My sister currently lives in a town called Rochford. It is home to a café called The Beehive, and behind the café, there is a huge shed full of second hand LP’s that they knock out for a pound each. Mostly greatest hits sets, but for anybody wanting to track down a best of on Tamla, or eager to find those Elvis albums on Camden, well, they probably have them.
In the café itself, they have in their window display a set of 7” singles. It turns out that somebody who runs the café is related to a local record dealer, and not only are all the albums part of his stock, but he also has more collectible items in the vaults. The window display has a selection of these items. When I first went in there, the singles were either ones I had, or were by artists I didn’t like. But at various points, the selection would change, and they started to stock Elvis and then Cliff EP’s.
The EP, in it’s original form, was a late 50s invention that had fallen out of favour within a decade. It was a curious format. Many EP’s simply cobbled together old hits, cost more than a normal 45, and offered the fan nothing new, which resulted in some EP’s by major artists selling in pitiful numbers, which resulted in them becoming hugely collectible. In some of my articles on this site, I have avoided the EP because I have thought they were either worthy of their own article, or I simply didn’t own enough of them. I had always been slightly put off the prospect of trying to track them down, even though I had long owned the Stones' studio ones, as I figured I was looking at a potentially expensive set of releases. But some of these Cliff ones, by all accounts, sold in big numbers, and thus can be picked up quite cheaply. The Cliff EP’s this shop has stocked have thus now entered the collection, despite the fact that none of the ones I have bought there so far have included anything rare.
As mentioned in my last Cliff blog in 2011, Cliff (with The Shads, sometimes) issued an alarming number of EP’s during the 1958-1968 period, and I highlighted only those which had included exclusive material at the time of their release. But now that I have started to almost stumble across some of the others by accident, I figured it was time to detail exactly what ALL of those EP’s consisted of. Be warned, anybody wanting the full set will have to work hard, as by my calculations, there were no less than 46 EP’s issued during this period, pretty much the same number of regular 45’s that Cliff issued during the same time frame. But they are quite fascinating, and things of beauty, as they were all issued in picture sleeves, as all UK EP’s were at the time.
Cliff’s EP’s can be broken down into, roughly, four categories. Those designed to include entirely new and exclusive material, those designed to promote recent long players, those that compiled recent hits, and a small number of scattergun releases which cobbled together sometimes new material (and sometimes not) with older selections from the back catalogue. In this blog, I shall look at each of these types of releases, with a full discography of the EP‘s listed at the end.
The Hit Singles Sets
Although a couple of hits sneaked onto a pair of early Cliff EP’s of otherwise exclusive material (more later), the first real attempt at pulling together a batch of hits onto one set was in 1960, with the release of the “Cliff’s Silver Discs” EP, so named as all four of the songs had sold in big enough numbers originally to be designated silver. All four songs on here were originally A-sides, “Please Don’t Tease”, “Fall In Love With You”, “Nine Times Out Of Ten” and “Travellin’ Light”.
1962’s “Hit Parade” went down the same path, placing “I Love You”, “Theme For A Dream”, “A Girl Like You” and “When The Girl In Your Arms” on the same disc. There was a slightly different approach for 1963’s “Cliff’s Hits”, which added both sides of the “It’ll Be Me” and “Do You Want To Dance” 45’s. The latter had been marketed as a AA-side with “I’m Looking Out The Window”, whereas the flip of “It’ll Be Me”, “Since I Lost You”, was officially a B-side - but this concept of hoovering up both sides of recent 45’s would become a standard approach on the subsequent hits EP’s.
“Cliff‘s Lucky Lips“ EP included both sides of that 45, and both sides of the “It’s All In The Game” single, although the two tracks from the “Lucky Lips“ single appeared on side 2, rather than side 1. 1966’s “Wind Me Up” included both sides of that 45 as well, along with the A and B-sides of the “The Time In Between” single, with the “Wind Me Up” tracks this time appearing on side 1.
A number of other Cliff 45’s were “recompiled” onto EP’s that went down a slightly different path. Both sides of the “Young Ones” single turned up on the “Hits From The Young Ones” EP, which was actually a 4 track sampler of the LP of the same name - it just so happened that both tracks from the 45 were included on the LP (although there is a single mix of “The Young Ones” that differs from the LP version - more at the end). Similarly, the “Hits From Summer Holiday” EP featured four tracks from the soundtrack album, all of which had also been issued on the recent “Summer Holiday” and “Bachelor Boy” singles (again, more about that one later).
