Editing Cliff Richard (section)

===1958–1963: Success and stardom===
[[File:Cliff Richard 1960.jpg|thumb|upright|Richard in 1960]]
Harry Webb became lead singer of a [[rock and roll]] group, the Drifters (distinct from [[The Drifters|the US group of the same name]]). The 1950s entrepreneur Harry Greatorex wanted the up-and-coming rock 'n' roll singer to [[Name change#United Kingdom|change his name]]. The name ''Cliff'' was adopted as it sounded like "cliff face", which suggested "Rock". It was "[[Move It]]" writer [[Ian Samwell]] who suggested the surname "Richard" as a tribute to Webb's musical hero [[Little Richard]].<ref name="contactmusic.com" />

Before their first large-scale appearance, at the Regal Ballroom in [[Ripley, Derbyshire]] in 1958, they adopted the name "Cliff Richard and the Drifters". The four members were Harry Webb (by then going under the stage name "Cliff Richard"), Ian Samwell on guitar, Terry Smart on drums and Norman Mitham on guitar. None of the other three played with the later and better known [[The Shadows|Shadows]], although Samwell wrote songs for Richard's later career. Agent [[George Ganjou]] saw the group perform in London, and recommended them to [[Norrie Paramor]] for an audition.<ref name="baker">Richard Anthony Baker, ''Old Time Variety: an illustrated history'', Pen & Sword, 2011, {{ISBN|978-1-78340-066-9}}, p.208</ref>

For Richard's debut session, Paramor provided him with "Schoolboy Crush", a song previously recorded by American [[Bobby Helms]]. Richard was permitted to record one of his own songs for the [[B-side]]; this was "Move It", written and composed by the Drifters' Samwell while he was on board a number 715 [[Green Line Coaches|Green Line]] bus on the way to Richard's house for a rehearsal. For the "Move It" session, Paramor used the session guitarist Ernie Shears on lead guitar and Frank Clark on bass.

There are various stories about why the A-side was replaced by the intended B-side. One is that Norrie Paramor's young daughter raved about the B-side; another was that influential TV producer [[Jack Good (producer)|Jack Good]], who used the act <!--another word needed for the act?-->for his TV show ''[[Oh Boy! (TV series)|Oh Boy!]]'', wanted the only song on his show to be "Move It" as opposed to "Schoolboy Crush".<ref>Richard himself stated that the latter theory is correct; interviewed for the first episode of the [[BBC Four]] programme, ''Pop Britannia'', broadcast on 4 January 2008.</ref> Richard was quoted as saying:
{{blockquote|It's wonderful to be going on TV for the first time, but I feel so nervous that I don't know what to do. I shaved my sideburns off last night... Jack Good said it would make me look more original.|''[[NME]]'', September 1958<ref name="NME Rock 'N' Roll Years">{{cite book |first=John |last=Tobler |year=1992 |title=NME Rock 'N' Roll Years |edition=1st |publisher=Reed International Books Ltd |location=London |page=58 |id=CN 5585}}</ref>}}The single went to No. 2 on the [[UK Singles Chart]]. [[John Lennon]] credited "Move It" as being the first British rock record.<ref>{{cite news |last=Lazarevic |first=Jade |url=https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/335682/cliff-richard-has-no-time-to-stop/ |title=Cliff Richard has no time to stop |publisher=Theherald.com.au |date=15 September 2012 |access-date=7 January 2013 |archive-date=3 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180703021923/https://www.theherald.com.au/story/335682/cliff-richard-has-no-time-to-stop/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Cliff Richard persconferentie op Schiphol, Bestanddeelnr 913-7393.jpg|thumb|upright|Richard at a press conference in the Netherlands in 1962]]
In the early days, Richard was marketed as the British equivalent of Elvis. Like previous British rockers such as [[Tommy Steele]] and [[Marty Wilde]], Richard adopted Elvis-like dress and hairstyle. In performance he struck a pose of rock attitude, rarely smiling or looking at the audience or camera. His late 1958 and early 1959 follow-up singles, "[[High Class Baby]]" and "[[Livin' Lovin' Doll]]", were followed by "[[Mean Streak (song)|Mean Streak]]", which carried a rocker's sense of speed and passion, and [[Lionel Bart]]'s "[[Living Doll (song)|Living Doll]]".

It was on "Living Doll" that the Drifters began to back Richard on record. It was his fifth record and became his first No. 1 single. By that time, the group's line-up had changed with the arrival of [[Jet Harris]], [[Tony Meehan]], [[Hank Marvin]] and [[Bruce Welch]]. The group was obliged to change its name to "The Shadows" after legal complications with the American group [[the Drifters]] as "Living Doll" entered the American top 40, licensed by [[ABC-Paramount]]. "Living Doll" was used in Richard's début film ''[[Serious Charge]]'', but it was arranged as a country standard, rather than a rock and roll standard.

