#27 Cliff Richard & The Shadows/Various Artists- The Young Ones

Cliff heads to the movies, borrowing his hero’s songwriters in the process…

(Columbia EMI)

Released: 15th December 1961

Topped the Chart:

7th January 1962 (for 6 weeks)

6 weeks total

Tommy Steele’s treatment on the big screen should be a stark warning about taking on the Americans at their own game. With less money and pizzazz, it’s not a surprise that our big screen rock and roll adventures aren’t up to snuff, but maybe Cliff (wearing a very sensible jacket on the cover) could turn things around?

Richard’s first full soundtrack LP, The Young Ones arrived in cinemas just a month after the Elvis’ latest joint Blue Hawaii. As might be expected, the film is a further step in crowning Richard the “British Elvis.” Soundtrack producer Norrie Paramore even roped in the lead songwriters from Blue Hawaii (Sid Tepper and Roy C Bennett) to pen the tunes.

The movie itself is your standard “let’s do the show here!” hackneyed narrative to hang some songs on, following Cliff and his polite young friends attempting to put on a benefit concert so twee it will make your toes curl back so far they snap off, in order to save their youth centre, so they can continue to stay up past their bedtimes drinking lemon squash.

Blackboard Jungle this ain’t.

But while this suggests a typical 60s pop movie, the first surprise is that The Young Ones has allusions to a “Capital M” Musical, sitting somewhere between the orchestral traditions of Richard Rogers and the harder-hitting tunes of the contemporary West Side Story. Opener Friday Night acts as the traditional overture: no Cliff, no Shadows, just the ABS Orchestra and a chorus of “youths” using forced Estuary vowels. It’s a cheap and cheerful musical opening that does at least inject a bit of energy into proceedings, something sorely lacking on Cliff’s previous LPs.

That energy is infectious for Richard himself, sounding less sleepy than he did on previous album 21 Today. The songs alternate between orchestral musical theatre and Shadows-backed pop, and while the latter is more effective than the former, Richard’s performances are committed throughout: from the soft, Love Me Tender-style balladeering on When the Girl in Your Arms Is the Girl in Your Heart to the full-blooded rocker We Say Yeah which sees Cliff injecting a bit of Presley-style grit into his voice and backing vocals recalling Buddy Holly’s Heartbeat. Yet more energy is found in Got A Funny Feeling, a Hank Marvin/Bruce Welch co-write that stings with a pounding rock n roll piano and 50s dancehall jive beat. These two songs alone are the most animated Cliff has sounded since Move It in 1958.

Best of the lot is the title track, which remains Richard’s biggest selling single with good reason. Blending the melodic atmospherics of Hank Marvin’s guitar with romantic, swelling strings from the orchestra, it’s three minutes of pop perfection, a celebration of youth with the knowledge that “we may not be the young ones very long,” to bring an irresistible melancholic edge. It’s the closest Cliff will ever get to the Motown chemistry of happy-song-sad-lyrics and it’s a wonder.

Nothing else on offer gets close. It’s nice to get two Shadows instrumentals in Peace Pipe and The Savage, but neither are as memorable as any of the songs on their own debut album. A pair of musical medleys represent the nadir of the orchestrated numbers, What D'You Know, We've Got a Show representing the show-saving performance that’s so bad, it’s a surprise that the audience didn’t bring the bulldozers to the youth club themselves. Nothing’s Impossible is a better version of this style, a duet between Cliff and singer Grazina Frame which acts as a 1920s standard pastiche, including some Cole Porter-esque witty rhymes (“man could never spin/Gagarin”).

As a standalone album, The Young Ones is still a throwaway mess where the songs never quite live up to their potential, but it’s definitely a step forward from what came before. Cliff in particular sounds more comfortable in this setting and there at least a small handful of genuinely great pop songs in the mix. Maybe Cliff had a future in the movies…

Score: 6/10

Tracklisting:

SIDE A

1.      Friday Night

2.      Got a Funny Feeling

3.      Peace Pipe

4.      Nothing’s Impossible

5.      The Young Ones

6.      All For One

7.      Lessons in Love

SIDE B

8.      No One For Me But Nicky

9.      What D'You Know, We've Got A Show & Vaudeville Routine (medley)

10.  When The Girl In Your Arms Is The Girl In Your Heart

11.  Just Dance/Mood Mambo (medley)

12.  The Savage

13.  We Say Yeah