1964’s “Don’t Talk To Him” included on side 1, both sides of the sublime “Don’t Talk To Him” 45, whilst side 2 exhumed three songs from the 1962 LP “32 Minutes And 17 Seconds With Cliff”, a slightly random decision, but possibly done to try and act as a semi-follow up to the earlier EP that that album had already spawned (more in the next section). The lead tracks on “Cliff’s Palladium Successes” were both sides of another former single, “I’m The Lonely One”, but this time the tracks on side 2 were brand new recordings. The “A Forever Kind Of Love” EP included two new songs on the A-side, one of which, “It’s Wonderful To Be Young”, was used as the theme tune for the US release of the “Young Ones” movie, whilst side 2 offered up both sides of the “Constantly” 45. “On The Beach”, originally released as a 45 from the “Wonderful Life” soundtrack album, was later issued as the lead track on the “Hits From Wonderful Life” EP, which despite the title, actually just included three album tracks for the rest of the EP and no actual hits at all.
Both sides of the “Twelfth Of Never” 45 turned up on side 2 of the “Why Don’t They Understand” EP, in 1965, whilst “I Could Easily Fall” was the final track on the “Hits From Aladdin” EP, having first been issued as a 45 in late 64. The “Angel” EP the same year featured, again, a bit randomly, a couple of songs from the “Cliff Richard” LP with two former 45’s on side 2, “On My Word” and “The Minute You’re Gone”. The final EP was “Congratulations”, which again showcased some previously available material, but there’s quite a bit of a story about that one, so we shall focus on it in greater detail later on.
The Album Collections
I am not quite sure why Columbia issued so many Cliff EP’s that were full of material from widely available albums. Were they designed to try and promote the album? Were they designed for people who couldn’t afford the LP, to at least give them a flavour of the record? Were they simply designed to cash in? Well, whatever the reason, a large number of these releases were created - even as late as 1967, the likes of the “Cinderella” album were still being subjected to having their material being extracted for such EP‘s.
Cliff’s debut album, a 16 track affair, saw the first 12 songs from it issued on a pair of EP’s, the second of which, titled “Cliff No. 2”, included the re-recorded version of “Move It” that had been taped for the (live) album. Meanwhile, all 16 songs from “Cliff Sings” were spread across four 4-track EP’s. The album was split equally between tracks on which The Shads backed Cliff, and those which Cliff recorded with the Norrie Paramor Strings, and the EP’s also went down this route, with the Shads recordings used on the first two EP’s. Perhaps the reason for this was that anybody who liked Cliff more when he rocked out could just buy those two EP’s instead.
For “Me And My Shadows”, no less than fifteen of the sixteen songs were spread across three 5-track EP’s. Again, the track listings mirrored the running order of the LP (so the first EP included the first 5 songs off the LP), meaning that, by default, the final track on the album failed to make it onto any EP release. The first nine songs from the 16-track “Listen To Cliff” album appeared across two EP’s, four on the first release and five on the second.
Whereas the EP’s had so far used both the same image and titles as the albums from which they were sourced, things changed when it came to lifting material from the “21 Today” album. The first EP, simply titled “Cliff Richard”, came in a unique picture sleeve, which included tracks 2-5 from the first side of the LP. A second EP, “Cliff Richard No.2”, issued after the aforementioned “Young Ones” EP, featured tracks 6-8 from side 1, and the opening track of side 2.
1963’s “Time For Cliff And The Shadows” featured five songs from the “32 Minutes” album - again, a different cover image to the LP, but this time, the five songs were seemingly selected at random. Then, after the release of the “Summer Holiday” EP, came the “More Hits From Summer Holiday” EP - again, actually just four album tracks from the LP, and no hits at all. In addition to the “Hits From Wonderful Life” EP mentioned before, there were two other EP’s that preceded this, “Wonderful Life” and “Wonderful Life No 2”, which between all three of them, contained no less than 12 songs from the 14-track album, a bit of a throwback to the intensity of the earlier EP’s. There were also 4-track EP’s from the “Aladdin” and “Cinderella” stage show albums, and the “When In Rome” and “Love Is Forever” studio efforts.
