Born on 14th October, 1940, he turned 68 last week…Yes, Sir Cliff Richard celebrated his birthday last Tuesday.
When I was young, my father said I used to listen to his songs (and also Elvis Presley’s) – hit after hit. “Move it” was his first hit but I would very much prefer his slower songs such as “Constantly”, “Evergreen Tree”, “The minute you’re gone”, “Visions”, “The twelfth of never:, “How long is forever” and so on but my favourite songs by him would be his newer ones – “Miss you nights” and “Ocean Deep”.
Many other artistes have done covers of “Miss you nights” including the one-time very popular Irish boy band, Westlife (but I think Cliff does it better!) and there is even a Chinese version of “Ocean Deep” by Taiwanese singer, Emil Chau Wakin (Warning! Do not click the link if you are homophobic!).
From my cassette tape and cd collection
I have his greatest hits on cassette tape as well as on cd…and I also have the more recent cd that he recorded in Nashville – “Something’s going on” (See above picture) but judging from the amount of airplay it got, I don’t think it was very successful. There is one very nice song on the album actually – “I cannot give you my love” but most of the time, it seems that the deejays on the radio stations would rather play his evergreen hits. If you manage to catch TSA (formerly known as Coma Smith) on RedeFm (RTM, Kuching), you can bet that he will play a Cliff Richard song or two on his show.
Cliff Richard has done a number of duets with other singers. I like his “Suddenly” (from the movie, “Xanadu”) with Olivia Newton John and his “All I ask of you” (from Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical, “The Phantom of the Opera”) with Sarah Brightman isn’t too bad. I have not seen this album around though…
“Two’s company – Duets”, which is a collection of duets by Cliff with a number of renowned names in show biz. One of the songs in the line-up is a cover of the Carpenters’ “Yesterday Once More”, and listening to Cliff singing it, it certainly seems like yesterday…once more!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 