Where would we be without Cliff at Christmas?
You'll find plenty of gifts perfect for your loved ones whatever their age or tastes.
He's in his late 60s, but Sir Cliff Richard, a man so good the angels faint with pleasure at the very mention of his name, shows absolutely no sign of slowing down.
Indeed, two Christmasses ago saw his strongest comeback in years, which charted high with a double A-side featuring Wonderful World and Somewhere Over The Rainbow.
It has ever been thus. Cliff often chooses Christmas as the right time for his own redemption, and the Christmas chart is his happiest hunting ground. In fact, in the 43 years he's been recording, he's been high in the Yuletide hit parade on no fewer than 26 occasions. That's a better strike rate than Michael Owen! AND he looks more boyish! So, let's have a quick peek back over the years to rediscover some of the Cliffster's finest and most important Chrimbo moments.
His affair with the Christmas Top 10 began almost as soon as his career. In his very first year, with only his second single, High Class Baby, he hit Number 7, along with his band The Drifters (who'd later call themselves The Shadows). And so began a run of success that continued every single December of the Sixties. No matter what else was happening, no matter where they were having a missile crisis, no matter who was getting assassinated, no matter how long everyone's hair was, Cliff was in that chart.
Then, weirdly, for Cliff seemed to be beyond fashion, it all stopped. In 1970, his Sunny Honey Girl wasn't a hit. Maybe the title wasn't wintery enough, maybe the people thought it was a bit hippy-dippy and consequently un-Cliff, but it stiffed. He made a brief, and extremely odd, return in 1971, his Sing A Song Of Freedom mirroring and charting alongside such rebel classics as Sly Stone's Family Affair and Isaac Hayes' Theme From Shaft. But then it all went haywire.
Cliff is rightly known as pop's King Of Christmas but, aside from Sing A Song, he didn't have a single Chrimbo hit in the Seventies. This is not to say he wasn't having hits. Miss You Nights and We Don't Talk Anymore were huge, as was Devil Woman, his very first Top 10 in America. Perhaps the Cliffster had become too raunchy for Christmas, a tad too risque. At one point, in 1975, he was actually too risque for HIMSELF. Having put out a single called (There's A) Honky Tonk Angel (Who Will Take Me Back In), someone told him what it was actually about and he refused to promote it.
But Cliff would not be bowed. Like Tottenham Hotspur, he tends to catch fire when the year ends in a one (indeed, unlike Spurs, he's NEVER missed out) and 1981 saw him burn up the charts with Daddy's Home. Thus began another run of success that stalled only in the mid-Eighties. There are two theories that explain this brief halting. First, and most likely, is that Cliff did not wish to compete with the Band Aid single that sold so well in 1984-5, and deliberately did not promote his own singles, thereby losing momentum. Second is that Cliff was so depressed that Rats by The Subhumans managed to get into his beloved Christmas chart that he became all listless and musically droopy.
Whatever, he tried a couple of duets - Slow Rivers with Sir Elton, and All I Ask Of You with Sarah Brightman - just to get back in the mood, and then he exploded once again. First came Mistletoe And Wine, which crushed all comers in 1988, including Kylie and Jason's Especially For You, and Angry Anderson's Suddenly, the wedding theme from the massively popular Neighbours. Then, in '89, there was a duet with Van Morrison and, next, another festive bulldozer in the huge-selling Number One, Saviour's Day. Cliff was on a roll, and more hits followed, including a treatment of All I Have To Do Is Dream, and a duet with old buddy Olivia Newton-John, called Had To Be and taken from his forthcoming musical smash Heathcliff.
Having recorded in five separate decades, Cliff ended the millennium with another mega-smash, Millennium Prayer. He wouldn't say this himself - indeed, if he caught you saying it he'd probably crucify you upside-down for blasphemy - but the man is a Christmas chart GOD.
Cliff: The Complete Christmas Hits
1958 - High Class Baby
1959 - Travelling Light
1960 - I Love You
1961 - When The Girl In Your Arms Is The Girl In Your Heart
1962 - Bachelor Boy
1963 - Don't Talk To Him
1964 - I Could Easily Fall (In Love With You)
1965 - Wind Me Up (Let Me Go)
1966 - In The Country
1967 - All My Love
1968 - Don't Forget To Catch Me
1969 - With The Eyes Of A Child
1971 - Sing A Song Of Freedom
1981 - Daddy's Home
1982 - Little Town
1983 - Please Don't Fall In Love
1986 - All I Ask Of You
1988 - Mistletoe And Wine
1989 - Whenever God Shines His Light
1990 - Saviour's Day
1991 - We Should Be Together
1992 - I Still Believe In You
1993 - Healing Love
1994 - All I Have To Do Is Dream
1995 - Had To Be
1999 - Millennium Prayer
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