Cliff Richard Scores Top 10 Hit With ‘Thank You For A Lifetime’ | Six Decades Of Success
September 15, 2008 by Dave Parrack
I don’t know how many of my non-British readers or non-over the age of 40 readers are going to know who I’m talking about in this post, but here goes nothing. Sir Cliff Richard has notched up a top ten hit with his new single, Thank You For A Lifetime. Why is this news? Because it means he has had a top ten hit in every decade since the 1950s.
This week actually sees the fiftieth anniversary of Cliff’s first top ten hit, Move It, so it’s a fitting song and a fitting time to accomplish the feat of a top ten hit in the last six decades. It’s just a shame that the song is a pile of utter tripe.
Cliff Richard was actually quite good when he started out, and Move It is regarded as one of the first true British rock’n'roll classics. Unfortunately, Cliff went from music pioneer to a complete an utter dweeb when he converted to Christianity and started singing about Jesus rather than sex.
Cliff Richard isn’t actually alone in achieving this feat, sharing the record with Elvis Presley, even though he has been dead for 30 years. It’s a strange coincidence that the two share this in common as Cliff was regarded as the British Elvis when he started out in the late fifties.
Once religion took over as the dominant force in his life, his style of music changed somewhat and it’s now really only loved by fellow Christians and people who remember the hip-swinging Cliff of old. The average age of the audience at a Cliff concert must be pushing 90 these days.