Any Cliff Richard fans on this board?

[Enraged_Ape]

My wife and I just finished watching the classic 1966 film Thunderbirds Are Go!, starring an all-puppet cast. Featured prominently in this film are true-to-life puppets of the mid-1960s group Cliff Richard and the Shadows.

Now, I remember Cliff Richard from his late 1970s hit "Devil Woman" and his duets with Olivia Newton-John (e.g., "Suddenly" from the movie Xanadu) from around that time. I always just wrote him off as a jokey footnote from the '70s. But apparently this guy was a heavy hitter in the music world. Cliff and the Shadows were apparently more successful in the UK than Elvis and the Beatles! They were, in fact, so successful that Cliff Richard was eventually KNIGHTED by Queen Elizabeth. He is indeed SIR Cliff Richard now.

My question is this: Is this an artist I need to have in my collection? I have always appreciated the "roots" of power pop, among whom I consider the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Big Star,Badfinger (funny how they all start with "B"s), and hey, hey, even the Monkees. And I really liked the tune played in Thunderbirds Are Go!. So do I need to start adding the ouvre of Sir Cliff Richard to my collection?

Any help on this at all would be appreciated, especially from my DU friends on "the other side of the pond" who probably better know what in the hell I'm talking about.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

1. I only know the name

Cliff Richard because I am a HUGE Young Ones fan. But I never figured out who Cliff Richard actually WAS.

Wanna talk about the Young Ones? I have every line of every episode memorized.

[Enraged_Ape]

3. The Young Ones was a great show

It is the only British comedy that I ever laughed out loud at. (I literally wept when Neil crashed that bus.) But I had no idea they mentioned Cliff Richard in that show.

[dolo amber]

5. Ode to Revolutionary Anarchist, Cliff Richard

"Oh Cliff!
Sometimes it must be difficult not to feel as if
You really are a cliff
When fascists keep trying to push you over it!
Are they the lemmings, or are you Cliff?
Or ARE you, Cliff?

:D

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

8. Ahahahahahahah

I officially love you. Can I send you money via paypal for making me love you?

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

7. WHAT?

Hell yeah, in fact in the last episode, Rick screams "CLIFF!" and he is pointing and the gag is that there is a gigantic billboard with Cliff Richard's picture on it, but he is actually talking about the very real cliff they are about to go over.

Cliff Richard is also mentioned in two other episodes of the Young Ones, making three mentions in the entire series.

[Brian Morans]

40. The Young Ones Theme Song was a Cliff Richard hit

from the movie of the same name:


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055626/

[GCP]

48. The other point of the joke

was that Cliff and the Shads made a film in the early 60's called "Summer Holiday" where they play a group of London bus-drivers who take a double-decker bus on vacation to Europe, meet girls etc. Cliff drove the bus - just like the one the Young Ones were on when they went over he cliff.
The Young Ones theme tune is from that film.
And Cliff was bigger than the Beatles for about the 2 weeks when they started their career - after "Please Please Me" he was left in the dust. BUT - he stayed around after they broke up and managed to keep on going through the 70's and 80's, when he made some really nice stuff like "Devil Woman", and "Miss You Nights".

[AlCzervik]

12. The Young ones, especially

Viv referred to him as a "Complete bastard" in almost every show.

[AngryAmish]

14. Dear darling fascist bully-boy

Send us some money, you bastard.

[gmoney]

16. "Dear?"

I think they make fun of him for starting the letter "Dear" so he changes it to "Darling"...

"Darling Fascist Bully-Boy..."

There's a band name for you...

[AngryAmish]

21. Are you sure?

'Cause I am not. Anyway, muy funny.

[GCP]

49. Boomshankar

May the seed of your loins grow in the womb of your woman (or something like that)!

[graywarrior]

2. Did he record "Torture" in the early 60's?

Or was the Chris Jenson?

[Enraged_Ape]

9. I think that was Chris Jensen

But that's a great guess!

[gmoney]

4. The butt of many jokes on "The Young Ones"

Rik was a HUGE Cliff Richard fan, branding him lame beyond all hope of course. Well, that and many other things...

The final episode, in the last scene, the boys steal a bus and do a mimic of Richard's movie "Summer Holiday" just before they all scream in horror "CLIFF!!!!" whereby they proceed to drive into a huge Cliff Richard billboard, through the billboard, then off a REAL cliff, where the bus bursts into flames, thus effectively ending the series without hope of sequel.

