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

You could say that. Except that I have all my Cliff CD-singles right there on the shelf, right next to the relevant album. (Or, irrelevant album, in this case...) So I may have a shorter way to my copy of the single. I haven´t listened to it yet, but I intend to.

 

You´re right, of course. I hang my head in shame... and not for the first time. Don´t know what I was thinking.

At least we can agree that it´s a lovely song!

 

Single No. 128: 1999 July 26 — UK — EMI CDEMS 546
A-side: "THE MIRACLE" (Written by Brenda Lee Eager, Zoe Fox & Terry Wollman)
B-side: "HOPE, FAITH AND YOU" (Written by Phil Campbell)
B-side: "THE TWELFTH OF NEVER" Live 1998 (Written by Jerry Livingston & Paul Francis Webster)
B-side: "JUST DON´T SAY GOODBYE" (Written by James & Robin Lerner (first names unknown))
B-side: "MOVE IT" Live 1998 (Written by Ian Ralph Samwell)
Produced by Peter Wolf









A promo CD-single of "VITA MIA" was released at the end of 1998, but since it was only a promo release, I won´t comment on the song until we get to the album.

Listening to the "REAL AS I WANNA BE" album, I feel it starts very promisingly with the title track, but you soon get overpowered by bland ballads en masse. In this context, "THE MIRACLE" raises its head as a gospel pop powerhouse. It´s all about the context. The song is rhythmically more interesting than most of the other tracks on the album, and even though it´s hardly classic Cliff, it´s my second favourite track on the album. Syncopated rhythms, handclaps and a good vocal from Cliff makes it sound promising. It failed to crack the UK Top Ten, but peaking at No. 23 was not that bad at this stage of Cliff´s career. It was a single that was released a long time after the album, in what was probably an attempt to recreate interest in the less-than-successful album, so the chart position was acceptable.

Robert Porter:
The Miracle
(Brenda Lee Eager, Zoe Fox & Terry Wollman)
Running Time: 3:26
This is the same as on the Real As I Wanna Be album.

Hope Faith And You
(Phil Campbell)
Running Time: 3:53
This is an original B-side.

The Twelfth Of Never (Live)
(Jerry Livingston & Paul Francis Webster)
Running Time: 3:47
This is an original B-side. It is a live performance from a September 1998 concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Just Don't Say Goodbye
(James & Robin Lerner (first names unknown))
Running Time: 3:27
This is an original B-side.

Move It (Live)
(Ian Ralph Samwell)
Running Time: 3:25
This is an original B-side. It is a live performance from a September 1998 concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Note that the The Miracle CD singles claim that the live performances of The Twelfth Of Never and Move It are from a 1999 performance at the Royal Albert Hall. This is surely incorrect as these are the same performances as on the The 40th Anniversary Concert videotape (released in 1998) which dates the performance from September 1998. The performances are directly lifted from the videotape release, although the spoken intro is left off of The Twelfth Of Never.

"Surprisingly, some of the better songs [on Real As I Wanna Be] such as Even If It Breaks My Heart and United For Evermore with their Bee-Gees-style harmonies were never released as singles. Instead the more mundane Can't Keep This Feeling In (not the remix) and the gospel-flavoured The Miracle were chosen. The album and the first single both peaked at number ten on the album's release in October 1998. The Miracle failed to chart." (Edit: This is not correct. The single peaked at No. 23.)
Steve Turner (2008 January - Cliff Richard - The Biography (revised edition))

• Running Time: 3:26
• Record Date: March to April 1996 & November 1997
• Record Location: Little America Recording Studios, Weiler, Austria
• Written By: Brenda Lee Eager, Zoe Fox & Terry Wollman
• Produced By: Peter Wolf
• Engineered By: Christian Leitgeb, Chris Heil, Paul Erickson and/or Keith Bessey
• Performed By: Cliff Richard (vocals), Peter Wolf (keyboards, bass, percussion), Vinnie Colaiuta (drums), Paul Jackson Jr. (guitar), Michelle Wolf (backing vocals), Lynn Davis (backing vocals), Kevin Dorsey (backing vocals), Siedah Garrett (backing vocals), James Ingram (backing vocals), Phil Perry (backing vocals)

About the writers:
Brenda Lee Eager (born August 8, 1947) is an American soul singer, songwriter and musical theatre performer who has written and performed several hits, including "Ain't Understanding Mellow", "Close to You", and "Somebody's Somebody".

