"Saviour's Day" is a song 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 ...

. It was the United Kingdom

Christmas number one single Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

in 1990, the second occasion Richard had a solo Christmas number one (the first being " Mistletoe and Wine"). The video for the song was filmed in

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

Composition

"Saviour's Day" was written by Chris Eaton and produced by Cliff Richard and Paul Moessl. Eaton wrote the song in October 1989, and took his original version of the song with him to a Christmas party to show to Richard. Eaton had been warned that all of Richard's songs for the following year were already booked in and there would not be space for it. However, Eaton insisted that Richard listen to the tape he brought along, and so they left the party and listened to it in Richard's

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. Richard immediately liked the song and predicted that it could be a number one record.

Music video

The music video for "Saviour's Day" was filmed in

, in the town of

Swanage Swanage () is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck and one of its two towns, approximately south of Poole and east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester. In the Unit ...

and at Durdle Door. The video was shot in September 1990. Richard and the extras in the video were asked to wear winter clothes for the Christmas song, but the day's filming took place on a warm September day with blue sky and sunshine. The video featured Richard and the extras singing together on top of the

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

arch An arch is a curved vertical structure spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support the load above them, or they may perform a purely decorative role. As a decorative element, the arch dates back to the 4th millennium BC, but stru ...

of Durdle Door.

Release and reception

In the UK, "Saviour's Day" entered the UK Singles Chart on 8 December 1990 at number six. It went to number three the following week, and up a further spot in the week before Christmas. The song became that year's Christmas number one when announced on 23 December 1990 and replacing the previous week's UK number one, "

Ice Ice Baby "Ice Ice Baby" is the debut single by American rapper Vanilla Ice. It samples the bassline of the song "Under Pressure" by British rock band Queen and British singer David Bowie, who did not receive songwriting credit or royalties until after i ...

" by

Vanilla Ice Robert Matthew Van Winkle (born October 31, 1967), known professionally as Vanilla Ice, is an American rapper, actor, and television host. Born in Dallas, raised in Miami, he was the first solo white rapper to achieve commercial success foll ...

. A week later "Saviour's Day" dropped back down to number three, and spent only one more week in the top 40 at number twenty. The final charted spot in the top 100 was on 19 January 1991, when "Saviour's Day" was at number 53. The song was Richard's second solo Christmas number one in the UK, after " Mistletoe and Wine" in 1988. In 2017, ShortList's Dave Fawbert listed the song as containing "one of the greatest key changes in music history".

Charts and certifications

Chart positions

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

Cliff Richard - Saviour's Day
on

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{{UK Christmas No. 1s in the 1990s, song 1990 singles Cliff Richard songs UK singles chart number-one singles British Christmas songs Songs written by Chris Eaton (British musician) 1990 songs Christmas number-one singles in the United Kingdom