''Cliff at Christmas'' is the 2003

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

album of Cliff Richard, containing eight new songs and nine previously released songs including all of his previous hit Christmas-themed singles included. One new single was released from the album, entitled "Santa's List", which reached a peak position of #5 in the UK charts over the festive period. The album reached #9 in the

UK Albums 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 ...

and was certified platinum. In 2018, it was number 3 on the Official Top 20 biggest selling Christmas albums of the 21st century in the UK, having sold 409,000 copies. The album marked a brief return to record label

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

with whom he had previously been signed for 41 years.

Background

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 ...

was signed to EMI Records since his single "

Move It "Move It" is a song written by Ian Samwell and recorded by Cliff Richard and the Drifters (the English band that would later become "The Shadows"). Originally intended as the B-side to "Schoolboy Crush", it was released as Richard's debut sing ...

", released in 1958. In 1999, he left the label due to a dispute over the release of " The Millennium Prayer", with the single subsequently being released on the

Chrysalis Group Chrysalis Group was a UK media company that was founded by Chris Wright, chairman, and Terry Ellis. Wright was named in ''Sunday Times Rich List 2009'' of the 1,000 richest persons in the UK. Previously having interests in television, books an ...

owned

Papillon Records Papillon Records was a record label started by the Chrysalis Group (who had sold their Chrysalis Records division to EMI) in 1999 with longtime Chrysalis act Jethro Tull. Whilst Echo Records was formed to provide an outlet by new and indepen ...

label and becoming his first number one single in nine years. He returned to EMI in 2003 to release his single "Santa's List" and the album ''Cliff at Christmas''. Richard had previous success with singles at Christmas, and is closely associated with the season having had number ones over the period in 1999 with the aforementioned "The Millennium Prayer", in 1988 with "

Mistletoe and Wine "Mistletoe and Wine" is a Christmas song made famous as a chart-topping single by Cliff Richard in 1988. The song was written by Jeremy Paul, Leslie Stewart and Keith Strachan for a musical called ''Scraps'', which was an adaptation of Hans C ...

" and in 1990 with " Saviour's Day". It was with this album and the single "Santa's List" that he was aiming to achieve another Christmas number one record. However bookmakers

Ladbrokes Ladbrokes Coral is a British gambling company founded in 1886. Its product offering includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. The business is split into two divisions, UK and International. UK operations are c ...

placed his chance this happening for the third time at fifty to one. "Santa's List" was written by Chris Eaton (the same songwriter who wrote "Saviour's Day") and Nick Trevisick.

Promotion

To coincide with a number of other 2004 Christmas releases, including a number of "best of" albums, EMI re-released ''Cliff at Christmas'' in 2004 with a £150,000 advertising campaign. This promotion of the previous year's album was announced two weeks after Richard left the label to join Decca Records.

Reception

In the

, ''Cliff at Christmas'' entered the charts at number 38 on 29 November 2003. Over the course of the following three weeks it climbed the charts until it peaked at number 9 on 20 December. It dropped slightly during the Christmas week to number 14 and then exited the chart in January. When re-released in late 2004 it entered the chart at 66 on 11 December, before climbing to 60 the following week and then left the charts for the final time. The 2003 release of the album went platinum in the UK charts, selling over 300,000 copies. It was Richard's first album to go platinum since the release of '' The Whole Story: His Greatest Hits'' in 2000.

Track listing

Tracks 3, 5, 7, 11–14, and 16 are new recordings.

Chart performance

Weekly album charts

Year-end album charts

Singles charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cliff at Christmas Cliff Richard albums 2003 Christmas albums Christmas albums by English artists Pop rock Christmas albums