Life and career
She was born in Mobile, Alabama, and brought up in the small town of Lower Peach Tree, where she began singing in church as a child. She also started writing songs, and by the tenth grade led her own vocal group. She first sang professionally at the age of 17 at the Kings Club in Prichard, Alabama.

She later relocated to Chicago, Illinois, and by 1971 was the lead singer in Jerry Butler's backup group. She recorded several singles with Butler, the first of which, "Ain't Understanding Mellow", was her biggest chart success, reaching # 3 on the Billboard R&B chart and # 21 on the Hot 100. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A in April 1972. Their duet version of "(They Long to Be) Close to You" reached # 6 on the R&B chart and # 91 on the pop chart in 1972. She also sang regularly in Rev. Jesse Jackson's Operation Breadbasket Choir in Chicago in the early 1970s.

As a solo singer, she had two minor R&B chart hits, "Good Old Fashioned Lovin'" (Playboy Records, 1975) and "Watch My Body Talk" (Private-I Records, 1984). She worked as a backup singer for such artists as Ray Charles, Mavis Staples, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder and Graham Nash. She has also written songs recorded by Bobby Womack, the Staples Singers, Aretha Franklin, Cliff Richard, Gladys Knight, Shirley Brown, Prince, and others. She released an album, Startin' Over, in 2000.

She performed in the musicals The Message is in the Music, alongside Della Reese, and Wild Woman Blues, in Europe with blues singer Maine Weldon. Since 2006, she has directed The Heaven on Earth (T.H.E.) Choir at the City of Angels Church in Culver City, California. She has also written and performed in a one-woman musical theatre show based on her own life, Grace, which premiered in Los Angeles in 2010.

I could find no information about Zoe Fox, but found this on
Terry Wollman (born October 20, 1956 in Miami, Florida) is a Billboard charting American Jazz/Pop musician. He is a music director, guitarist, producer and composer, currently living in Los Angeles, California. By the end of 2012, he has released six albums, including "Bimini (1988)," "Say Yes (1998)," "Baila (2000)","Sleep Suite (2004)," "Buddha's Ear (2011)," "A Joyful Noise (2012)," and "Silver Collection (2014)."

Biography
Terry Wollman moved to Los Angeles in 1981 after graduating from Berklee College of Music with a degree in Arranging. He quickly built a solid reputation as an in-demand music director, guitarist, producer and composer. Terry has performed with an array of artists including Billy Preston, The 5th Dimension, Wilson Phillips, Al Jarreau, Joan Baez, Joe Walsh, Keb' Mo', Little Richard, Gerald Albright and Eartha Kitt. Terry’s TV credits include stints on “Scrubs," “The Tonight Show," “The Late Show," and “The Byron Allen Show." Terry's 1988 debut recording, “Bimini," a contemporary jazz collection with Joe Sample on piano, Ernie Watts on sax, received worldwide critical acclaim. His second album, “Say Yes," was released in 1998 and featured a well-known array of guest artists such as Joe Sample, Abraham Laboriel, John Robinson, Luis Conte and Michael McDonald. Moving into the pop world, Terry co-wrote and produced a high-energy dance record for the supergroup Baila, entitled “Shall We Dance?”. Soon after, Terry produced and co-wrote the uniquely themed “Sleep Suite," a musical collaboration between the arts and sciences.

“Buddha’s Ear," his fifth release, was influenced by his world travels. In his usual style, he once again brings together an all-star band. His single, "Mandela" (co-written with Keb’ Mo’), spent 5 months on Billboard’s Top 20 and hit No. 1 on Smooth Jazz Top 20 and No. 4 on the Billboard charts. "A Joyful Noise," Terry's first Christmas album, reunites his longtime friends Ricky Lawson, Abraham Laboriel, Wally Minko, and Lenny Castro to put his own unique spin on holiday classics. Special guests include Melissa Manchester, Melanie Taylor, Perla Batalla, Ellis Hall, Mindi Abair, Eric Marienthal, and John Robinson.

