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

There was a series of interesting compilation CDs of what records had influenced different musicians. The series was called "UNDER THE INFLUENCE". Paul Heaton of THE HOUSMARTINS and THE BEAUTIFUL SOUTH - both bands that I love - released one. Bob Geldof also did, and I seem to remember that he included Cliff´s "APRON STRINGS". (He was far less complimentary about the A-side.) He was interviewed for the magazine Record Collector, and that´s where I read his remarks about the Cliff song.

NB! I just checked my own information. I just thought I remembered it correctly. I´m proud to say that I did - "APRON STRINGS" is proudly present on the compilation. Almost makes me fond of of Bob Geldof - I mean, I respect him and like his frankness, but knowing he has the guts to admit that he likes a Cliff track makes me all warm and fuzzy.

If you want the album, it looks a lot like this:


Quite an eclectic compilation - interesting, and quite a lot of choices that I would agree with. Good for you, Bob!

And yes, I like "APRON STRINGS" a lot. I hadn´t heard the original until I did my research - I like that version a lot, too. That´s one of the many things I like about writing these posts.

 

I agree with you, completely.

And I´m beginning to get the idea that driving behind you must be an interesting way to spend an afternoon...

 

A proclivity you share with our dear Bobby Morrow, late of this address. I listen to live albums in a slightly different way from studio ones, but I like both experiences.

 

LOL! You should have seen me Friday night singing along to Up In Canada, I even did the finger point My wife and kids thought I had really lost it then

 

He, he. Stephen B, the one man band.

 

I don't mind 'Steady with You' either. It's not a classic by no stretch but just a rock n roll ballad type thingie of the time...

 

I bough the six CD set 'The Early Shadows' about six months ago and finally got to hear the single (studio) versions of both Jet Black and Driftin'. The live versions come quite close to the mark. Good ol' Shads... Well, Drifters, s'pose really. You know what I mean...

 

Yes, we do. Strange that they had to change the name to avoid being confused with the - delectable - US band The Drifters.... and changed into the Shadows, which was the name of Bobby Vee´s backing band. Go figure.

You can hear the template for many of The Shadows´ later hits on that single. They did have a signature sound.

 

"READY TEDDY", a ferociously paced number by Little Richard, is taken to new highs - or lows, depending on your point of view - through this live cover by Cliff and his Drifters. I usually mention that Cliff and the band tend to perform rock´n´roll songs way too fast, and this is a good example. Nevertheless, what you lose in structure and clarity, you gain in lots of enthusiasm and energy. This track was even included on at least one of the edition of the German "40 GOLDEN GREATS". Hard to argue with that - not a hit anywhere, to my knowledge, but it does show off the boys´ rock´n´roll credentials very well. A fun track.

Robert Porter:
The mono and stereo recordings are the same performance with a slight variation on what and how much of the audience cheering is included.
"Reddy Teddy is vintage rock, and was one of the exuberant Little Richard's earlest smash hits."
James Wynn (July 1959 - Cliff No. 2 EP)

"Among the other cover titles Cliff regularly performed in 1958/59 were My Babe (Ricky Nelson) and the raucous Ready Teddy (Little Richard) which were both featured on the Cliff debut album."
Paul Rumbol (circa 2004 - Oh Boy! fan website; http://www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/wolf/31/id24.htm)

Running Time: 2:01
Record Date: February 9 or 10, 1959
Record Location: Abbey Road, London (Live in the studio)
Written By: John Marascalco & Robert Blackwell
Produced By: Norrie Paramor
Engineered By: Malcolm Addey
Performed By: Cliff Richard (vocals), Hank Marvin (guitar), Bruce Welch (guitar), Jet Harris (bass), Tony Meehan (drums)

 

They have performed it live on other occasions. Here with Adam Faith in 1960. Cliff also performs "LIVING DOLL", which is just around the corner in our thread.

 

And here is the original by the inimitable Richard Pennyman - or Little Richard. A gentleman who knew how to rock´n´roll. Indeedy.

 

"TOO MUCH" is another in a long line of Elvis covers. Not that hard to understand why they chose to go that way so many times. A slower paced song, well performed by Cliff and he Drifters. Just what was needed at this place on the album.

Robert Porter:
The mono and stereo recordings are the same performance with a slight variation on what and how much of the audience cheering is included.
"Too Much, of course, is one of the many successes notched by Cliff's personal favourite-- Elvis Presley."
James Wynn (July 1959 - Cliff No. 2 EP)

Running Time: 2:15
Record Date: February 9 or 10, 1959
Record Location: Abbey Road, London (Live in the studio)
Written By: Lee Rosenberg & Bernard Weinman
Produced By: Norrie Paramor
Engineered By: Malcolm Addey
Performed By: Cliff Richard (vocals), Hank Marvin (guitar), Bruce Welch (guitar), Jet Harris (bass), Tony Meehan (drums)

 

Of course, someone with the middle name Aaron also recorded the song... He had a US No. 1 hit with it in 1956. Cliff sounds younger than Elvis on his recording of it. Not necessarily a bad thing in this case. Youthful energy can be charming.