Isn't he sort of the UK equivalent of Neil Diamond or maybe Ricky Nelson?

on edit: of course, I forgot, but the theme song "Once in every lifetime..." is a Cliff Richard song... The Young Ones... right?

additional edit: The Young Ones is a Cliff Richard MOVIE as well, so effectively, the whole series is a great big Cliff Richard tribute, right?

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

10. Yet another

DUer I officially love now. Do you have the DVDs?

[gmoney]

19. Question about DVDs

The episode when it's bath night, Neil gets in the filthy bath with his guitar after Rik is done, then Rik turns out the lights on him... originally when it aired, Neil then sang "Hello darkness my old friend..." (the first line of Sounds of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel). On the VHS, this line is cut out, presumably due to royalties or something.

Is the line restored on the DVD?

(Boy, talk about a thread hijacking!)

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

20. Nope

as I have only seen the DVDs and I have never ever heard that sung on any episode.

I know exactly which one you are talking about, it's one of my favorite (Neil is later shown wearing only a shirt and a flowerpot) and I've never heard him sing that.

What a rip off, you mean there's stuff they didn't put on the DVDS????

[AngryAmish]

32. What are you going to do in there?

Photosynthesize?

BTW, when the shows were on MTV, they had the Simon & Garfunkel line in it.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

36. MTV is where I first saw the Young Ones

in about 1989 or so. Was watching with a boyfriend.

The next year, I met my husband and turns out he was a fanatical fan of The Young Ones, especially Viv. So he got me hooked.

[AngryAmish]

It was on MTV around 85-86

89 was second time around. I made my friends watch the show and they looked at me like I had 10000 heads.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

41. 85-86?

Guess I didn't catch it the first time, then. Or did I? Damn when DID I first see it? 85-86 I was a sophomore in high school. 89 I was in college.

Dunno. Sometime in 88 I smoked too much pot so that could be hampering this a bit.

ANYwho....

[AngryAmish]

44. Halloween 86 my buddy dressed as Vivian

in Champaign IL where I was going to college as a freshman. Watched the show the year or two before so that is how I can date when it was on MTV.

There is a very funny pic of my buddy and a Champaign police officer.

[AngryAmish]

37. dupe

I said dupe.

[Enraged_Ape]

11. My God, I had no idea Cliff Richard was so tied into that series

I remember the bus crash, but not the billboard. Just shows you how hip I was to Cliff Richard even then.

[qwertyMike]

24. Cliff starred in a movie

called "The Young Ones" in the early 1960's, pre-Beatles. 1961 I think.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055626/

It was a vehicle to cash in on his string of UK hits. He never broke into the US, not that he tried much.
He's still as big as, say, McCartney in the UK and still looks 17.

He's been born-again for decades and has been with every Billy Graham Crusade in Europe for 20-30 years. All the Moms loved him. Nice clean-cut boy. He never married.
He was a transition from the Elvis image to the haircut boys like Frankie Avalon and that crowd.

In 1986 Cliff re-released the Title Song from the movie with the cast of the TV show as part of the comic relief charity drive. Went to #1 in the UK.

[Enraged_Ape]

17. Hey, that's Hank B. Marvin on the far right of this picture

The guitarist for the Shadows. See, I'm starting to get hip to the whole Cliff Richard thing.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

22. Oh my I had no idea

the title of the show AND the theme song was tied into Cliff Richards, too.

I always wondered about the theme song, though....it never really seemed to fit the show, except in a tongue in cheek way.

"Once in every lifetime, comes a love like this, oh I need you and you need me...."

NEVER BE AFRAID!

[Bluebear]

6. He was much, much bigger in the UK but had some hits in the US

Once In A While was my favorite. Some People, Daddy's Home, Carrie, also jump out at me.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

13. NEIL!!!

The bathroom's free!

Unlike the country under the fascist Thatcherite junta!

[mitchum]

15. Bowie stole the Ziggy mullet from Richard

Keith Richards dropped the s from his last name back in the 60s because "Richard" sounded more "popstar" due to Cliff (he has since gone back to the s)

So, I guess Cliff is important.
He's also been some kind of celibate born-again for decades

[Enraged_Ape]

18. Cliff Richard celibate?

I could have sworn he and Olivia Newton-John were making "the beast with two backs" back in the day. What in the hell's the matter with that boy?

