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62听|听 'Miss You Nights' Cliff Richard
26 year old Dave Townsend wrote Miss You Nights in 1974 while his girlfriend was away on holiday. He recorded it on an album for Island records which was then shelved by the company. Island decided to recoup the 拢20,000 costs through cover deals. A year later the head of Music at Island records in LA, Lionel Conway, handed a bunch of |
Song facts |
Composer |
Dave Townsend |
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Genre |
Pop |
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Album |
Whole Story: His Greatest Hits
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Released |
1976 |
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UK Chart Position |
15 |
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demo tapes to Bruce Welch, one of the Shadows and now also a producer. Welch was looking for songs to revitalise Cliff Richard鈥檚 flagging career. Back home he flicked over one of the cassette tapes and played a song he hadn鈥檛 heard in the Island office. He instantly recognised it as a hit. The song鈥檚 haunting ethereal quality owed a lot to Andrew Powell鈥檚 string arrangements. The uncomplicated, original imagery and potent feelings of longing and loneliness marked it as a great love song. Welch played it to Cliff and they recorded it in September 1975. It gave Cliff his first top ten hit in 2 years and along with 鈥淒evil Woman鈥 from the same album relaunched his career. Of the song and its writer Cliff said: I think it鈥檚 one of the nicest songs I鈥檝e ever made鈥hen I heard his version it was terrific, so we just stole the whole thing. He was pleased to have that happen. I mean it could have been anybody. It would have been a hit.鈥
Bruce Welch |
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Ex-Shadow and record producer, Bruce Welch,听talks about changing Cliff鈥檚 style of song in the mid-70s.
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听 |
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Other versions |
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听Demis Roussos lent a high euphonious tenor to the song.
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Songwriting tipsFirst impressions last and are an indication of whether it's worth paying attention.
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听DON'T MISS |
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Doves Special guests on Dermot's show this week
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What's on Find out more about current and forthcoming documentaries on Radio 2.
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