In 2013, he began working with Melissa Manchester on her first studio album in ten years as co-producer. The album "You Gotta Love the Life" was released January 10, 2015.

I happen to like this single, and find it to be on the same level as "HEALING LOVE" from "THE ALBUM". To me, that´s a good thing. Having said that, I think the two singles highlight an aspect of both "THE ALBUM" and "REAL AS I WANNA BE". Before 1992, most songs released by Cliff were written and also often produced by someone from the nucleus of musicians around The Shadows, Cliff and Olivia. This includes all the singles and albums from the start of his career until "STRONGER". True, many of the songs were covers, but B-sides were mostly written by the same people, and production duties were given to Bruce Welch, Alan Tarney, Terry Britten and other members from the same group of musicians. This gave Cliff´s sound and musical choices a consistency that took him through many changes in the world of pop music. Not everything was successful, but there was a consistent approach to the music.

"THE ALBUM" had some contributions from Bruce Welch and a few other members of his "usual gang" of musicians, but a lot of the music was written by people from the outside. Nothing wrong in that - it can lead to more diversity. In my opinion, it led to more blandness, both in "THE ALBUM" and later "REAL AS I WANNA BE".

Sermon over. I am not saying that this move was a mistake for Cliff, but I feel that there is a difference between the albums in the late 90s and his previous ones. (An exception is, of course, "SONGS FROM HEATHCLIFF", which was a product of John Farrar´s songs and production work and Tim Rice´s lyrics.)

Just something to think about.

Here´s the video - a live version from his 40th anniversary concert in the Royal Albert Hall:

 

"HOPE, FAITH AND YOU" was another in a fairly long line of religiously themed ballads. Written by Phil Campbell. My guess is this is NOT the member of MOTORHEAD, but a musician, born in 1979, formerly of White Buffalo, and now a member of The Temperance Movement (band). This is just a guess...

To me, this song sounds so much like so many Cliff ballads, sung with lots of vibrato. Not bad, but nothing to get excited about.

 

"THE TWELFTH OF NEVER" was a hit for Johnny Mathis, and would later be a smash for Donny Osmond. Cliff´s 1964 version was quite good, and the B-side, "I´M AFRAID TO GO HOME" was even better. (IMO.) Cliff revived the song in the late 90s, and it has since featured in many of his live perfomances, often as a "soulful" duet rendition. I think I prefer the simplicity his original recording.

This is the 1998 version, from the same concert from which "THE MIRACLE" was taken. (I can´t guarantee that this was the live single version.)

 

No concert without "MOVE IT", the song that started it all, 40 years before this live performance. A very durable song, indeed.

(NB! This version includes the extra verses first heard on Hank Marvin´s version, featuring Cliff on vocals. This studio version can be found on the "HANK PLAYS CLIFF" album.)

 

I still can´t find a video for "JUST DON´T SAY GOODBYE", and I haven´t been able to listen to the CD-single. I´ll report back when I have. I couldn´t fin any information about the writers.

Edit: I dug a little bit deeper, and found this:
Tommy Lee James is an American country music songwriter and record producer with Still Working Music Group. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, he is originally from Roanoke, Virginia.

He graduated from Northside High School then attended Radford University where he studied voice. He moved to Nashville with dreams of becoming an artist, but then became a full-time songwriter.

James is the writer of a number of hit songs including Reba McEntire's "And Still," Brooks & Dunn's "A Man This Lonely," Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn's duet "If You See Him/If You See Her," Martina McBride's "Wrong Again," Cyndi Thomson's "What I Really Meant to Say," and Tim McGraw's "She’s My Kind of Rain". All these songs went to number one on the charts.

James had an additional chart topping success with "I Wish" recorded by Jo Dee Messina and "Let's Be Us Again" recorded by Lonestar which was a top 4 hit. He also co-wrote the critically acclaimed single by Gary Allan entitled "Life Ain't Always Beautiful."

