Cliff Richard - 'Thank You For A Lifetime'
It's not for me to comment on the success or otherwise of the campaign by Cliff's army of fans (who all seem like very nice people and are clearly not the type of folks to send paid assassins to the houses of reviewers who are less than flattering to their main man, hopefully) to get this single to the upper reaches of the charts, by organising themselves to buy heaps of copies in the first week of release. That would give the game away, and I'm honour-bound to keep the game under lock and key until Sunday evening, in case any of the pieces go missing.
Of course, the fact that this song is appearing in ChartBlog at all is probably a clue as to how well it is doing. And this is news which brings a certain amount of dread in its wake...
(here's a fan-made video. Which seems fitting, given what the song is about.)
I'm not saying anyone should dread having to listen to Cliff's music, in that really lazy, eye-rolling, List TV sort of way. On the contrary, some of his songs are officially Quite Good, and his single 'What Car' from 2005 is easily up there with the best of them, so it's not about age or relevance.
But the trouble with Cliff's Event Releases like this, 'The Millennium Prayer' and those Christmas songs he did, is that they really do seem to bring out the worst in a man who has every reason to be calmer, more relaxed, and happier with himself than he sometimes appears.
As some of you may know, I used to work at Top of the Pops, and I was there when 'The Millennium Prayer' got to No.1. This caused a fair amount of kerfuffle at the time, because it meant that Cliff was the only artist to have managed a No.1 hit single in every decade since the charts began.
On the day of recording, whenever anyone pointed a camera at Cliff, he would raise his index finger and mouth the words "number one", rather than just, y'know, smile. It may have been intended as a harmless gesture of victory, but it just came across as smug and vain.
Now, to be fair, if I released a song which had the music to 'Auld Lang Syne' and lyrics written by Jesus Christ, I would expect it to go to No.1 too.
But it seems a shame that it has been left to Cliff and his fans to trumpet how much he has achieved in the field of popular music, and to try and make sure that no-one forgets that he was here before the Beatles, thank you very much, and is, in a lot of ways, more successful than they are.
He has no need to do it. He's Cliff Richard. His place in the history books is assured. This song, while cheesier than a cheddar Chico, and a blatant re-write of 'Downtown' by Petula Clark, should just have come out as a special message from Cliff to his fans. Never mind chart positions, never mind what the media say, he's grateful, you're flattered, end of.
So, while it is quite likely that this is going to be a fairly large hit (for one week only), and that Cliff's fans will rejoice when it is, maybe a wider, better point has been missed.
Download: Out now
CD Released: September 8th
www.cliffrichard.org
(Fraser McAlpine)
Comment number 1.
At 11th Sep 2008, Eliakim wrote:A very sensible anbd reasonably argued piece - and possibly right about the song but to say "His place in the history books is assured." touches on exactly why his fans are so die hard, if not verocious in his cause.
For at least the last decade comments about Cliff in the media - not least Radio 1 - are almost universally snide, defamatory, mocking etc and anything but respectful of 'his place in the history books'
Someone somewhere decided that Cliff was uncool and ought not to be played - even the old hits never mind his new songs - and even when, despite virtually no air play his singles have still charted reasonably well (even if his career only included 1999-2008 it would stand well above most artists), still "they" affirm that no one wants to hear Cliff on the radio.
It is faced with that kind of persistent prejudice that his fans become all the more adamant and determined to fight for him.
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Comment number 2.
At 13th Sep 2008, Fraser McAlpine - wrote:I guess the question, then, is this. Do you think a song like this, surrounded in a chart campaign like this, make the situation better or worse?
If he kept releasing songs as good as What Car, for example, and didn't worry about the chart placing, wouldn't that be better?
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