Carrie (Cliff Richard Song)
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"Carrie" is a song performed by
Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British singer and actor. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and, as of 2012, was the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart histo ...
and released in December 1979 as the third single lifted from Richard's album '' Rock 'n' Roll Juvenile''. It reached number 4 in the UK Singles Chart and became an international hit.


Composition

"Carrie" was written by the songwriting partnership of Terry Britten and BA Robertson, who had written Richard previous single " Hot Shot" and who also wrote several other songs for ''Rock 'n' Roll Juvenile''. Britten initially came up with the riff and the title, but he "realized that it would take someone who knew what they were doing to make it into a proper song", so he got Robertson to come up with the story. Speaking about the song, Robertson has said:


Recording and release

The backing track was recorded between 7 and 12 January 1979 at the EMI Pathé-Marconi Studios in Paris and the vocals were later recorded at
Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a music recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, London, Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of ...
in London on 2 February. The recording engineers were Tony Clark and Haydn Bendall. "Carrie" was released in the majority of territories with the B-side "Moving In", which was written and produced by Richard. It was first released as a single in the Netherlands and Germany at the beginning of December 1979, before being released in Australia on 12 December with the B-side "Walking in the Light", written by Britten. "Carrie" was later re-released in Australia in March 1980 with "Moving In" as the B-side. In the UK, the single was released on 18 January 1980. The single release of "Carrie" is an edit of the album version and also actually runs slightly faster. However, the album version was released on the original Australian single and the US and Canadian single. The latter was also released with a different B-side, "Language of Love", also written by Britten and Robertson, in February 1980.


Reception

Reviewing for ''
Record Mirror ''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper published between 1954 and 1991, aimed at pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after ''New Musical Express'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK Album ...
'', Simon Ludgate gave it 'Single of the Week', writing that "it's astounding, the hits keep rolling off 'Rock 'n' Roll Juvenile', from which this is taken. To be producing high-pop songs like this after 25 years in the Biz is extraordinary", adding that Richard's "delivery is immaculate and his timing superb. You can't ignore a classic popstar: credit must be given". In a retrospective review for
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
, Dave Thompson described the song as "a deliberately sinister and enthrallingly atmospheric number, revolving around the search for a mysteriously missing friend ("Carrie had a date with her own kind of fate")" and that "in other hands, such lines as "you're just another message on a payphone wall" and "the young wear their freedom like cheap perfume" could sound trite. Richard imbibes them with both pertinence and importance, while the emotion in his voice colors even the title.


Track listing

7": EMI / EMI 5006 # "Carrie" – 3:28 # "Moving In" – 3:26 7": EMI / EMI-168 (Australia) # "Carrie" – 3:42 # "Walking in the Light" – 3:08 7": EMI / 8035 (US and Canada) # "Carrie" – 3:42 # "Language of Love" – 4:39


Personnel

*
Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British singer and actor. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and, as of 2012, was the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart histo ...
– vocals, backing vocals * Terry Britten – guitar, backing vocals * Herbie Flowers – bass *Graham Jarvis – drums * Billy Livsey – keyboards * Tristan Fry – percussion * Mel Collins
saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...


Charts and certifications


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Certifications


Cover versions

* In the same week in May 1980 that Richard's version peaked in Canada, a cover by Canadian
progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...
band Cano reached a higher peak at number 78.


References

{{authority control 1979 singles Cliff Richard songs EMI Records singles Songs written by BA Robertson Songs written by Terry Britten 1979 songs