#116: The Next Time by Cliff Richard

Peak Month: September 1963
14 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #99
YouTube.com: “The Next Time”
Lyrics: “The Next Time”

Cliff Richard was born Harry Roger Webb on October 14, 1940, in the city of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, India. In 1940 Lucknow was part of the British Raj, as India was not yet an independent country. Webb’s father worked on as a catering manager for the Indian Railways. His mother raised Harry and his three sisters. In 1948, when India had become independent, the Webb family took a boat to Essex, England, and began a new chapter. At the age of 16 Harry Webb was given a guitar by his father. Harry then formed a vocal group called the Quintones. Webb was interested in skiffle music, a type of jug band music, popularized by “The King of Skiffle,” Scottish singer Lonnie Donegan who had an international hit in 1955 called “Rock Island Line”.

In 1958 Webb became the lead singer of a British rock group named the Drifters. It was during this time that Harry Greatorex, who was promoting the band, gave Harry Webb the stage name, “Cliff Richard.”As rock and roll made some people think of rocks, Greatorex reasoned that “Cliff” would be a rock solid name for the young 18 year old Harry Webb. Cliff Richard would go on to record nearly 150 singles that made it onto the UK charts. While his popularity in the USA was erratic, he was a big seller in Vancouver.  On this survey of 1,410 songs he appears on 22 occasions.

Bruce Welch was born in 1941 in Bognor Regis, a seaside resort 55 miles southwest of London. He formed The Railroaders while he was still fourteen (before he turned 15 on November 2, 1956). His friend, Hank Marvin was one of the other three bandmates in The Drifters. Another member of The Drifters was Terrance “Jet” Harris, who was born in North West London in 1939. It was Harris who suggested to Cliff Richard that the band change their name to The Shadows in order to avoid confusion with the American R&B group, The Drifters, who were had a string of hit records  beginning with “Money Honey” in 1953 and most recently with “There Goes My Baby” in 1959.

Cliff Richard had his first single on the Vancouver charts peak at number one in the fall of 1959. “Living Doll” became an auspicious beginning for a recording artist. Fans in Vancouver were wild about Richards. He had a string of hits between 1959 and 1966, and again in the late 70s onward. Of 26 singles that charted on the Vancouver pop charts, only two didn’t climb into the Top 20.

In March 1961, Cliff Richard had his second number one hit record in Vancouver with “‘D’ In Love”. And in the spring of ’61 Richard was back in the Top Ten with “Theme For A Dream“. Eleven months later he was back in the Top Ten in Vancouver with “The Young Ones“.

And a year later Cliff Richard was roaring up the C-FUNTASTIC FIFTY in early spring 1963 with “Bachelor Boy”. From March 1963 to May 1966 Cliff Richard had 15 hit singles in the Top 20 on CFUN. Of these 12 made the Top Ten and three peaked at #1. After “Bachelor Boy”, Richard’s sixth Top Ten charting song in Vancouver was “Summer Holiday”, in May ’63. The songs overlapped with “Summer Holiday” entering the Top Ten on the C-FUNTASTIC FIFTY on April 27th at #10, while “Bachelor Boy” peaked at #5 that week. And with “Bachelor Boy”, Cliff Richard began charting for 81 of 85 consecutive weeks on the CFUNTASTIC FIFTY between March 9, 1963, and October 17, 1964.

In 1963 Richard won the Best UK Male Singer in the NME (New Musical Express) Reader Poll. In Vancouver, Cliff Richard’s follow up hit to “Summer Holiday” was “Lucky Lips” and simultaneously “It’ll Be Me”. This was a #2 hit in the UK in 1962 and #7 in Vancouver in the summer of ’63. While “Lucky Lips” climbed to #1 in Vancouver and #4 in the UK in the summer of ’63. Of the next eight singles after “It’ll Be Me”, seven made the Top Ten in Vancouver. One of these was “The Next Time”.

“The Next Time” appears in the 1963 British film Summer Holiday. The plot Don and friends Cyril, Steve and Edwin are bus mechanics at the huge London Transport bus overhaul works. During a miserably wet British summer lunch break, Don arrives, having persuaded London Transport to lend him and his friends an AEC Regent III RT double-decker bus. They convert the bus into a holiday caravan, which they drive across continental Europe, intending to reach the South of France. On the way, they are joined by a trio of young women Sandy, Angie and Mimsie, who are a singing group Do-Re-Mi, and change their destination to Athens, which means passing through Yugoslavia. They are also joined by a runaway singer Barbara pretending to be a boy, herself being pursued by her mother Stella and agent Jerry.

Late in the film Cliff Richard (Don) is on his own walking among Greek ruins on a cliff with the Parthenon in the distance. His romance is over. Though he is told someone else will come along, he doubts there will ever be “a next time” for him. It seems impossible to ever fall in love with someone new, when he’s so smitten and broken up over his recent flame.

“The Next Time” was written by Buddy Kaye and Philip Springer. Jules Leonard “Buddy” Kaye was born in New York City in 1918. