Customer Reviews

Cliff Richard - Whole Story: His Greatest Hits

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

These double CDs contain some of the best songs that Cliff has ever sung, both new and old. It doesn't matter you are Cliff's fans for 40 years or just getting to kown him, you will love the songs and his voice is just great. You don't want to miss these two great CDs. My children ages 4 to 15, just love the songs here. It's a must to own if you are music lover.

Having recorded for over 40 years now, Cliff Richard presents quite a variety of styles on this compilation. Perhaps there is something for every taste here. It does cover the big hits (with "Congratulations" strangely missing). Cliff is a top-tier vocalist, and this is a huge comprehensive collection for those new to his singing. Old-time fans have no reason to buy this compilation, however, unless they want to replace some of the tracks they only have on vinyl. Try listening to his latest studio cd: "Real As I Wanna Be" to hear what Cliff has been up to lately. You won't be disappointed.

14 No.1 hits, 10 No.2 hits, 7 No.3 hits, 6 No.4 hits, 38 Top 5 hits, 66 Top 10 hits, 95 Top 20 hits, 120 Top 40 hits ... quite a bit eh!

Cliff Richard, an accomplished guitarist & lead singer with a genuine feel for the music, was Britain's answer to Elvis Presley. Cliff dominated the pre-Beatles British rock scene in the late '50s & early '60s. Cliff has had over a 130 hits & was one of the founding members of The Drifters later to be known as Cliff Richard & the Shadows.

In the period between 1958 & 1963, Cliff Richard & the Shadows stood as the biggest thing in Britain. They toured the United States & most often stole the show from the accompanying American acts of the time. Cliff & the Shadows basically re-wrote convention in British recording companies & opened EMI up to the importance & strength of rock'n'roll. It was due to them that Parlophone were looking for a 'second' Cliff & the Shadows, & eventually took on the Beatles.

Many well known groups of the 1960s & 1970s started off as imitators of Cliff & the Shadows, singing & playing only Cliff Richards' material & groups were trained by following how they did things. The Beatles were taken to Cliff Richard concerts & instructed about clothes, stage presence & various other things, & being of the same fold at Abbey Road, were good friends with the band.

With regard to this compilation the title may be a little misleading. There is absolutely no way you can tell "the whole story" of a career like Cliff Richard's on just two CDs & 46 tracks, Cliff Richard has sold more singles in the UK than any other music artist, ahead of the Beatles in second place & Elvis Presley in third. However this does include nearly all his major hits, all in chronological order, from 'Move It' & 'Living Doll' in the late 50s, to the last two Top 10 hits 'Can't Keep This Feeling In' & 'Millennium Prayer'.

There are a few omissions though - no sign of 'Congratulations' although it was a No. 1 hit in 1968. In fact, the collection jumps from 'The Day I Met Marie' in 1967 to his second Eurovision entry 'Power To All Our Friends' in 1973, so by leaving out five years altogether it omits quite a bit. Nevertheless most of the bona-fide favorites are here, from 'Bachelor Boy' & 'The Minute You're Gone' to 'Devil Woman', 'Miss You Nights' & 'We Don't Talk Anymore'. The recent era is well represented with the inclusion of 'Saviour's Day' & 'Peace In Our Time'.

A good addition to any collection.

Compiling a collection of Cliff's hits on just one or two CD's is never easy, because there are so many good ones as the six CD boxed set (Singles collection) demonstrates. Most people really don't want that many CD's by one singer, even one as brilliant as Cliff. This double CD contains a reasonable selection of his UK hits from 1958 to 2000 that will satisfy most people. If you are looking for a particular song that isn't here or if you are only interested in a particular period of his career, there are many other Clifftastic compilations around quite apart from that boxed set.

Cliff had his greatest commercial successes in the fifties and sixties but of the 46 tracks here, only 20 are from that part of his career. Perhaps the compilers felt that anybody who wanted those songs already had them anyway, but it is worth noting that Voice in the wilderness, Fall in love with you, Nine times out of ten, Theme for a dream, A girl like you, When the girl in your arms, I'm looking out the window, Lucky lips, Twelfth of never, Wind me up and Congratulations are among the major sixties UK hits (all top four or higher) that were left out of this collection. Some of these songs are not as popular as they once were and were left out for that reason, but I don't believe all of them fit that description.

26 tracks represent the seventies onwards, culminating in The millennium prayer - actually Auld lang syne sung to the tune of The Lord's prayer (December 2000). While this period contained many more Cliff hits in total than the fifties and sixties, there were plenty of minor hits among them. Every UK top ten solo hit is included from 1973 (Power to all our friends) onwards.

As an overview of Cliff's career, this is brilliant despite the fact that I would have preferred more sixties songs and fewer from the eighties and nineties. In any case, you might not agree with me. If you only want one collection of Cliff's music and you are interested in his whole career, choose this or the boxed set according to how much of his music you want.

This is by far the best album of Sir Cliff that tells the whole story of his development as an artiste over all these decades. It doesn't have all his hits but that's okay as this album is called the whole STORY and not the whole CATALOG.

It tells the story of how a young teenage heart-throb started out in the late 50's as the front man of the Shadows (another great band by the way)to produce safe, goody two shoes-type rock and roll that won a lot of fans (my mum included!)and ends in the 90's as a middle aged, seasoned performer, maturing in his faith and spiritual life as well.

Looking back, it's not surprising given his good looks and the way the record company packaged him that he was going to be so successful but to attribute this as the sole reason for his success would be disrespecting the music and the Shadows as the great quality of both the material and the backing band played very important parts as well.

Starting with the rocker "Move It", disc one ends with "Dreaming" representing a more adult Cliff covering more adult themes as in "Devil Woman" (brilliant song by the way), "Miss You Nights" and "We Don't Talk Anymore".

Disc 2 continues to describe the growth of the artiste but now more so than from a mere physical/chronological aging but from a spiritual and religious aging perspective as well as the material moves from "Wired for Sound" to "Some People", "From a Distance", "Saviour's Day", "Peace in Our Time" and ending with "The Millenium Prayer".

Not only are the track selections excellent, this album has been remastered very well and so the sound quality is brilliant. No other album showcases the "Whole Story" of Cliff's journey through his life and musical career as this one does on two discs and with 46 tracks, you are certainly getting great value for money.

Very highly recommended.

Cliff's five decade career is nicely summarized with this collection than concludes with his 2000 single "The Millennium Prayer." Being said before, there are songs that are missing, some a bit glaring like "A Little In Love" and "Suddenly," his hit duet with Olivia Newton John from the film "Xanadu." These omissions do nothing from making this two disc set an awesome comprehensive and well mastered collection. This cd set opens with his first hit "Move It," and follows chronologically featuring hit singles from his films to close with the aforementioned last single recorded during the twentieth century. Cliff is continuing to record and release albums and will no doubt follow up this release with yet another album of hits in the next few years. Keep 'em coming, Cliff.

Although this CD is like a sentimental journey through five decades of hits (and testimony to the VERY best of British pop music through the ages), these beautiful songs and Cliff's faultless vocals are truly timeless. The early "Rock&Roll" type songs "Move It", "Bachelor Boy", "Living Doll", (watch it, Cliff, - locking women in trunks is v. un-p.c.) and are rhythmic, melodic and make you "wanna dance" - unlike the junk you get in the charts nowadays - and above all are fun. The love ballads (even those recorded when Cliff was very young eg "I Love You", "The Young Ones",) are sung with such sensitivity and depth of feeling, and the later ballads e.g. "Miss You Nights", "We Don't Talk Anymore" and "I Still Believe In You" are profoundly moving and possess deep, inner beauty which speaks to the soul. Many songs on this album also promote unity, harmony and love (in a Christian not romantic sense) eg "Power to all our friends", "From a distance" and "Millennium Prayer" and these touch the heart as Cliff's amazing voice is allied to undoubted heartfelt sincerity. He truly believes in his music. He's not fake. There's no singer I ever heard who communicates such a profound and intense relationship to his lyrics as Cliff! His voice is infinitely rich, strong and versatile. RocknRoll ("Move It") Rock ("Carrie"), country ("The Minute You're Gone"), ballads ("Miss You Nights"), soul "Can't Keep This feelin In", disco ("We Don't Talk Anymore".) Seriously, his catalogue would be impressive were it ten singers combined. When I heard Cliff for the first time first ("Mistletoe and Wine" (aged nine) it was the most beautiful song I ever heard; and he really has the most beautiful male singing voice that I ever encountered. If you don't know Cliff, it's YOUR LOSS; this guy is as good as, maybe better than Elvis. If you don't believe me, buy the CD and see for yourself. One more thing: this is just an introductory guide to Cliff and to really appreciate the full range of his talents, you need to buy some of his 45 years worth of albums. I recommend (for starters) "Me And My Shadows (1960), "When in Spain (1962), "I'm Nearly Famous (1976), "Green Light" (1978), "Rock and Roll Juvenile" (1979), "I'm No Hero" (1980), "Wired For sound" (1982) and "Real As I Wanna Be" (1999). Happy listening!

The CD is just great, you can listen again and again, along the years some different styles and sounds, but always a wonderfull performer.From the first British Rock'n Roll, Move It through greats Living Doll,Carrie and many more.

Before the Beatles, Cliff Richard and the Shadows dominated the English pop music scene. He was frequently known as the "English Elvis." I was hoping for more of the early rock and roll period, but the CD is mostly Richard's later career, which is largely (to my taste) bland generic pop.

The rock songs were good and I'm going to look for a CD which offers more of the early Cliff Richard.

I am so estatic to have found his old music available in CD form. It has brought back such great memories of old. Thank you. K.Page