 

"DON´T BUG ME BABY" was first a hit by Milton Allen. Never heard of him? Me neither. He doesn´t have a mention on Wikipedia, and there was next to information about the song, either. Like most of the songs on this album, it´s a rock´n´roller with a slight bluesy flavour.

Robert Porter:
The mono and stereo recordings are the same performance with a slight variation on what and how much of the audience cheering is included.
"Cliff handles the lyrics of the other [unfamiliar title on the Cliff No. 2 EP]-- Don't Bug Me Baby."
James Wynn (July 1959 - Cliff No. 2 EP)

Running Time: 2:18
Record Date: February 9 or 10, 1959
Record Location: Abbey Road, London (Live in the studio)
Written By: Leon Luallen & Johnny Bragg
Produced By: Norrie Paramor
Engineered By: Malcolm Addey
Performed By: Cliff Richard (vocals), Hank Marvin (guitar), Bruce Welch (guitar), Jet Harris (bass), Tony Meehan (drums)

 

Here is Milton Allen´s original version of the song. Apart from sounding very American, it just shows how good the band now was at recording good covers of these kinds of songs.

 

"THAT´LL BE THE DAY" was first heard as an expression in the seminal 1956 western movie "THE SEARCHERS", and it´s uttered by John Wayne´s character in the film. (If you haven´t yet seen this film, do make plans to rectify this. Even if you don´t care that much for westerns. A beautiful film.) Anyway, Buddy Holly and his fellow writers must have seen the film, as they recorded this song.

Cliff and the Drifter´s version may not have troubled the makers of the original much, but it´s a good version of a very good song. I find myself warming to this album.

Robert Porter:
The mono and stereo recordings are the same performance with a slight variation on what and how much of the audience cheering is included.
"His first LP, recorded days before the concert at Sheffield City Hall, was to be the last all-out burst of rock 'n' roll. Paramor wanted to capture the feel of those early live performances, but to do it in the do it in the controlled environment of Abbey Road's studio two. Cliff and the Drifters played to an invited audience on a make-shift stage beneath the control room. Over two nights, Cliff belted out his favourite hits, including Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On, Be Bop A Lula, Donna and That'll Be The Day. The result was Cliff, which went on to reach number four in the LP charts."
Steve Turner (2008 January - Cliff Richard - The Biography (revised edition))
Editor's Note: Cliff did not perform Be Bop A Lula at this session.

Running Time: 2:10
Record Date: February 9 or 10, 1959
Record Location: Abbey Road, London (Live in the studio)
Written By: Buddy Holly, Norman Petty & Jerry Allison
Produced By: Norrie Paramor
Engineered By: Malcolm Addey
Performed By: Cliff Richard (vocals), Hank Marvin (guitar), Bruce Welch (guitar), Jet Harris (bass), Tony Meehan (drums)

 

The original, drenched in echo, is here.

From the Wikipedia entry:
"That'll Be the Day" is a song written by Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison. It was first recorded by Buddy Holly and the Three Tunes in 1956 and was re-recorded in 1957 by Holly and his new band, the Crickets. The 1957 recording achieved widespread success. Holly's producer, Norman Petty, was credited as a co-writer, although he did not contribute to the composition.

Many other versions have been recorded. It was the first song recorded (as a demonstration disc) by the Quarrymen, the skiffle group that evolved into the Beatles.

The 1957 recording was certified gold (for over a million US sales) by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1969. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. It was placed in the National Recording Registry, a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States", in 2005.

 

Oops! I skipped one song. Before "THAT´LL BE THE DAY" on the album comes The Drifters song "DRIFTIN´", a Hank Marvin song which featured on the other side of the "JET BLACK" single. As most songs by The Drfiters/The Shadows, it´s melodic and entertaining. Not hit material, perhaps, which the unsuccessful single release proved.

 

Th Drifters were also given the chance to perform a cover of Gene Vincent´s "BE-BOP A-LULA". Cliff was later to record his own version for the 1983 project "ROCK´N`ROLL SILVER". Best avoided, in my opinion. Not the project itself, but that particular recording. The 1959 recording doesn´t feature Cliff.

 

Gene Vincent made this song a classic.

From the Wikipedia entry: (excerpt)
The writing of the song is credited to Gene Vincent and his manager, Bill "Sheriff Tex" Davis. Evidently the song originated in 1955, when Vincent was recuperating from a motorcycle accident at the US Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia. There, he met Donald Graves, who supposedly wrote the words to the song while Vincent wrote the tune. (Cf. "Money Honey" by the Drifters, 1953). The song came to the attention of Davis, who allegedly bought out Graves' rights to the song for some $50 (sources vary as to the exact amount), and had himself credited as the lyric writer. Davis claimed that he wrote the song with Gene Vincent after listening to the song "Don't Bring Lulu". Vincent himself sometimes claimed that he wrote the words inspired by the comic strip, "Little Lulu": "I come in dead drunk and stumble over the bed. And me and Don Graves were looking at this bloody book; it was called Little Lulu. And I said, "Hell, man, it's 'Be-Bop-a-Lulu.' And he said, 'Yeah, man, swinging.' And we wrote this song."