James has had many other cuts with artists such as Cliff Richard, 98 Degrees, Pam Tillis, Blue County, Emerson Drive, Jedd Hughes, Little Big Town, Delta Goodrem, and Pussycat Dolls.

In addition to being a writer, James also produced Capitol Records recording artists Cyndi Thomson, Susan Ashton and Emily West; Big Machine artist Danielle Peck; and former Lonestar vocalist Richie McDonald .

James' success continues in 2012 with Joe Walsh's new album, Analog Man, which was released on June 5th, 2012 (co-produced by Jeff Lynne), and One Direction's new record, "Take Me Home."

The closest I got to information on Robin Lerner was an ice-hockey player named Robin Lehner. However, I did find out that Robin Lerner also writes for country artists, among them Randy Travis.

 

You know, I'd not thought about that 'Shadows Influence', but you're right of course. Some major influence on Cliff's career from the very beginning until 1990 and STRONGER is some going for that circle of musicians. Then less so, but still there right up until 2001 and WANTED.

 

Yes, I just realised yesterday how unappreciated those musicians have been in terms of their long term influence on Cliff´s fortunes in his market. I mean, everybody understands how important the actual Shadows were. Less appreciation abounds for their more "hidden" years. We have not understood - that is, I haven´t - how much they meant for him as producers, arrangers and composers. You notice it when they´re gone.

 

Thanks for all info as always, also your corrections, shows you don't just copy things but you read them as well!
"The Miracle" does nothing for me at all. Just think it is tuneless. Probably have never even played the single.

"Hope, Faith and You" I do like though I like the tune and the words, and think Cliff sings it well.
A lovely song.

 

What I like about the song is the opening - the intro and the gospel backing vocals, the handclaps and the rhythm. It is a bit aimless, perhaps, with little forward motion.

And it´s one of the few songs on the album that´s not some kind of a ballad. Perhaps that´s why I sort of like it.

 

I´ve been scouring the Internet, hoping to find a copy of the "POWER TO ALL OUR FRIENDS" compilations on CD.

I came across some OOP Cliff albums and compilations. The remastered "GREEN LIGHT" CD cost $132.32, while the 6 CD box set "THE SINGLES COLLECTION" cost more than $ 50. Perhaps I should insure my collection?

 

I have always wondered about that, would it be possible to insure a collection if records and CDs?

 

I know it´s possible here in Norway, but I don´t know how they would go about valuing the collection. I have a few LPs and a lot of CD/SACDS/DVD-AUDIOS/BLU-RAY AUDIOS, and I don´t know how they would value those.

 

Going back a little bit to From A Distance....The Event, I was listening to the remastered re-release this morning on the way to work for the first time in a long time and I was struck by how different this sounded to the original issue. For example, the Oh Boy medley at the start does not have any of the introductions in "Its the Dallas Boys" and "and here he is, Cliff Richard!" and so on. It also sounds a lot more "live" than the original version, if that makes any sense to anyone? It is as if they have found a proper live recording of a The Event event and finally released that instead. A huge improvement on what was already an excellent live album.

 

I did notice the shout-outs missing - a good thing, I think. I´ll have to listen to the remastered version again. Haven´t done so since it was released, I think. (Usually watch the DVD instead.)

Sorry about being a bit slow to update the thread - I can hardly wait to comment on the title track of "REAL AS I WANNA BE", but I have a little bit too much on my plate right now. I´ll be back soon.

 

I hav'nt listened to th re-release since it's release either, but I seem to remember someone saying at the time it was a completely different "take" and that it was the full live concert.

 

It has improved on what was already an excellent live album, that's for sure. Well worth checking out again.

 

Sorry to go way back here, but I'd lost track of this thread....

November 11, 1997, to be exact. I still have the order form.

In 1997, I had been working with Goldmine magazine for two years, and the first edition of the Goldmine Standard Catalog of American Records was still a year away from completion. In the interim, I put together some smaller books that built upon each other and made the mammoth Standard Catalog less imposing when it came time to unleash it upon an unsuspecting world.

