Top Cliff 50 collectables

By William Hooper

When Melody Maker had him on the front page and called him an ‘enigma’ Cliff Richard said that he liked that description. The dictionary describes the word as: ‘riddle, puzzling person or thing’. For a man who has lasted for six decades and remained popular in the fickle world of pop music the word enigma is perhaps very fitting.

On 24th July, 1958, Cliff recorded Schoolboy Crush and Move It. On 9th August he was signing his first recording contract with Columbia Records. The 29th August saw the single released and on 12th September, Cliff had made his first entry into the UK singles chart. Before long, the young singer was sitting at No 2 behind Connie Francis.

Unlike Elvis and so many male vocalists from the late 1950s, Cliff stands alone in the 00s as the great survivor still making new music and having success with it. As the beat boom pretty much wiped everyone else away, Cliff continued having hits and defying all the odds. He went from rock’n’roll to films, pantomime, TV, Eurovision, stage musicals and yet, through it all, the fans stayed with him and supported him, buying his vast collection of hit singles (133 in the UK alone), EPs and albums.

As you would expect, with a history of 50 years, Cliff has recorded a mighty amount of material. In the early days Cliff not …

by William Hooper
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