Cliff Richard's 1967 "Baby It's You" and his "Wonderful To Be Young"

[Jim Dixon]

Cliff Richard is one of those artists I probably would know by name only if I wasn't a Bacharach fan. I've come to like his Bacharach recordings, even if he does tend to keep things on a low simmer (he seems kind of like the Chet Baker of British pop when he does a Bacharach tune). I don't see any mention of this kind of twee 1967 arrangement of "Baby, It's You" in the usual discographies and books, but it's kind of a nice sunshine pop version:



Turning to his "Wonderful to Be Young", I just noticed the other day that the "alternate take 14" on the 2008 "Magic Moments - The Definitive Burt Bacharach Collection" is a substantially different arrangement from the originally released version. It's in a different key, for starters, and Richard alters the vocal melody and the underlying chord harmony on the measure where he sings "lead me" (on the bridge, in measure 24). And at the top of the song, he waits until measure 2 to leave the tonic chord and go down to the vi chord, which strikes me as being closer to what a writer like Buddy Holly would have done. The whole performance seems very Holly-esque, so I guess it makes some sense that he removed a couple of Bacharach's signature curveballs and made the song a bit more of a generic 1950s pop ballad.

[blueonblue]

Jim, thanks for those rare Bacharach versions from Cliff.
Here's another....



'blue'

[pljms]

Here's Nick Palmer's version of a Bacharach & David song known only through a recording by Cliff Richard. Both the arrangement and the production suggest to me that it was more likely to have been recorded in the first half of the 60s rather than in 1968 or '69 as stated in Serene Dominic's book. To my ears it sounds no later than 1964 and if that's the case just might pre-date Cliff Richard's version which was released in 1965.


After posting the above I discovered this topic posted by Mark in 2004 which refers to Nick Palmer's version as a 1964 recording.

https://bacharachonline.com/phpBB/viewt ... lit=Palmer

[Jim Dixon]

Thanks for the Nick Palmer post...that's an interesting recording. The A-side sounds more like the late 1960s (the MOR, AM radio pop late 60s, that is) to me:



The keyboard on the Bacharach B-side has a distinctive, almost "electric harpsichord" tone...is it an RMI 300B Electra-piano? Regarding the dated quality of the production, both the producer and the arranger were born in the early 1920s, and the producer was a Nashville guy (though I have no idea if he was actually at the session), so the notion of a slightly "behind the times" production style showing up in 1968 on the b-side of a single by a relatively unknown artist seems plausible to me. Palmer doesn't seem to have anything on the market prior to 1966, though it's possible he recorded earlier than that, or that Discogs.com & 45cat.com don't reflect the whole story.

[pljms]

Another Bacharach & David song known chiefly via a recording by Cliff RIchard is 'Through The Eye Of A Needle' and the only other version that I'm aware of is by Donna Marie. Unlike Nick Palmer when in comparison to Cliff I think that Donna Marie's version more than holds its own.


Produced and arranged by Charles Calello, it was released as the b-side to 'The Whole Wide World Is Watching Us' in 1967.

[Jim Dixon]

Unlike Nick Palmer when in comparison to Cliff I think that Donna Marie's version more than holds its own

Produced and arranged by Charles Calello, it was released as the b-side to 'The Whole Wide World Is Watching Us' in 1967.

This is good...I hadn't heard it before. I like the tremolo guitar accents, which feel like something Burt would have used. And I like the sharper sound of the vocal as compared to Cliff. Funny, when it comes to "Look in My Eyes, Maria", it's Cliff's narcotized sounding vocal (and slower, more soulful performance) that makes me love his version more than Jay & The Americans. But "Eye of a Needle" is lugubrious enough as written, and Donna Marie's throbbing sound gives it some needed urgency.