The phrase "Be-Bop-A-Lula" is similar to "Be-Baba-Leba", the title of a No. 3 R&B chart hit for Helen Humes in 1945, which became a bigger hit when recorded by Lionel Hampton as "Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop." This phrase, or something very similar, was widely used in jazz circles in the 1940s, giving its name to the bebop style, and possibly being ultimately derived from the shout of "Arriba! Arriba!" used by Latin American bandleaders to encourage band members.

Recording by Gene Vincent
In early 1956, Gene Vincent performed the song on a radio show in Norfolk, Virginia, and recorded a demo version which was passed to Capitol Records, who were looking for a young singer to rival Elvis Presley. Capitol invited Vincent to record the song and it was recorded at Owen Bradley's studio in Nashville, Tennessee on May 4, 1956. Cliff Gallup (lead guitar), "Wee" Willie Williams (rhythm guitar), "Jumpin'" Jack Neal (string bass), and Dickie "Be Bop" Harrell (drums) comprised the band.When the song was being recorded, Harrell screamed twice in the background, he said because he wanted to be sure his family could hear it was him on the record.

The song was released in June 1956 on Capitol Records' single F3450, and immediately sold well. The song was successful on three American singles charts: it peaked at No. 7 on the US Billboard pop music chart, No. 8 on the R&B chart, and also made the top ten on the C&W Best Seller chart peaking at No. 5. In the UK, it peaked at No. 16 in August 1956. In April 1957, the record company announced that over 2 million copies had been sold to date.

The original demo for the song, probably recorded at radio station WCMS, has never been located and presumed lost.[citation needed] The song drew comparisons to Presley and is listed as No. 103 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Steve Allen mocked the lyrics to the song by reading them in a pseudo-serious tone accompanied by light piano background music in a September 1957 broadcast of The Steve Allen Show.

Vincent recorded a new version of the song in 1962 which appeared on the flip-side of the single "The King of Fools".

Vincent sang the song in the movie The Girl Can't Help It.

 

"DANNY" was originally a hit for Elvis. A typical "beat ballad", this was something Cliff was born to sing.

Robert Porter:
Both Donna and Danny from the Cliff album were not recorded during the live Cliff album performances and were recorded separately. The recordings reveal that the audience was faded in and out of the song at a different time, not during the performance. This was likely done because these songs are the only songs to feature the Mike Sammes Singers, which no doubt were expensive to book. And the quieter nature of the performance may have been difficult to control in a live, studio audience performance.
The mono and stereo recordings are the same performance with a slight variation on what and how much of the audience cheering is included.

Running Time: 2:53
Record Date: February 9 or 10, 1959
Record Location: Abbey Road, London (Live in the studio)
Written By: Ben Weisman & Fred Wise
Produced By: Norrie Paramor
Engineered By: Malcolm Addey
Performed By: Cliff Richard (vocals), Hank Marvin (guitar), Bruce Welch (guitar), Jet Harris (bass), Tony Meehan (drums), Mike Sammes Singers (background vocals)

 

Elvis´ version sounds a little more mature, and the accompaniment is a lot bigger.

 

"WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN´ GOIN´ ON" is the perfect end to the album. They really play up a storm! Best known through Jerry Lee Lewis´ hit performance on record, this is one of those songs that had all the elements you could ever wish for in a rock´n´roll song, and it´s obvious that Cliff loves to sing it.

And it´s one of those performances I wish some of the Cliff-naysayers could hear. This is not sickly sweet, overly commercial or... easy. Cliff has taken some easy options over the years, I admit. But this album proves what he had to begin with. Raw talent, used to good effect.

Robert Porter:
The mono and stereo recordings are the same performance with a slight variation on what and how much of the audience cheering is included.
"His first LP, recorded days before the concert at Sheffield City Hall, was to be the last all-out burst of rock 'n' roll. Paramor wanted to capture the feel of those early live performances, but to do it in the do it in the controlled environment of Abbey Road's studio two. Cliff and the Drifters played to an invited audience on a make-shift stage beneath the control room. Over two nights, Cliff belted out his favourite hits, including Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On, Be Bop A Lula, Donna and That'll Be The Day. The result was Cliff, which went on to reach number four in the LP charts."
Steve Turner (2008 January - Cliff Richard - The Biography (revised edition))
Editor's Note: Cliff did not perform Be Bop A Lula at this session.

Running Time: 3:00
Record Date: February 9 or 10, 1959
Record Location: Abbey Road, London (Live in the studio)
Written By: Dave Curlee Williams & Sunny David
Produced By: Norrie Paramor
Engineered By: Malcolm Addey
Performed By: Cliff Richard (vocals), Hank Marvin (guitar), Bruce Welch (guitar), Jet Harris (bass), Tony Meehan (drums)

 

This is one of two original performances of the song. This raw, bluesy version is by Big Maybelle.

Hers is an interesting story. Here´s a link to her Wikipedia entry. Big Maybelle - Wikipedia

 

We all know Jerry Lee Lewis´ hit version, but I don´t anybody minds listening to it one more time.

And just in case you want some sensational reading, here´s a link to his Wikipedia entry: Jerry Lee Lewis - Wikipedia