[disgruntled_goat]

23. my $0.0002

as a musician, i will get/keep something in my collection even if i dislike it, if it has even one good aspect to it.
example: The Carpenters. so much of their sound bothers me...but then there's Karen's voice. OMG. sure you haveta put up with her brother's wildly inappropriate fuzz guitar solos and MOR wimpiness, but her voice alone has me keeping a few select numbers in my collection.

by the same principle, I have 3 or so cliffies. he is MOR but a darn good voice. also, great production. plus on "a little in love" he gets some cool chorusy tones im still trying to figure out.
then again i might be a bit of a studio nerd. ;)

BTW, I discovered Cliff via an '82-'84 British comedy series called The Young Ones which is tremendously funny and also (probably) deserving of addition to your collection.

now you know. the rest. of the. story. :P

[Enraged_Ape]

25. Thanx for that!

I remember "A Little in Love".

Yeah, he did have a great voice. And I really liked the dumb song they play in Thunderbirds... It just had that twangy guitar British-invasion sound that is timeless.

[AngryAmish]

26. The Young Ones are now over twenty years old

God I am getting old.

Must...get...back...to...the...tomb...must...reanimate...

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

27. Yeah

but Adrian Edmonson's wife hasn't done too badly for herself, has she?

You know what's cool in watching the Young Ones on DVD? You catch cameos of all these British actors who were in other stuff later and it's cool to recognize them.

Robbie Coltrane is in one or two episodes.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

28. ...

[gmoney]

29. Alright, I'll bite...

Who is Ade Edmondson's wife? Emma Thompson?

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

30. Jennifer Saunders

of Absolutely Fabulous and French and Saunders fame.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

31. Here are both of them more recently

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

35. And a link to a picture

of Ade Edmonson's wife and his oldest daughter.

http://www.donfeatures.com/Recent/PIX/ppages/ppage5.htm

[acmavm]

33. I remember the name from years ago but all I've ever heard him sing

is on an incredible Van Morrison song, 'Whenever God Shines His Light'.

[AngryAmish]

34. Oh, by the way

Not too many Cliff Richards fans, but a few fanatical fans of The Young Ones.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

38. I prefer to call myself a "feral fan" of the show,

thankyouverymuch.

;)

[Brian Morans]

39. In the early sixties

he was a gay icon. He definitely influenced lesbian fashion... see?


Now he spends most of his time at Wimbledon, and the rest of the year penning schmaltzy Christmas numbers.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

42. That is a guy, right?

[Brian Morans]

43. Rather androgynous, isn't he? n/t

[GCP]

50. Most Brits believe he's gay although he's never come out

Not that there's anything wrong with that

[otohara]

45. I Met Him Once

we had him at the record store I was working at for an autograph party - I liked his music a lot.

[ForrestGump]

46. He was another that basically started as an Elvis imitator, back in

1958 (I think) -- an early hit was "Move It," a kind of Elvisy-EddieCochrany ditty. He had the Elvis lip curl down, too, to some extent. There were a LOT of wannabe-Elvis clones in the Uk back in the '50s, but he was the one that most persisted and who found his own musical path before long.

Not well known in the US except for some early '80s hits and 1973's "Devil Woman"(always liked that song). Went Frankie-Avalon-style pop balladeer in the early '60s and Europop by decade's end. Somewhere in the early '70s (1971?) he also did a pretty tasty little song called "Take Me High." He was good, but not anywhere near the Elvis-Beatles level.

The Shadows were really good and inspired, or helped to inspire plenty of British musicians who later hit it big.



Sir Cliff circa 1958. The UK's Elvis Lite.

[Enraged_Ape]

47. I really liked the Shadows' sound

I guess I'll have to look up their catalog on Amazon.

[T_i_B]

51. Cliff Richard

Tame 50's rocker who was very successful in the UK, sometimes referred to as "the peter pan of pop". He has had quite a few Christmas number 1 singles, starred in some OK musicals. Not to mention the singing at Wimbledon when rain stops play!

He is also a born-again Christian and his image is VERY square. He has a reputation for celibacy but many are convinced that he can't possibly be such. I don't mind him personally but there ya go.

[terrya]

52. Isn't he Sir Cliff Richard? Wasn't he knighted recently?