{"id":41766,"date":"2009-11-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/reunited\/"},"modified":"2009-11-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-11-04T00:00:00","slug":"reunited","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/reunited\/","title":{"rendered":"Reunited"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sir Cliff Richard is Britain\u2019s most successful pop star, bar none. He holds some ridiculous records quoting staggering sales figures for the last five decades, beat out by only one man, Elvis Presley. The Indian-born singer, along with his backing group, The Shadows, was constantly played on radio stations all around the world during the \u201850s and 60s.\u00a0 The guys were clean-cut and fine musicians, and their handsome leader was barely out of high school but had the voice and looks to melt many a girl\u2019s heart.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Cliff got the old band back together to talk about a way to celebrate their 50th<\/sup> anniversary year.\u00a0 New material was quickly ruled out, and while a world tour was the obvious way to go, instead of plugging another compilation of those well-known hits, the guys decided simply to rerecord them. This is not an uncommon move, but those early singles were (and still are) magnificent, so I purchased this album knowing full well that I could be in for utter disappointment.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I was, however, pleasantly surprised, and although a lot of logistics had to be knuckled out to achieve a cohesive effort, it was well worth the trouble. Lead guitarist Hank Marvin lives in Perth, Western Australia these days, so all of his parts were recorded there. Cliff recorded all of his vocals from his home base in Miami, Florida while the rest of the gang \u2013 Bruce Welch (guitars) and Brian Bennett (drums), along with a few helpers \u2013 did their business from England.\u00a0 You wouldn\u2019t know this, of course, by listening to the disc because it sounds like they were all in the same room and ripped through these songs within a few hours.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richard has looked after himself, and although he no longer has the range he once did, he has no trouble in doing any of these songs justice. The rhythm section is tighter than ever, and if this is the kind of quality they dish out onstage, then I\u2019m sure that the tour will be a runaway success.\u00a0 I was a little surprised myself (being only thirty) that I knew so many of these songs because I wouldn\u2019t count myself as a fan of these guys. It is, of course, a testament to their endurance and the fact that they still receive heavy rotation on classic radio stations that they\u2019ve seeped so deeply into my consciousness over the years. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

All the stellar hits are here, and there\u2019s no monkeying with the arrangements either \u2013 these guys know their stuff ain\u2019t broken, so they don\u2019t try fixing it. \u201cI Could Easily Fall (In Love With You)\u201d and \u201cThe Young Ones\u201d are as sweet as ever. \u201cMove It,\u201d \u201cLiving Doll,\u201d and \u201cSummer Holiday\u201d have lost none of their exuberance while lesser-known tracks like \u201cSea Cruise\u201d and \u201cBachelor Boy\u201d hold their own. A cool waltz through \u201cWillie And The Hand Jive\u201d works a treat, as does their take on \u201cLucky Lips.\u201d\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

All in all, there are twenty-two hits here, reworked for the fans \u2013 and it all works really well.\u00a0 Some more cynical reviewers would tell you that this release was completely unnecessary, but I think that music this good is always a welcome addition to my collection.<\/o:p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":30127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8482],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-41766","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-cliff-richard-the-shadows","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41766"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}