young Ones / Summer Holiday / Wonderful Life boxed set. (Wonderful Life was a disappointment when I saw it in the cinema I must admit.) I also have Serious Charge and Two A Penny. Less keen on Take Me High and Findes Keepers wasn't bad. I have seen Cliff 4 times and he has always put on an excellent show although last time he went on about Jesus a bit too much.

Here's my story about Cliff.
One Saturday afternoon in Glasgow around 1970, I was walking up Buchanan Street with my girlfriend and we noticed that there was a large crowd outside a church in West George Place (since renamed Nelson Mandela Place - I kid you not). We thought it was just a wedding but there were loads of people and lots of girls started screaming and suddenly someone ran outof a side door being pursued by about 50 girls. He was legging it as fast as he could to a car that was behind us in St Vincent Street. As he rushed past I looked and got a surporise when I saw who it was. I turned to my girlfriend I said "Wasn't that Cliff Richard?" But she wasn't there. She had joined the pack in pursuit of the man and I last saw him diving head first into the back seat of the car which then drove off pretty fast.
We found out later he had been best man at his friend's wedding and word obviously got out. Not sure he ever made it to the reception!