The “New Material” EP’s
We covered these really in the last blog, but it makes sense to just briefly touch on them again. The first two EP’s of (mostly) exclusive material were both film tie in releases, “Serious Charge” and “Expresso Bongo”. In my last blog, I mentioned that the version of “Living Doll” was a different version to the regular 45 mix, but it isn’t - there is a faster version of “Living Doll” used in the film, but it was not selected for inclusion on the EP. One track which does appear in ‘EP Form’ however is “A Voice In The Wilderness” from “Expresso Bongo”, which is a different take to the standard 45 version.
Possible alternate mixes aside, all of these tracks have reappeared thanks to the ’copyright’ issues which allow pre-1963 material to be licensed to anybody with a passing interest, and I mentioned the appearance of the songs on these EP’s last time on an album called “As Good As It Gets”. Apparently now deleted, you can still source them elsewhere - I recently picked up a charming ’early years’ job on the Intense Media label called “Milestones Of A Legend”, a budget priced 10-CD set which includes the first 7 Cliff albums and the first 2 Shadows ones. Each album comes housed in it’s own sleeve - no attempt has been made at reprinting the original covers though, instead you just get a track listing on the front - and each disc includes bonus tracks from the 58-62 period, and all of the tracks from these EP’s make an appearance in one form or another. “Mad About You” and “No Turning Back” from “Serious Charge” appear on the “Me And My Shadows” disc, along with “Voice In The Wilderness”, “Love” and “The Shrine On The Second Floor” from “Expresso Bongo“ - although the version of “Love“, strangely, is lifted directly from the film, and not the original EP. The extra tracks on the EP’s were Cliff-less Shadows recordings, and “Chincilla” (from “Serious Charge”) and “Bongo Blues” (from “Expresso Bongo”) are amongst the extra tracks on disc 8, which is an expanded version of The Shadows self titled debut LP.
The majority of the “new” material that appeared on subsequent EP’s, as mentioned last time, were mostly available across a pair of compilations that were issued years apart. In 1989, the specialist reissue label See For Miles issued the 20 track “EP Collection” on vinyl, tape and CD. Despite it’s title, it only offered up a selection of material from these EP’s - the album was actually subtitled “Ballads And Love Songs”, so this obviously prevented certain tracks from making the cut, aside from any issues over timing constraints that would also have affected the amount of material that could be included.
The “Rare EP Tracks 1961-1991” release by EMI appeared in 2008, as part of the “Cliff’s 50th Anniversary” celebrations. It did a pretty good job in filling in most of the gaps. The “1991” tag came from the fact that a later, post-Shads Cliff single had included some 60s era outtakes, with “The Twelve Days Of Christmas” and “The Holly And The Ivy” appearing on the 1991 ”Christmas” EP. The album also included some bonus tracks - these included five unreleased songs, along with the EP version of “It’s Wonderful To Be Young”. The track was available, in a different form, as a bonus track on the 2005 CD reissue of “The Young Ones”, and was thus included as a bonus track due to it being one of the few songs on the “EP Tracks” album to be an alternate version of a song that might already have been familiar to the listener.
The “When In France” EP material is a bit more obscure, as only a couple of songs appeared on the “EP Collection” and “Rare EP” albums, with the final track “C’Est Si Bon” not widely available on any collection. However, there is a box set called “On The Continent”, which collects pretty much every Cliff foreign language recording (including post-1968 stuff), and all four tracks can be found on this release. It'll cost you though. The EP was issued in the same sleeve in France under the banner of “Cliff Richard Sings In French”, and the two different versions of the EP were both released in other overseas territories. Indeed, a number of Cliff EP’s were issued overseas - my copy of “A Forever Kind Of Love” is a Danish release, housed in a UK printed sleeve (with same catalogue number) but the disc, with notable label differences, is pressed in Denmark.
