Cliff Richard - Back from the Wilderness Singles and Albums 1975 - 1995

He did not. He undertook a long period of touring in 1980/81, and that resulted in a slew of hits, adding "Give A Little Bit More" from the "I´m No Hero" album to the list. It only peaked at No. 41, but it was not released as a single elsewhere. ("Keep On Looking" was the B-side, for those who are keeping score.) Of course, the A-side was covered by Johnny Logan as "Give A Little Bit More (Too Much, Too Soon)", and released as a single in the UK and Ireland. It reached No. 25 in Ireland, but never troubled the charts in the UK. I like Johnny Logan, but this song had a very busy and unorganized arrangement.

 

Cliff Richard | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company »

These are all Cliff's UK singles and albums and their chart peaks.

Not trying to upstage @Jarleboy. I hope he knows that.

 

I love Keep On Looking. It should have made the album.

 

As I´ve stated earlier, you´re a gentleman. I stand by that evaluation. (And if you happened to be trying to upstage me, I wouldn´t have minded. It´s all about the music for me. )

 

For some reason, that both surprises and pleases me. I generally love Alan Tarney´s songs from the late 70s and the 80s, including both production work and songwriting, and "Keep On Looking" is definitely one my favourites. It´s uptempo, energetic and playful. One of those great B-sides that could have been an album track. We´ll come back to that song in a few weeks.

 

It also didn't help that he was nearing 40 when he started having some success here.

 

Yes, that's never good is it? No matter who you are.

I think Tina Turner was the only one to overcome this and have regular chart success afterwards.

 

Yes, what a second stab at a career she had! She never cared much for the songs herself, but the rest of us did! Etta James also had career resurgence late in her career, but that was in terms of the critics, not so much in sales. Great albums, though.

 

But Tina had an established name at least in the states. Cliff didn't. Which made making it in the states harder for Cliff.

 

True, though I suppose a lot of the kids buying Private Dancer in 1984 might not be familiar with her work with Ike. She'd be new to them.

 

I've listened to more than 1,600 albums and numerous non-albums singles from 1976, yet I'd never heard of the songs or artists at no. 1 and no. 3 on this chart. Turns out one of them was the recipient of a Terry Britten co-write. I'm also unfamiliar with no.'s 12, 23, and 26, though each looks fairly interesting. No. 29 kinda had me scratching, but I think I did stumble on some TOTP upload on YouTube a few years back of some little boys... (Googles)... yep, that's them.

 

Number's 1 and 3 were one hit wonders. The former one of those awful, treacly, spoken country songs. I've no idea why it went to the top... Country music never did especially well here.

Robin Sarstedt was the brother of Peter, of course. I did quite like My Resistance Is Low. He tried a few more reworkings of standards, but it only worked once.

Our Kid really were a boy band. They won the UK talent show New Faces that year. However You Just Might See Me Cry was their only hit.

The Mud song at #12 was one of their last hits. It's actually not bad and grows on you with repeated plays. Think Mud go disco.

Jungle Rock at #23 was an old fifties song that had entered the charts for some reason. It ended up going top 3.

The Flasher at #26 even I can't remember. I don't think I dare look it up.

 

"Jungle Rock" was an old track that was recorded in the fifties, and then thought lost. It was found again in the early seventies, and seeing that the 50s were back in vogue, it was released and was a hit. Nice story.

 

Oh thanks. I always wondered why it became a hit. I suppose with Happy Days and Showaddywaddy, the 50s were back in 1976.

I remember Legs & Co dancing to Jungle Rock on Top Of The Pops.

 

Mr. Richard, while at Epic, did occasionally record in the States - produced in New York by Bob Morgan and in Nashville by Morgan and Billy Sherrill.

 

That´s right, and the two big hits that came out of those collaborations were his cover of Sonny James´ "The Minute You´re Gone" and "Wind Me Up (Let Me Go)", Nos. 1 and 2, respectively. Several other tracks were recorded.

 

I'm almost convinced Cliff is playing guitar here...except that it sounds like a 12 string guitar.

 

One aspect of this period of Cliff´s career that doesn´t always recieve the attention it deserves is the Tony Rivers vocal group. Without them. "Miss You Nights" wouldn´t be as impressive, "Devil Woman" and "I Can´t Ask for Anymore Than You" wouldn´t have been as effective etc. They put their mark on so many Cliff songs from the mid- to late 70s and throughout the 80s, and always for the better, I think.

Led by Tony Rivers, real name Douglas Anthony Thompson, it consisted of John Perry and Stuart Calver. Tony Rivers had also been a member of the bands Tony Rivers & The Castaways and Harmony Grass. In addition to Cliff, they worked with Steve Harley, Shakin' Stevens, Sheena Easton, Soft Machine, UFO, Pink Floyd ("The Final Cut"), The Who and others. He sang lead on West Ham F.C.´s "I´m Forver Blowing Bubbles" and the theme for "Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?". He also sang on Saint Etienne´s 2005 album "Tales from Turnpike House". (Thanks to Wikipedia for those kernels of knowledge.)

Another nice little kernel of knowledge NOT from Wikipedia: John Perry from this group recorded solo albums, and Cliff covered one of his songs, the lovely "Be in My Heart" from the 1982 album "Now You See Me, Now You Don´t".

 

I also wondered about that. Cliff can play the guitar, but I´m not sure he is this good! He probably is.

 

I didn't really remember that Mud song but I saw them on the TOTP repeats and really liked it. At least they went out on a kind of high I suppose...

 

I know. It was right at the start of the TOTP repeats. Before they started mucking about scrapping episodes. Shake It Down seemed to be on every week.

I remember saying to someone at work that I had no memory of the song from 1976. He said he hadn't either. Odd, as the position it reached, #12, meant something then. It was a decent sized hit.

 

As you say it was featured on the show enough, not sure why....

 

The Flasher was a brass-led up-tempo instrumental, popular in Northern Soul clubs.

 

Just popping by to say that I'm really enjoying reading through this thread.

Unfortunately, I was away this week and so was only able to look at it properly tonight but this is great because what I've been looking at so far is a period that I don't have a lot from him (got tons of early stuff, with the Shads too of course and pretty much everything from after Devil Woman onwards.) I'm picking up the singles too, so this is all fascinating and I'm looking at building as near to a comprehensive collection of Cliff as is reasonably possible. It is no mean feat but having about 40 singles and 60 albums to date (including compilations) so I'm not doing half bad!

Please, don't mind me and carry on...

 

Feel free to join in. We've only done 5 singles so far. We've got a long way to go.

@Jarleboy assures me it's the I'm Nearly Famous album tomorrow.