Way down in the land of sunny Mexico

Continuing my trip back through the 1961 album charts.

26/11/61 : 21 Today - Cliff Richard

So far this year, we've had two Elvis albums, two George Mitchell Minstrel albums and now we've had two albums featuring The Shadows, even if this one is under Cliff's name.  And, quite bizarrely (for me, at least), I'm expecting the addition of Cliff to actually improve matters - but part of me also feels that there's a strong chance he's going to let me down.

Hmmm - starting the album with a cheesy version of "Happy Birthday" and the sounds of a party (complete with "young ladies") isn't a great start - it only goes on for 1:38 but it feels like an eternity.  It does, however, get considerably better and yes, the addition of Cliff has definitely improved matters.  Don't get me wrong, it's not great but it's not horrible - a lot of it appears to be cover versions, but it's kinda hard to tell.  It feels like he's trying to channel Elvis, but Buddy Holly or The Everly Brothers would be a closer comparison for me - it's all perfectly bearable and, unlike The Shadows album, I can understand why people listened to it.  It did, however, feel a very long 40 minutes.

We're at #6 in the charts this week on their seventh week of a sixteen week run, with it having peaked at #1 in its third week and the top five this week were the George Mitchell Minstrels (#1 and #3), Elvis, The Shadows and South Pacific.  We also have a new entry - the snappily titled The Roaring Twenties Songs From The TV Show by Dorothy Provine (#13), which is of interest because, considering the entire chart, she's the only woman who's been a named artist on an album so far this year (and she's just starting a 42 week run, so we should get to catch up with her in 1962).  Dorothy was an actress and she's probably best known for It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (which I remember as being quite funny) but she's also in That Darn Cat!, which is QUITE the film if you ever get a chance to catch up with it.

Back to Cliff, it's his fourth album and it was released on his 21st birthday - and that's your lot!  Looking at his entry to pad things out a bit, he had his first hit in 1958 and his last at, of course, Christmas time last year - I may not love the lad but you can't help but admire his longevity which had made him the third best single selling artist in chart history after The Beatles and Elvis.

"Customers also listened to" a gazillion other albums by Cliff, Cliff & The Shadows and Cliff & The Drifters - the lad certainly has his fans.  I, however, am not one of them - but I don't find this album nearly as annoying as most of his later stuff.

19/11/61 - Entertaining and interesting
03/12/61 - What is this?