One of the projects was 1997's Goldmine Christmas Record Price Guide. In putting that book together, I did extensive research into record labels' back catalogs of 45s to see what Christmas singles they had released over the years. By that time, through one of my friends in the shrinking world of new 45 rpm record dealers, I was put in contact with EMI-Capitol Special Markets, which by 1997 was almost solely responsible for U.S. 7-inch singles from the Capitol family of labels. In one of my conversations with the A&R person responsible for the "for jukeboxes only" 45 rpm series, the subject of back-catalog Christmas music came up. I promptly told him of the rich heritage of Capitol's Christmas 45 catalog. Many of the titles I suggested to him were re-released on 7-inch that holiday season, some of them for the first time since their original release!

Several years earlier, at a used-CD shop, I had bought the UK EMI CD conpilation It's Christmas Time, which introduced me to a whole new world of Christmas hits that were unknown in the States. As part of my conversation with EMI-Capitol, I dropped the name of two songs on that set to which I presumed that the label owned U.S. rights, just to see if they could clear them for U.S. release as part of 1997's Christmas 45 series. They were "December Will Be Magic Again" by Kate Bush and "Mistletoe and Wine" by Cliff Richard. I was told, "The answer will probably be no, but I'll ask." The next time I spoke with him, I inquired about those two songs. He said that, as expected, he got an immediate thumbs-down on the Kate Bush. But to his total surprise, he received instant approval on the Cliff Richard.

And that's how "Mistletoe and Wine" (and, by extension, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," the 1991 album cut) were released in the States.

 

And that, as Paul Harvey would say, was the rest of the story . . . much obliged for that backstory.

 

Interesting. With a little doctoring and sweetening applied, I suppose?

 

Agree. I don´t play it that often, but I don´t get tired of it.

 

Thank you for supplying very interesting information. This is the kind of things you won´t find in books. It´s also the kind of information a fan would find most interesting. I know I did.

 

Studio album, 19 October 1998, studio sessions 1998 - UK - EMI 4974062
Produced by Peter Wolf




With the "HEATHCLIFF" project out of his system, which had been another commercial if not critical success, Cliff was ready to celebrate his 40th year in the music business with a contemporary studio album of new material. He found a new collaborator in Peter Wolf, who produced the album. I take it the producers also gathers the material, as Bruce Welch did in the 70s and Alan Tarney for most of the 80s. Well, maybe that´s where it all went wrong. Most of the songs on this album are extremely bland, and few of them stand out enough for me to remember them. A couple of them do, for the right reasons, and two do for all the wrong reasons.

The album was a comparable success, reaching the same placing in the albums chart as the the lead single did in the singles charts: No. 10. I remember buying it - I have a promo version of the album. It was the last album of his that I played to death, this time trying very hard to like it. I never did - with three exceptions.

This will be my first listen to the whole album since... I can´t remember when. It´s been a long, long time. (To quote Bing Crosby.) I wonder what I´ll think of it, this far down the line?

And once again: Feel free to disagree with me, to defend or slam the songs. Let´s get lively!

Track listing
"Real As I Wanna Be" - Written by Peter Zizzo - 4:32
"Even If It Breaks My Heart" - Written by Adam Gorgoni, Phil Roy, Shelly Peiken - 3:45
"Can't Keep This Feeling In" - Written by Arnie Roman, Dennis Lambert, Steve Skinner - 3:49
"Climbing Up Mount Everest" - Written by Robin Lerner, Tommy Lee James - 3:01
"United for Evermore" - Written by Dennis Morgan, John McLaughlin, Steve DuBerry - 4:21
"She Makes Me Feel Like a Man" - Written by Cliff Richard, Michelle Wolf, Peter Wolf - 5:38
"Butterfly Kisses" - Written by Bob Carlisle, Randy Thomas - 5:14
"Snowfall on the Sahara" - Written by Ina Wolf, Natalie Cole, Peter Wolf - 4:26
"Woman and a Man - Written by Noel McCoy, Michelle Wolf, Shelly Peiken - 4:47
"Till I'm Home Again" - Written by Amy Sky, Andy Hill - 5:15
"Come Back to Me" - Written by Michelle Wolf, Peter Wolf - 4:47
"The Miracle" - Written by Brenda Lee Eugar - 3:28
"Vita Mia" (duet with Vincenzo La Scola, tenor) Lyrics by Michelle Wolf, Zucchero Fornaciari, Music by Peter Wolf - 4:18
The US edition contains one extra track

