CLIFF RICHARD – "The Minute You're Gone"

The only major exception to that Cliff-can’t-do-lonesome rule I can think of is “Miss You Nights,” on which for about the only time in his life he actually sounds vulnerable.
Marcello Carlin | Email | Homepage | 02.18.05 – 6:27 am | #

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Would I be right in thinking that Mis You Nights is Cliff’s longest single?
Pete | Email | 02.18.05 – 9:37 am | #

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For my money the only thing he ever did well was Devil Woman, and that’s down to the production and some good memories of travelling around the USA listening to it. Most of the rest is trivial schmaltz, verging on the absolutely unforgivable when he got hold of ‘From a Distance’ and insisted on turning it into a song about God just because it’s got the word ‘God’ in it.

(End of rant. I’ll shut up now)
Mark Gamon | Email | Homepage | 02.18.05 – 12:37 pm | #

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It should be understood, that if you really try , you can hear what you want in any song or lyric.

I mean that’s what good writers do.

Evangelical types try and pull this shit all the time . Beware !
Brian C | Email | 02.18.05 – 2:08 pm | #

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Cliff (or should I say “Sir Cliff”) never really won an American audience, and his only US hit (i.e. “Devil Woman”) came about a zillion years after he’d hit his peak. This was the first CR recording I’d ever heard. It got played a few times on the radio in Los Angeles (where I grew up, wanting to be British because even then I knew that the US was/still is so . . . . Well, Robin will understand.) Fortunately, it was soon forgotten. I refused to believe that Cliff was British. I saw a picture of him in a fan mag. I thought he looked like a sap (uncool, ergo unBritish). This record was, to my discerning 14 year old self, even smarmier than Perry Como, my father’s fave. It completely convinced me CR couldn’t possibly be British. I’ve long since learned that things are vastly more complicated than that, but even that knowledge has failed to endear Cliff or this song to me. I agree that “4” is appropriate.
Doctor Mod | Email | 02.19.05 – 2:34 am | #

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Mark’s point is well taken. I recently read that Cilla Black recently released a CD of new recordings, including a cover version of Lennon’s “Imagine,” sung as a duet with Cliff! This is actually quite frightening. I *do not* want to hear it, lest I have an attack of apoplexy–but I do wonder how *those two* got through the lines about “no religion” and “no heaven.”
Doctor Mod | Email | 02.19.05 – 2:40 am | #

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I forgot. I do have one more good(ish) memory of Cliff: watching Summer Holiday in the cinema with my mates when it first came out. Actually, we went because we were Shadows fans (aged all of 12) and were left feeling vaguely disappointed that Cliff hogged the limelight. We wanted Hank to play his guitar, not some soppy love story.

On reflection, the bus was the real star.
Mark Gamon | Email | Homepage | 02.19.05 – 4:32 am | #

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Doctor Mod – too much information, mate! My flesh is crawling at the very thought…
Mark Gamon | Email | Homepage | 02.19.05 – 4:36 am | #

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Actually, having recently reminded myself of it for the purposes of my 1974 epic, I’m surprised at how much Kiki Dee’s “I Got The Music In Me,” shall we say, anticipates “Devil Woman”…
Marcello Carlin | Email | Homepage | 02.19.05 – 5:29 am | #

“When Two Worlds Drift Apart” is a brilliant song brilliantly performed and I think the late Clifford T Ward, who wrote it, still isn’t getting nearly enough love.

Thinking of it, this does sound a bit like something Jim Reeves couldn’t fit into his schedule so it got handed over to the visitor from ‘accross the pond’ as a treat. It probably would’ve made a good Jim Reeves record too.

Indeed – B-side of “I’ll Love You Forever Today” and turns up as a bonus track on the CD of Established 1958, a rather bizarre half-Cliff/half-Shads album, although “What’s Behind The Eyes Of Mary?” is a surprisingly good tilt at the Gene Pitney epic template.

TOTPWatch: Cliff Richard performed The Minute You’re Gone on the edition of Top Of The Pops transmitted on 25 March 1965. Also in the studio that week were; Donovan, The Pretty Things, The Yardbirds and Unit 4 + 2, plus the Go Jo’s interpretation of ‘The last Time’. Alan Freeman was the host. No copy survives.

A perfectly fine single from Cliff to my ears. 6/10.