Martin Lewis says: 5 Shags!

SUMMER HOLIDAY

In the 60’s Cliff Richard was popular in every major country in the world - except America. In the States - he had a couple of minor Top 40 hits - but could never turn his worldwide success into a steady following. In the 70’s Elton John signed him to his Rocket Records label for the U.S. and Cliff actually had a couple of Top 10 hits (“Devil Woman” and “We Don’t Talk Anymore”) A few more Top 40 records followed - but nothing big enough to sustain him in America.

Cliff Richard with the Everly Brothers

A few fascinating bits of Cliff-triva... Let’s call them...

CLIFF NOTES!

• Blame Cliff for Olivia! Yes it was on Cliff’s early 70’s BBC TV variety show that the young Aussie got her showbiz break. In fact her early hits were written and produced by members of Cliff’s loyal backing group the Shadows.

• The wacky early-80’s British TV series called The Young Ones (seen in the US on MTV) was named after a huge Cliff Richard hit - actually the theme song to the 1962 movie that preceded Summer Holiday. Part of the running joke of the series was that the ‘Rik’ character (a spotty male student who fancied himself as a rebellious feminist poet!) was a passionate Cliff Richard fan (even though it was deeply uncool.) The cast performed a thrash-punk version of Cliff’s song as their theme song. Cliff teamed up with the cast in 1986 for a charity single of another early Cliff hit “Livin’ Doll” - and it was an instant #1.

  	Cliff Richard and the Shadows

• The “Summer Holiday” movie actually had an influence on the strategy the Beatles pursued in their quest to conquer America! The first Beatle to visit America was George - in the summer of 1963. His big sister Louise was living in the States - and he came to visit her for a week. While there he went to his first drive-in movie - and saw this film relegated to the bottom of a double-bill. Horrified that an artist so popular in Britain was treated so poorly - he reported back to his fellow Fabs that they should not visit America unless and until they could be the top of any bill. Brian Epstein and the other Beatles agreed. And Brian set to work to make it happen...

• The clean, neat appearance - and coyly cute footstepping routines of Cliff’s backing group The Shadows (seen in this movie as an instrumental group who crop up in every country Cliff visits) irritated the early rough ‘n’ tumble Hamburg-era Beatles and inspired a very unusual composition. In 1961, John Lennon and George Harrison teamed up to write a guitar-driven instrumental which they dubbed “Cry For A Shadow”! They recorded this in Hamburg in their “BackBeat” era - and it was released along with “Ain’t She Sweet” and other early Beatle tracks shortly after their first UK hits. It was the only composition ever to bear the Lennon-Harrison credit. And the Beatles’ only released instrumental till 1967’s “Flying.”

  
  

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