14. "Had to Be" (featuring Olivia Newton-John)

 

I have made no secret of the fact that I love the tile track of "REAL AS I WANNA BE". It´s the one track I often include on compilations, and I have yet to grow tired of it. In some ways, it reminds me of the kind of songs found on "EVERY FACE TELLS A STORY", "GREEN LIGHT" and "ROCK´N´ROLL JUVENILE" - his late 70 glory days. There is something free about the arrangement and something joyful about Cliff´s vocal. Even the falsetto part is acceptable.

The writer, Peter Zizzo, is new to us Cliff fans, but he´s by no means a "newbie". Here´s his Wikipedia entry. (An excerpt.)

Peter Eric Zizzo (born February 22, 1966) is an American songwriter, music producer, musician and writer. Zizzo has written hits for artists such as Celine Dion, Avril Lavigne, Jennifer Lopez, Marit Larsen, O.A.R, Jason Mraz, Donna Summer, Diana Ross, M2M, Sir Cliff Richard, Clay Aiken, Howie Day, Kate Voegele, Jackie Evancho] and many others. He has been considered instrumental in developing the careers of artists Avril Lavigne, Vanessa Carlton in the US, and Pixie Lott in the UK.


Early life
Born in New York to musical parents, Peter Zizzo was initially a teen rock guitar prodigy, featured in Guitar Player magazine. As a songwriter, he got his first cut, "March", by The Weather Girls, at age 18. He attended college at [[Tufts University], graduating with a Bachelor's in English]. Shortly thereafter, he won BMI's "Best New Songwriter" award on the heels of his first hit, the dance track "Whispers" by Corina. Zizzo found more success working alongside top 80's producer Ric Wake on records by Celine Dion and Jennifer Lopez. It was through Wake's company that he signed his first developing artist, Billy Porter, whose A&M debut "Untitled" was largely written and produced by Zizzo, and featured "Love Is On The Way", the central ballad from the hit film "The First Wives Club." Porter went on to win a Tony award for his starring role in Broadway's "Kinky Boots"

Entrepreneurial ventures
In his role of Artist Development, Zizzo discovered, developed, produced, and helped launch prominent artists such as Avril Lavigne, Vanessa Carlton, Pixie Lott, and more recently, People Magazine's "One To Watch, 2017" Hailey Knox. Zizzo has also spoken and led seminars at South by Southwest and other music industry events. Peter Zizzo's songs and productions have sold over 100 million copies worldwide. In 2010, Peter's production and writing on BeBe and CeCe Winans "Still" won a Grammy for Best Gospel Album Peter has also written and produced songs for several shows on Nickelodeon, including several for the "The Fresh Beat Band", which in 2013 won him an Emmy Award for best musical composition. He was nominated again the following year for Outstanding Original Song for "Spring Has Sprung", from the show "Peter Rabbit".

Peter is also a published author of short fiction and has written several screenplays, one of which, "Timmy Tilson", placed in the finals in The Creative World Awards international screenplay competition.

Robert Porter:
Running Time: 4:31
Record Date: 1997 or 1998
Record Location: Little America Recording Studios, Weiler, Austria and/or Ocean Recording Studios, Burbank, California, USA and/or Arco Recording Studios, Munich, Germany and/or R.G. Jones Recording Studios, Wimbledon and/or The Pierce Room, London
Written By: Peter Zizzo
Produced By: Peter Wolf
Engineered By: Christian Leitgeb, Chris Heil, Paul Erickson and/or Keith Bessey
Performed By: Cliff Richard (vocals), Peter Wolf (keyboards, bass, percussion), Vinnie Colaiuta (drums), Paul Jackson Jr. (guitar), Michelle Wolf (backing vocals)