Cliff Sings is the second album by British

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...

and his first

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

. 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 manageme ...

and recorded at

Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music c ...

. It reached No. 2 in the

UK album chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

. 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) were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the pre- Beatles era. They served as the backing band for Cliff Richard ...

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 Addy, 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), professionally known as Tony Meehan, was a founder member of the British group the Drifters, with Jet Harris, Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch, which would evolve into the Shadows. ...

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 al ...

'', would be backed entirely by the Shadows, while its successor, ''

Listen to Cliff! ''Listen to Cliff!'' is the third studio album by singer Cliff Richard and fourth album overall. It was released through EMI Columbia Records in April 1961. The album reached No. 2 in the UK album chart, charting for 26 consecutive weeks and re ...

'', would have the Norrie Paramor orchestra on backing duties for all but one track. ''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 t ...

Hank Marvin Hank Brian Marvin (born Brian Robson Rankin, 28 October 1941) is an English multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter. He is widely known as the lead guitarist for The Shadows, a group which primarily performed instrumentals and was the ba ...

–

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 Welch (born 2 November 1941 as Bruce Cripps) is an English guitarist, songwriter, producer, singer and businessman best known as a founding member of the Shadows. Biography Welch's parents (Stan Cripps and Grace Welch) moved him to 15 B ...

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

Jet Harris Jet, Jets, or The Jet(s) may refer to: Aerospace * Jet aircraft, an aircraft propelled by jet engines ** Jet airliner ** Jet engine ** Jet fuel * Jet Airways, an Indian airline * Wind Jet (ICAO: JET), an Italian airline * Journey to Enceladus a ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

;Production * Produced by

Norrie Paramor Norman William Paramor (15 May 1914 – 9 September 1979), known professionally as Norrie Paramor, was a British record producer, composer, arranger, pianist, bandleader, and orchestral conductor. He is best known for his work with Cliff Ri ...

* 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