Special mention this time around for the “Thunderbirds Are Go!” EP. Although marketed as a Cliff Richard And The Shadows EP, at least from a distance, closer inspection reveals that the two acts are actually credited separately on the front sleeve - reason being that Cliff sings the vocals on the lead track, whilst the remaining three songs are Shads instrumentals. It’s one of the more collectable Cliff EP’s, helped along by the fact that it is also sought after by Thunderbirds collectors. It is worth noting that the EP was one of several reissued by EMI in mainland Europe in the early 80’s, as part of a series known as the “Cliff Richard / The Shadows EP Collection”, which saw a number of Cliff (and Shadows only) EP’s reissued as 12” singles, housed in slightly altered packaging - each single featured a coloured border around the original artwork, which included within it text relating to which number in the series it was. “Thunderbirds” was number 15. The reissues seemed to emerge from different countries, I have releases from Belgium and Holland, and by being reissued on EMI rather than Columbia, meant some were pressed with the famous “red block lettering” labels, with others opting for the blander cream design. Some singles retained the side opening approach, others - such as the “Carol Singers” reissue - had a top opening design. This was in the days before barcodes so, catalogue number changes aside, the rear sleeves looked quite faithful to the originals. As for Cliff’s contribution to the “Thunderbirds” EP, it was later issued on the ’selective’ “Cliff At The Movies” set, but was also found on a 2007 expanded reissue of a magnificent latter period set called “Congratulations To Cliff” - which is where we are headed now.
Congratulations To Cliff
In 1968, Cliff was chosen to be the UK’s entrant into the Eurovision Song Contest. This was a genius choice - not only was Cliff a star in the UK, but he was a star across Europe as well, having recorded songs in a variety of languages for release in those territories. In the days before the contest got hampered with political voting, it meant that Cliff had a pretty good chance of winning. Six songs were given to Cliff as likely candidates, one of which shared it’s title with a track from the “Wonderful Life” album (“Do You Remember”), and the public were invited to vote for their favourite. “Congratulations” dutifully won, and was issued as a single to coincide with the contest, backed with one of the ‘losing’ tracks from the six-song selection, “High N Dry”.
“Congratulations” came second in the contest, losing by one vote. There was, many years later, claims that the contest had been rigged, and that the winning entry by Spain had been achieved after the Spanish general Francisco Franco had sent state officials out across Europe with the sole intent of bribing officials involved in the voting process. Fixed or not, “Congratulations” was a big hit worldwide, and in the summer of 68, an EP was released entitled “Cliff Sings 6 Songs For Europe”, which included studio recordings of all six of the tracks that had been considered as the UK entries. “Congratulations” kicked off side 1, and “High N Dry” kicked off side 2.
The success of “Congratulations” across Europe resulted in a number of albums being issued in certain territories which were designed to showcase the tracks from this EP. In Germany, there was the “Congratulations Und 13 Weitere Hits” LP, which spread the six tracks across a 14 track album, which was padded out with recent hit singles like “The Day I Met Marie” and material from the “La La La La La” EP. In France, Columbia issued the “Congratulations To Cliff” album, which featured the EP material on side 1, and on the flip, a selection of tracks that had either been non album singles (“All My Love”, “The Day I Met Marie”, “It’s All Over” and “I’ll Come Running”) or had appeared on the stage show LP for “Cinderella” (“Why Wasn’t I Born Rich” and “In The Country”).
There was no such release in the UK, and as far as I can make out, most of the tracks from the EP remained quite obscure. “Little Rag Doll” turned up on “The EP Collection” and, as it was also a B-side, “High N Dry” was included with other flipsides from the period on the expanded 1968 album “Established 1958” when it was reissued in 2007. “Congratulations”, as expected, made it on to various best of sets in the years that followed, whilst the rest of the EP was shoe-horned onto the CD reissue of the 1970 (but recorded earlier) live LP "Talk Of The Town", also in 2007.
But really, the 2007 expanded CD edition of “Congratulations To Cliff” is, to me, an essential release. Not only does it show that latter period Cliff (and The Shads) made some highly enjoyable pop (think “Austin Powers”-esque groovy swinging sixties) but it’s a fabulous collection of rarities, with the original 12 track release expanded into a 40+ song anthology. There are more standalone a-sides (“Visions”, “Marianne”, “Blue Turns To Grey”), b-sides (a monumental take on “Girl You’ll Be A Woman Soon”, “What Would I Do For The Love Of A Girl”, “I Get The Feelin’”, “My Story Book”, “Mr Nice” and “Somebody Loses”) and a batch of rarities, such as the French language versions of “Congratulations”, “Questions” and “Two A Penny”, which had only previously been available on the French only “When In France” LP. There are some selections from latter period Cliff LP’s (such as like the highly entertaining “Don’t Stop Me Now” album) and selections from the soundtrack albums “Finders Keepers”, “Cinderella” and “Two A Penny”, plus the aforementioned “Shooting Star” from the “Thunderbirds” EP - along with four early period bonus track oddities, including an Italian b-side (“I Only Know That I Love You”) and a Philippines a-side (“I Only Live To Love You”). Copies are getting harder to find now, you’ll be lucky to pick one up for less than £20, but it is an awesome re-release.
