Sir Cliff Richard has shared a reworked orchestral version of his early hit ‘The Young Ones’ to mark its 60th anniversary.
The 82-year-old music legend has marked the milestone of the 1962 tune by releasing the new "contemporary yet classic" version featuring an orchestral arrangement by Chris Walden.
'The Young Ones' was recorded for the film of the same name and marked the 'Devil Woman' hitmaker's fifth number one single in the UK and remained in the top spot for six weeks.
The reworked version is the first track taken from the upcoming collection 'Cliff With Strings – My Kinda Life', which celebrates his 65 years in music.
He said: “What better way to celebrate this milestone in my career, than revisiting one of my earliest hits. This was an incredible time in my life, as this is the title track from my third film ‘The Young Ones’, which was the second biggest film of that year and a role that I loved to play. I am so grateful to all the fans that have stuck with me for all these years and that this song makes me feel as young as I was then.”
From his debut number one single 'Living Doll', released in 1959, as well as other number one hits 'Summer Holiday' and 'We Don’t Talk Anymore', plus songs like 'Wired for Sound', 'Carrie', 'My Kinda Life' and 'The Best of Me' - which was Cliff’s 100th single - the 12-track collection brings new life to Cliff's original vocal recordings with beautiful new orchestral and string arrangements.
Cliff has also included his hit duet 'Suddenly' with late actress-and-singer Olivia Newton-John - who passed away in August 2022 at the age of 73 from cancer - which featured in the 1980 film 'Xanadu'. Taken from one of their last performances together at Cliff’s 75th birthday concert on 14 October 2015, the new arrangement brings an emotional beauty to the two voices in harmony.
Speaking about how listening back to the recording made him very emotional, Cliff said: "After 65 years in the business, it is really an emotional journey to listen back to some of my original vocals and hear just how young I was and how my style changed over the years. These tracks mean a lot to me and they are so refreshed with the orchestral arrangements. The most emotional track on the album for me is 'Suddenly' with my dear friend Olivia Newton-John. We recorded this version together live for my 75th birthday in 2015 and it always strikes me how well our voices sounded together and the crystal gentility that Olivia always managed to exude. I’m glad I was able to highlight this great performance again.”
The collection not only includes 1993’s 'Peace In Our Time', but also the very rare recording from 1999 of Cliff’s performance of 'Everything I Do (I Do It For You)' at his Millennium Countdown concert. The track has only ever been available on the DVD release of the concert.
‘Cliff with Strings – My Kinda Life’ will be available digitally and on CD on East West Records on November 3, with the vinyl release following on November 24.
You can go to CliffRichard.lnk.to/WithStrings to pre-order the LP now.
‘Cliff with Strings – My Kinda Life’ tracklisting:
Side A:
The Best Of Me
Carrie
My Kinda Life
Wired for Sound
Living Doll
Marmaduke
Side B:
Everything I Do (I Do It For You)
Suddenly
Peace In Our Time 1
Summer Holiday
The Young Ones
We Don't Talk Anymore