The Shadows were not a typical backing group. They became contractually separate from Richard, and the group received no royalties for records backing Richard. In 1959, the Shadows (then still the Drifters) landed an [[EMI]] recording contract of their own, for independent recordings. That year, they released three singles, two of which featured double-sided vocals and one of which had instrumental A and B sides. They thereafter had several major hits, including five UK No. 1s. The band also continued to appear and record with Richard and wrote many of his hits. On more than one occasion, a Shadows instrumental replaced a Richard song at the top of the British charts.

Richard's fifth single "Living Doll" triggered a softer, more relaxed, sound. Subsequent hits, the No. 1s "[[Travellin' Light (Cliff Richard song)|Travellin' Light]]" and "[[I Love You (Cliff Richard song)|I Love You]]" and also "[[A Voice in the Wilderness (song)|A Voice in the Wilderness]]", lifted from his film ''[[Expresso Bongo]]'', and "[[Theme for a Dream]]" cemented Richard's status as a mainstream pop entertainer along with contemporaries such as [[Adam Faith]] and [[Billy Fury]]. Throughout the early 1960s, his hits were consistently in the top five.

[[File:Cliff Richard aankomst met zijn Shadows, Bestanddeelnr 913-7397.jpg|thumb|upright|Richard with [[the Shadows]] in 1962]]
In 1961, EMI records organised Richard's 21st birthday party at its London headquarters in Manchester Square led by his producer Norrie Paramor. Photographs of the celebrations were incorporated into Richard's next album, ''[[21 Today]]'', in which Tony Meehan joined in despite having very recently left the Shadows to be replaced by Brian Bennett.

Typically, the Shadows closed the first half of the show with a 30-minute set of their own, then backed Richard on his show-closing 45-minute stint, as exemplified by the retrospective CD album release of ''Live at the ABC Kingston 1962''. Tony Meehan and Jet Harris left the group in 1961 and 1962 respectively, and later had their own chart successes for [[Decca Records|Decca]]. The Shadows added bass players [[Brian Locking]] (1962–63) and then [[John Rostill]] (1963–68) and took on [[Brian Bennett (musician)|Brian Bennett]] permanently on drums.

In the early years, particularly on album and EP releases, Richard also recorded ballads backed by the Norrie Paramor Orchestra with Tony Meehan (and later Brian Bennett) as a session drummer. His first such single without the Shadows was "[[When the Girl in Your Arms Is the Girl in Your Heart]]" in 1961, and he continued to release one or two per year, including covers of "[[It's All in the Game (song)|It's All in the Game]]" in 1963 and "[[L'edera (song)|Constantly]]" in 1964, a revival of the popular Italian hit "L'edera". In 1965, sessions under the direction of [[Billy Sherrill]] in [[Nashville, Tennessee]] were particularly successful, yielding "[[The Minute You're Gone]]", which topped the UK singles chart, and "Wind Me Up (Let Me Go)", which made No. 2.

[[File:Princess Margaret meets Cliff Richard at the 59 Club, 1962. (7936244214).jpg|thumb|right|[[Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon|Princess Margaret]] (left) and Richard at the [[59 Club]], London in 1962]]
Richard, and the Shadows in particular, however, never achieved star status in the United States. In 1960 they toured the United States and were well-received, but lacklustre support and distribution from a revolving door of American record labels proved an obstacle to long-term success there, despite several chart records by Richard, including the aforementioned "It's All in the Game" on Epic, via a renewed linking of the worldwide Columbia labels after Philips ended its distribution deal with CBS. To the Shadows' chagrin, "[[Apache (single)|Apache]]" reached No. 2 in the US through a cover version by Danish guitarist [[Jorgen Ingmann]] which was almost unchanged from their worldwide hit. Richard and the band appeared on ''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]]'', which was crucial for [[the Beatles]], but these performances did not help them gain sustained success in North America.

Richard and the Shadows appeared in six feature films, including a debut in the 1959 film ''[[Serious Charge]]'' but most notably in ''[[The Young Ones (1961 film)|The Young Ones]]'', ''[[Summer Holiday (1963 film)|Summer Holiday]]'', ''[[Wonderful Life (1964 film)|Wonderful Life]]'', and ''[[Finders Keepers (1966 film)|Finders Keepers]]''. These films created their own genre, known as the "Cliff Richard musical", and led to Richard's being named the No. 1 cinema box office attraction in Britain for both 1962 and 1963, beating that of even [[James Bond]].<ref>'Top Box Office Stars of 1962, ''Motion Picture Herald'' 1962</ref> The [[The Young Ones (song)|title song]] of ''The Young Ones'' became his biggest-selling single in the United Kingdom, selling over one million copies in the UK.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the-uk-s-million-selling-singles__6907/ |title=Official Charts &#124; The UK's million selling singles |publisher=Official Charts |access-date=29 December 2015}}</ref> The irreverent 1980s TV [[British sitcom|sitcom]] ''[[The Young Ones (TV series)|The Young Ones]]'' took its name from Richard's 1962 film. In mid-1963, Cliff and the Shadows appeared for a season in [[Blackpool]], where Richard had his portrait modelled by Victor Heyfron.