Discography
Well, this should be self explanatory. This is the complete list of Cliff EP’s from 58 to 68. We are focusing here on the UK versions, and although most of the EP’s were just issued in mono, several were selected for release in stereo as well. How different the mixes are I am not sure, although it is worth pointing out that four of the eight stereo mixes made for the first two “Cliff Sings” EP’s were included on the 1997 “Rock & Roll Years” album, suggesting a certain amount of difference mix-wise to the original mono LP upon which these songs first surfaced. Also, if anybody reading this has a complete list of the EP’s that were reissued on 12” in Europe in 1980/81 as part of the aforementioned “EP Collection” series, please get in touch.
Serious Charge EP: Living Doll/No Turning Back/Mad About You/Chincilla (7”, Columbia SEG 7895)
Cliff No. 1 EP: Apron Strings/My Babe/Down The Line/I Got A Feeling/Jet Black/Baby I Don’t Care (7”, Columbia ESG 7754, Stereo)
Cliff No. 1 EP: Apron Strings/My Babe/Down The Line/I Got A Feeling/Jet Black/Baby I Don’t Care (7”, Columbia SEG 7903, Mono)
Cliff No. 2 EP: Donna/Move It/Ready Teddy/Too Much/Don’t Bug Me Baby/Driftin’ (7”, Columbia ESG 7769, Stereo)
Cliff No. 2 EP: Donna/Move It/Ready Teddy/Too Much/Don’t Bug Me Baby/Driftin’ (7”, Columbia SEG 7910, Mono)
Expresso Bongo EP: Love/A Voice In The Wilderness/The Shrine On The Second Floor/Bongo Blues (7”, Columbia ESG 7783, Stereo)
Expresso Bongo EP: Love/A Voice In The Wilderness/The Shrine On The Second Floor/Bongo Blues (7”, Columbia SEG 7971, Mono)
Cliff Sings No. 1 EP: Here Comes Summer/I Gotta Know/Blue Suede Shoes/The Snake And The Bookworm (7”, Columbia ESG 7788, Stereo)
Cliff Sings No. 1 EP: Here Comes Summer/I Gotta Know/Blue Suede Shoes/The Snake And The Bookworm (7”, Columbia SEG 7979, Mono)
Cliff Sings No. 2 EP: Twenty Flight Rock/Pointed Toe Shoes/Mean Woman Blues/I’m Walking (7”, Columbia ESG 7794, Stereo)
Cliff Sings No. 2 EP: Twenty Flight Rock/Pointed Toe Shoes/Mean Woman Blues/I’m Walking (7”, Columbia SEG 7987, Mono)
Cliff Sings No. 3 EP: I’ll String Along With You/Embraceable You/As Time Goes By/The Touch Of Your Lips (7”, Columbia SEG 8005)
Cliff Sings No. 4 EP: I Don’t Know Why/Little Things Mean A Lot/Somewhere Along The Way/That’s My Desire (7”, Columbia SEG 8021)
Cliff’s Silver Discs EP: Please Don’t Tease/Fall In Love With You/Nine Times Out Of Ten/Travellin’ Light (7”, Columbia SEG 8050)
Me And My Shadows No. 1 EP: I’m Gonna Get You/You And I/I Cannot Find A True Love/Evergreen Tree/She’s Gone (7”, Columbia SEG 8065)
Me And My Shadows No. 2 EP: Left Out Again/You’re Just The One To Do It/Lamp Of Love/Choppin’ N’ Changin’/We Have It Made (7”, Columbia SEG 8071)
Me And My Shadows No. 3 EP: Tell Me/Gee Whizz It’s You/I’m Willing To Learn/I Love You So/I Don’t Know (7”, Columbia SEG 8078)
Listen To Cliff No. 1 EP: What’d I Say/Blue Moon/True Love Will Come To You/Lover (7”, Columbia SEG 8105)
Dream EP: Dream/All I Do Is Dream Of You/I’ll See You In My Dreams/When I Grow Too Old To Dream (7”, Columbia ESG 7867, Stereo)
Dream EP: Dream/All I Do Is Dream Of You/I’ll See You In My Dreams/When I Grow Too Old To Dream (7”, Columbia SEG 8119, Mono)
Listen To Cliff No. 2 EP: Unchained Melody/Idle Gossip/First Lesson In Love/Almost Like Being In Love/Beat Out Dat Rhythm On A Drum (7”, Columbia ESG 7870, Stereo)
Listen To Cliff No. 2 EP: Unchained Melody/Idle Gossip/First Lesson In Love/Almost Like Being In Love/Beat Out Dat Rhythm On A Drum (7”, Columbia SEG 8126, Mono)
