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Cliff Richard: Sixty Years and Counting

Cliff Richard — Harry Rodger Webb– was born in 1940. He is a giant of English pop music. He has sold more than  250 million records there and elsewhere and 21 million singles in the U.K. He only trails Elvis Presley and The Beatles for record sales in England. He is, after all that, surprisingly little known in the United States.

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Cliff Richard and Princess Margaret

The clip of Richard above suggests that he is modeling himself after Elvis, at least to some extent. Clearly, he was an important figure: The Wikipedia profile says that John Lennon commented that there was “nothing worth listening to” in British music before he came along.

Richard has been a performer for almost 60 years. He has won three Brit Awards and has had innumerable gold and platinum records. The bio at Richard’s site is a year-by-year chronicle that is for those who are very interested. A more useful profile was posted by Thomas Erlewine at AllMusic. Essentially, it positions him as being the biggest pop star in Britain between Elvis and The Beatles – and as a huge star ever since.

Erlewine says that Richard arrived on the scene in 1958. The earliest recordings, made with the Shadows, were his most influential. Like Presley, he moved to the center and became an all-around entertainer. Richard has played Christian music, made movies and shifted to the mainstream musically. He soldiers on.

Richard seems to never have been far from the top. He had a hit in Britain in 1976 with “Devil Woman.” It was his first top ten hit in the United States. He had other songs that sold well, including “We Don’t Talk Anymore” in 1979.

Above is “Move It,” which seems to be the song that made Richard’s career take off. Below is “We Don’t Talk Anymore,” which was released in 1979 and became a hit in the United States.

Our New Things: Links to Music Sites and Info on Analog Tech and Vinyl

TDMB has focused on music and musicians. We will continue to do that, of course. We're also expanding our coverage to include vinyl and analog equipment.

More specifically, we'll look at this huge and interesting world from the perspective of music lovers who want a better experience, not committed non-audiophiles.

Check out is some of what we've written so far:

-- Assessing the Value of Vinyl Records: An Overview

-- 7 Quick Tips on Optimizing Your Turntable Cartridge

-- Why Vinyl Records Continue to Thrive

-- Finding the Best Amplifier

-- Finding the Best Phono Preamp

-- What Speakers Do I Need for My Turntable?

Check out more articles on analog equipment and vinyl.

The site also is home to The Internet Music Mapping Project, an effort to list and describe as many music-related sites as possible.

Our Music

--A Tribe Called Quest to The Dick Hyman Trio (In other words, A to H)

--Indigo Girls to Queen Ida (I to Q)

--Radiohead to ZZ Top (R to Z)

Reading Music

The stories of the great bands and musicians are fascinating. Musicians as a group are brilliant, but often troubled. The combination of creativity and drama makes for great reading.

Here are some books to check out.

Duke Ellington brought class, sophistication and style to jazz which, until that point, was proudly unpolished and raucous. His story is profound. The author, Terry Teachout, also wrote "Pops," the acclaimed bio of Louis Armstrong. Click here or on the image.

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What else is there to say? Here is the story behind every song written by The Beatles. Click here or on the image.

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The Grateful Dead don't get enough credit for the profound nature of its lyrics. Many of the band's songs are driven by a deep and literate Americana ("I'm Uncle Sam/That's who I am/Been hidin' out/In a rock and roll band" and "Majordomo Billy Bojangles/Sit down and have a drink with me/What's this about Alabama/Keeps comin' back to me?").

David Dodd's exhaustive study tells the story, song by song. Click here or on the image.

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