Learn to Play Cliff Richard And The Shadows

In the years after Elvis Presley but before the Beatles, Cliff Richard was the biggest thing in British rock & roll – and in the years after the Beatles, he was never far from the top of the U.K. charts. Arriving in 1958, just a couple of years after skiffle swept Britain, Richard was the first English singer to approximate the hip-shaking rebellion of American rock & roll with his 1958 debut single "Move It." A smash hit right out of the gate, "Move It" kicked off an astonishing five decades' worth of hits (as of 2014, his last time in the U.K. Top 10 was in 2008, when "Thank You for a Lifetime" went to number three). The earliest recordings, most made with his backing band the Shadows, were his hardest-rocking and undoubtedly his most influential, making an impression on nearly the entire first generation of British rock & rollers. Like Presley, who was certainly Richard's key influence, Cliff's popularity wound up pushing him ever so gradually to the status of an all-around entertainer. He moved into movies quickly – the first came just a year after "Move It" – and the Shadows tamed their rockabilly, but the real shift into the mainstream came after the Beatles opened the flood gates for homegrown British rock & roll, banishing Richard to the status of an older generation. Cliff continued to have hits in the '60s, even after he and the Shadows disbanded in 1968, but he split his time between pop and Christian music; in the early '70s, he focused on hosting a variety show on the BBC.

Beginner Piano Lesson

Cliff Richard's fiftieth anniversary celebrations saw some remarkable releases brought together, although this one was surely one of the least interesting despite its title holding out a lot of promise. Collectors and fans, after all, will already have gathered together the majority of Richard's Extended Play material across a wealth of other discs, not least of all the See for Miles EP compilations in the early '90s. This package is very much a poor echo of those sets, all the more so since anybody drawn in by the promise of material from 1991 will be disappointed to find the set petering out into Christmas songs and show tunes at the expense of far more deserving material from the other end of the chronological span. A handful of oddities do include an alternate take of "It's Wonderful to Be Young," and the lesser fabled English-language versions of "Frenesi" and "Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps." But the overall mood is largely disposable, and Richard continues to await a full examination of his complete EP catalog.

Two CD set. Both as 'solo' artists/bands and collaboratively, Cliff Richard and The Shadows have amassed more than 100 charting singles between them, as well as album sales upwards of ¼ Billion. Together they dominated the British popular music scene in the late '50s and early '60s with record-breaking careers that established their undisputed place in pop history. Between them they notched up 19 No.1 hits that included "Living Doll," "Travellin' Light," "Please Don't Tease," "Bachelor Boy," "Wonderful Land" and "Apache." In 2009, Cliff, together with Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch and Brian Bennett took to the stage again for their final tour - The Final Reunion - to celebrate their 50th anniversary, with an audience of more than 15,000. Released for the first time on CD, this 42-track set was recorded live at The O2 Arena in London.

"I'm No Hero" is a 1980 album by Cliff Richard. The album features three hit singles, including "Dreamin'" and "A Little in Love", which were top 20 hits in both the UK and the US. The album received positive reviews and kept Richard high in the charts during this, his revival period. It was also the last time he would appear in the US top 20. Album track "Give a Little Bit More", which was co-written by Andy Hill, who was about to become famous as writer and producer for Bucks Fizz, was released in some countries as a single, as was "In the Night" - although this wasn't the same as the Barbara Dickson song which was released around the time (and was also produced by Tarney). "Give a Little Bit More" gave Richard a third hit from the album in the US, peaking at #41.

"Livin' Lovin' Doll" is a song by Cliff Richard and the Drifters (who would later become the Shadows), released in January 1959 as their third single. Unlike their previous two top-ten singles, it only peaked at number 20 on the UK Singles Chart.

The Shadows were an English instrumental rock group. They were Cliff Richard's backing band from 1958 to 1968 and on numerous reunion tours. The Shadows have had 69 UK chart singles from the 1950s to the 2000s, 35 credited to the Shadows and 34 to Cliff Richard and the Shadows. The group, who were in the forefront of the UK beat-group boom, were the first backing band to emerge as stars. As pioneers of the four-member instrumental format, the band consisted of lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar and drums. Their range covers pop, rock, surf rock and ballads with a jazz influence.