MOVE IT, RICHARD’S FIRST SINGLE AND
HIS BIGGEST HIT TO DATE, WAS AN
OBVIOUS CHOICE FOR INCLUSIONRichard on all of his live appearances,
Paramor generally preferred to work with
more experienced musicians for recording
sessions. That had been the case for
Richard’s fi rst session with Columbia in
July 1958 where half of The Drifters were
replaced by session players. By the time
of the album sessions, the line-up of The
Drifters had changed. All of the group’s
original members had been replaced for
various reasons over the previous seven
months. The current line-up — Hank
Marvin on lead guitar, Bruce Welch on
rhythm guitar, Jet Harris on bass and Tony
Meehan on drums — was a powerful group
of young musicians whose talent made
up for their lack of experience. In just a
few months, the group would change its
name to The Shadows (due to a lawsuitfrom the US vocal group, The Drifters) and
would gain a reputation as one of Britain’s
greatest rock’n’roll bands with a string of
instrumental hits. Furthermore, Paramor
knew the chemistry between the singer and
the band was a vital element in capturing
the excitement he wanted on the album.
Eighteen songs were initially chosen for
the two nights of performances with nine
songs to be recorded each night. Move It,
Richard’s fi rst single and his biggest hit to
date, was an obvious choice for inclusion,
while his other original songs were rejected
in favour of covers of popular American
rock’n’roll tunes regularly featured at his
live performances. British rock’n’rollers’
reliance on covers in live shows was not
unusual at the time. Only a few American
rock’n’roll artists were able to tour in theUK because of strict regulations on live
performances by non-British artists. Live
covers by homegrown artists were as close
as British youth could come to seeing their
American heroes in the fl esh.
Rounding out the setlists for the two
nights were a handful of instrumentals by
The Drifters. Columbia Records originally
signed Richard to the label as a solo artist
with no provision for recording the band
separately. After the success of Move It,
Columbia reversed their position and
signed The Drifters to a separate contract.
The band’s fi rst instrumental single was
released just a week before the Cliff
album sessions.THE FIRST NIGHT of recording, and
side one of the album opened with Apron
Springs, a song originally recorded and
released by the mysterious “Billy the Kid”
on Kapp Records in the US. Although the
song is often credited to R&B singer Billy
“The Kid” Emerson (who did originate the
rockabilly classic Red Hot), the Billy the KidHar
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ettyThe girl can’t help it:
A 19-year-old Cliff poses with
50s sex siren Jayne Mansfi eld32 32 VINTAGEVINTAGE^99 ROCKROCK