Cliff’s Hit Parade EP: I Love You/Theme For A Dream/A Girl Like You/When The Girl In Your Arms Is The Girl In Your Heart (7”, Columbia SEG 8133)
Cliff Richard EP: Forty Days/Catch Me/How Wonderful To Know/Tough Enough (7”, Columbia SEG 8151, all songs from “21 Today”)
Hits From The Young Ones EP: The Young Ones/Got A Funny Feeling/Lessons In Love/We Say Yeah (7”, Columbia SEG 8159)
Cliff Richard No. 2 EP: Fifty Tears For Every Kiss/The Night Is So Lonely/Poor Boy/Y’Arriva (7”, Columbia SEG 8168, all songs from “21 Today”)
Cliff’s Hits EP: It’ll Be Me/Since I Lost You/I’m Lookin’ Out The Window/Do You Want To Dance (7”, Columbia SEG 8203)
Time For Cliff And The Shadows EP: So I’ve Been Told/I’m Walkin’ The Blues/When My Dream Boat Comes Home/Blueberry Hill/You Don’t Know (7”, Columbia ESG 7887, all songs from “32 Minutes”, Stereo)
Time For Cliff And The Shadows EP: So I’ve Been Told/I’m Walkin’ The Blues/When My Dream Boat Comes Home/Blueberry Hill/You Don’t Know (7”, Columbia SEG 8228, all songs from “32 Minutes”, Mono)
Holiday Carnival EP: Carnival/Moonlight Bay/Some Of These Days/For You, For Me (7”, Columbia ESG 7892, Stereo)
Holiday Carnival EP: Carnival/Moonlight Bay/Some Of These Days/For You, For Me (7”, Columbia SEG 8246, Mono)
Hits From Summer Holiday EP: Summer Holiday/The Next Time/Dancing Shoes/Bachelor Boy (7”, Columbia ESG 7896, Stereo)
Hits From Summer Holiday EP: Summer Holiday/The Next Time/Dancing Shoes/Bachelor Boy (7”, Columbia SEG 8250, Mono)
More Hits From Summer Holiday EP: Seven Days To A Holiday/Stranger In Town/Really Waltzing/All At Once (7”, Columbia ESG 7898, Stereo)
More Hits From Summer Holiday EP: Seven Days To A Holiday/Stranger In Town/Really Waltzing/All At Once (7”, Columbia SEG 8263, Mono)
Cliff’s Lucky Lips EP: It’s All In The Game/Your Eyes Tell On You/Lucky Lips/I Wonder (7”, Columbia SEG 8269)
Love Songs EP: I’m In The Mood For Love/Secret Love/Love Letters/I Only Have Eyes For You (7”, Columbia SEG 8272)
When In France EP: La Mer/Boum/J’Attendrai/C’Est Si Bon (7”, Columbia SEG 8290)
Sings Don’t Talk To Him EP: Don’t Talk To Him/Say You’re Mine/Spanish Harlem/Who Are We To Say/Falling In Love With Love (7”, Columbia SEG 8299, last 3 songs from “32 Minutes”)
Cliff’s Palladium Successes EP: I’m The Lonely One/Watch What You Do With My Baby/Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps/Frenesi (English Version) (7”, Columbia SEG 8320)
Wonderful Life EP: Wonderful Life/Do You Remember/What’ve I Gotta Do/Walkin’ (7”, Columbia SEG 8338)
A Forever Kind Of Love EP: A Forever Kind Of Love/It’s Wonderful To Be Young/Constantly/True, True Lovin’ (7”, Columbia SEG 8347)
Wonderful Life No. 2 EP: A Matter Of Moments/A Girl In Every Port/A Little Imagination/In The Stars (7”, Columbia SEG 8354)
Hits From Wonderful Life EP: On The Beach/We Love A Movie/Home/All Kinds Of People (7”, Columbia SEG 8376)
Why Don’t They Understand? EP: Why Don’t They Understand?/Where The Four Winds Blow/The Twelfth Of Never/I’m Afraid To Go Home (7”, Columbia SEG 8384)
Hits From Aladdin And His Wonderful Lamp EP: Havin’ Fun/Evening Comes/Friends/I Could Easily Fall (In Love With You) (7”, Columbia SEG 8395)
Look Into My Eyes Maria EP: Look Into My Eyes Maria/Where Is Your Heart/Maria/If I Give My Heart To You (7”, Columbia SEG 8405)
Angel EP: Angel/I Only Came To Say Goodbye/On My Word/The Minute You‘re Gone (7“, Columbia SEG 8444, first two songs from “Cliff Richard”)
Take 4 EP: Boom Boom/My Heart Is An Open Book/Lies And Kisses/Sweet And Gentle (7”, Columbia SEG 8450)
Wind Me Up EP: Wind Me Up/The Night/The Time In Between/Look Before You Love (7”, Columbia SEG 8474)
