Confederacy of a Dunce - Sir Cliff's prodigious output to end?

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

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Once-popular British music star Cliff Richard may be unknown in the US, but has been a huge star in the UK since the beginning of his career in the 1950s. According to the Wikipedia entry, he ...

Has sold more singles in the UK than any other artist (2nd place: the Beatles; 3rd place: Elvis);

Has had 14 #1 singles in the UK; only Elvis and the Beatles had more;

Is the only artist to have a #1 UK single in every decade since the inception of the UK singles charts (1952), with the exception of the 2000s which is not over;

Has been knighted.

But he's had enough, as this Guardian article explains (based on an interview Sir Cliff gave to the Daily Mail). His records aren't being played on the radio any more, and he blames an unofficial boycott:

"I just don't have the time to waste making a record that no one will play," he told the Daily Mail. "As a musician you make a record for the radio so that the public can hear it, but my songs don't get played. It's not that DJs don't like them, it's that the stations have a policy that says, 'We don't play him'." By way of a concession, he added: "I will be playing concerts until the day I die because I love the atmosphere - but I'll never make another record."

At first I scoffed at the notion of an unofficial boycott which sounds a lot like "sour grapes" to me. A situation like "The radio stations aren't playing my records any more, so I'll stop making them." seems entirely logical; why keep at it if they are no longer in demand? As it turns out, reading the rest of the article, it sounds like there have been "boycotts" in the past:

Sir Cliff's status as a radio star began to wane in 1998 when Chris Evans - then the breakfast show host on Virgin Radio - vowed he would never again play one of his records. Other stations took up the cause to such an extent that the DJ Tony Blackburn was suspended from his job on Classic Gold for breaking the ban.

Now, seven years later, instead of an official boycott, it's become unofficial? Perhaps this is driven by slipping popularity. This scarily-complete site documenting Cliff Richard's chart performance shows his sad performance on the charts since 2000:
"Over The Rainbow/Wonderful World" reached #11 in December 2001; "Let Me Be The One" only made it to #29 in spring 2002; another shot at Christmas #1, "Santa's List" got to #5 in December 2003. In 2004 he charted twice, with "Somethin' Is Goin' On" (#9 in October) and yet another Christmas #1 attempt "I Cannot Give You My Love" (#13). Most recently "What Car" got to #12 in May, but disappeared quickly thereafter. The site commentary tries to put a positive spin on it, but it sounds a little forced:

Cliff's single of Over the rainbow is the 'biggest' hit version of the song in the British chart. Other versions and chart positions: Matchbox (No.15), Sam Harris (No.67) and Eva Cassidy (No.42)...

...Santa's List was Cliff's 125th hit single, his 65th Top 10 hit single and is his biggest hit in the 2000's to date. It has the distinction of being the ONLY Cliff single to peak at No.5 in the official U.K. singles chart!

At least die-hard fans can count on continuing to see him at concerts, and Cliff completists will finally be able to take a break.

music

Wednesday, September 21, 2005 11:59:09 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)