Cliff Sings is the second album 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 his first

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

. It was released in November 1959 through

EMI Columbia Records Columbia Graphophone Co. Ltd. was one of the earliest gramophone companies in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1917 as an offshoot of the American Columbia Phonograph Company, it became an independent British-owned company in 1922 in a managem ...

and 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 ...

. It reached No. 2 in the

UK album chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Offici ...

. No singles were released from the album in the UK (as was often the case prior to the 1970s). The album is the beginning of a repeated pattern in Richard's career until the mid-1960s, in which

the Shadows The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters between 1958 and 1959) were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the pre-Beatles era from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. They served as the bac ...

and the Norrie Paramor orchestra would alternately share backing duties. The back cover of the album states that it was at the suggestion of the album's recording engineer, Malcolm Addey, that influenced Norrie Paramor to alternate Richard's backing between the Shadows and the string orchestra for this album.

Tony Meehan Daniel Joseph Anthony Meehan (2 March 1943 – 28 November 2005) was a founder member of the British group the Drifters with Jet Harris, Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch, which evolved into the Shadows. He played drums on early Cliff Richard and ...

from the Shadows was the session drummer for all tracks backed by the orchestra on this album. While backing duties were shared equally on this album, Richard's next album, ''

Me and My Shadows ''Me and My Shadows'' is the second studio album by singer Cliff Richard and third album overall. Recorded with The Shadows and produced by Norrie Paramor, it was released through Columbia Records in October 1960 and reached No. 2 in the UK ...

'', just featured Cliff backed by The Shadows on all songs. ''Cliff Sings'' was recorded in both stereo and mono but originally only released in mono on LP. From February 1960, the album was also progressively marketed on the EP format, into four EPs, ''Cliff Sings No.1'' through to ''Cliff Sings No.4'', in both mono and stereo.

Track listing

Release formats

*Vinyl LP mono *Reel to Reel Tape.(?) *CD mono *CD mono/stereo

Personnel

;Cliff Richard and the Shadows *

–

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

Hank Marvin Hank Brian Marvin (born Brian Robson Rankin, 28 October 1941) is an English multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and songwriter. He is known as the lead guitarist for the Shadows. Early life and career Marvin was born as Brian Robson Rankin at ...

–

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

Bruce Welch Bruce Cripps (born 2 November 1941), known professionally as Bruce Welch, is an English guitarist, songwriter, producer, singer and businessman best known as a founding member of the Shadows. Early life Bruce Welch was born in Bognor Regis in ...

–

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a guitar technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse (music), pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., d ...

Jet Harris Terence "Jet" Harris (6 July 1939 – 18 March 2011) was an English rock and roll musician. He was an original member of Cliff Richard's backing band the Shadows, serving as the bass guitarist from the group's inception until April 1962, aft ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

;Production * Produced by

Norrie Paramor Norman William "Norrie" Paramor (15 May 1913 – 9 September 1979) was a British record producer, composer, arranger, pianist, bandleader, and orchestral conductor. He is best known for his work with Cliff Richard and the Shadows, both togethe ...

* Engineered by Malcolm Addey

References

{{Authority control Cliff Richard albums The Shadows albums 1959 albums EMI Columbia Records albums Albums produced by Norrie Paramor British rock-and-roll albums