Hits From When In Rome EP: Come Prima/Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu/Dicitencello Vuie/Arrivederci Roma (7”, Columbia SEG 8478)
Love Is Forever EP: My Colouring Book/Fly Me To The Moon/Someday/Everyone Needs Someone To Love (7”, Columbia SEG 8488)
La La La La La EP: La La La La La/Solitary Man/Things We Said Today/Never Knew What Love Could Do (7”, Columbia SEG 8517)
Thunderbirds Are Go EP: Shooting Star/Lady Penelope/Thunderbirds Theme/Zero X Theme (7”, Columbia SEG 8510)
Cinderella EP: Come Sunday/Peace And Quiet/She Needs Him More Than Me/Hey Doctor Man (7”, Columbia SEG 8527)
Carol Singers EP: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/In The Bleak Midwinter/Unto Us A Boy Is Born/ While Shepherds Watched/Little Town Of Bethlehem (7”, Columbia SEG 8533)
Congratulations - Cliff Sings 6 Songs For Europe EP: Congratulations/Wonderful World/Do You Remember/High ‘N’ Dry/The Sound Of The Candyman’s Trumpet/Little Rag Doll (7”, Columbia SEG 8540)
Footnote: this is as good a place as any to tidy up the story of the “alternative” versions of “The Young Ones” and “Bachelor Boy”, as both these tracks turned up on EP’s listed above. I am indebted to the excellent Cliff Richard Songs website for this gen.
“The Young Ones” was recorded for the soundtrack album of the same name, but for the 45 release, an orchestra was dubbed over the top. As the years went by, the single version seemed to grow in stature, being selected for various compilations including 1977’s “40 Golden Greats”, and when “The Young Ones” LP was reissued in expanded form on CD in 2005, the original album version was removed and replaced by the 7” version. The album version, now more commonly known as the “undubbed version”, is available on the “Hits From The Young Ones” EP - and bizarrely turned up as a bonus track on the expanded CD reissue!
As for “Bachelor Boy”, this was originally included on the “Summer Holiday” soundtrack in the same form as it had appeared on the single, with a stereo mix made specifically for the stereo version of the album. But a different mix was created for the US market, and was made by remixing an earlier take of the song. This used the same backing as the “UK” version, which is referred to as the “Take 10/11” version, named after the two takes that were used to create the final version. The “US” version, which then used the vocal from take 9 to dub over the top, was then known as the “Take 12” version after it had been through the remixing process.
When it came to issuing the “Hits From Summer Holiday” EP, the mono version used the standard “Take 10/11” but the stereo version opted for the “Take 12” version, as this was deemed to be more stereo friendly. Both versions have resurfaced over the years - and it is interesting to note that different versions of the “40 Golden Greats” release have included both. The 1977 original uses the “Take 12” version, as the entire album had been designed to be “modernised” by using re-processed-for-stereo mixes where stereo mixes weren’t available. In the case of “BB”, there was a genuine stereo mix in the form of the “Take 12” version, and so it got the nod. But for the 1989 CD reissue, re-processed stereo was seen as an evil invention, an invention that could never match true stereo, and so the album used the original mono mixes this time around - so the mono “Take 10/11” version of “BB” was used instead. I may revisit Cliff’s 45’s from this period in a future blog, as their availability on CD is a bit erratic.
No comments:
Post a Comment