Cliff Richard - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1958-1960

Here's another artist for my BBC project. British singer Cliff Richard is a minor musical footnote in the U.S., but he's a household name in Britain. He's sold over 250 million records worldwide, making him one of the top ten musicians of all time. He's also the third most successful singles artist in Britain, behind only Elvis Presley and the Beatles. Furthermore, he's been in the charts for an astoundingly long time, having had Number One hits in Britain for five decades in a row.

Due to all of that success, it's not surprise that he's done many BBC sessions over the years. I've prepared six BBC albums for him, and that only deals with his career from the late 1950s to the end of the 1970s.

There are some fair critiques one can make of Richard's musical career as a whole. It's very mainstream and show-biz, and he never was much for writing songs himself. However, his 1950s material, the subject of this volume, is different. Back then, plain ol' rock and roll was all the rage, and that's what he specialized in at the time. This album consists of a mix of songs that Richard made famous, such as his first hit, "Move It," which went to Number Two in Britain in 1958, and covers of rock and roll classics, with occasional change of pace ballads.

His rocking backing band would become quite accomplished in their own right. First known as the Drifters, they changed their name to the Shadows in 1959 due to legal problems because of the already established Drifters soul group in the US. They would go on to have many instrumental hits in Britain, including five Number Ones, while staying Richard's backing band until 1968. 

All of the recordings here have been officially released on a BBC compilation album called "Let Me Tell You Baby... It's Called Rock and Roll." I removed a few songs that were performed more than once. I also removed a bunch of instrumentals by the Drifters/Shadows, since I wanted to keep the focus on Richard. However, I kept one instrumental, "Apache," since it was such a huge hit, staying at Number One for five weeks in Britain in 1960. (A cover version by Jorgen Ingmann topped the charts in the U.S.) I put that at the very end though, as a quasi-bonus track.

The sound quality starts out a bit rocky. The first four songs come from a 1958 recording session, and the quality of those songs are merely good, not excellent. But hang on, because it sounds much better for the rest. We're lucky these recordings survived at all, since the BBC didn't generally keep copies of their shows and these date all the way back to the 1950s.

This album is 58 minutes long. 

01 Move It (Cliff Richard & the Drifters)
02 My Babe (Cliff Richard & the Drifters)
03 Summertime Blues (Cliff Richard & the Drifters)
04 Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On (Cliff Richard & the Drifters)
05 Baby I Don't Care (Cliff Richard & the Drifters)
06 Down the Line (Cliff Richard & the Drifters)
07 C'mon Everybody (Cliff Richard & the Drifters)
08 Steady with You (Cliff Richard & the Drifters)
09 Ready Teddy (Cliff Richard & the Drifters)
10 Apron Strings (Cliff Richard & the Drifters)
11 Never Mind (Cliff Richard & the Drifters)
12 Danny (Cliff Richard & the Drifters)
13 Don't Bug Me Baby (Cliff Richard & the Drifters)
14 Dream Lover (Cliff Richard & the Drifters)
15 Mean Streak (Cliff Richard & the Drifters)
16 Rip It Up (Cliff Richard & the Drifters)
17 Living Doll (Cliff Richard & the Drifters)
18 Dynamite (Cliff Richard & the Drifters)
19 I'm in Love Again (Cliff Richard & the Drifters)
20 You're Just the One to Do It (Cliff Richard & the Shadows)
21 What'd I Say (Cliff Richard & the Shadows)
22 Where Is My Heart (Cliff Richard & the Shadows)
23 Please Don't Tease (Cliff Richard & the Shadows)
24 Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes (Cliff Richard & the Shadows)
25 Apache [Instrumental] (Shadows)

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The cover photo is from a 1959 concert in England. I believe that's Bruce Welch of the shadows on guitar behind Richard.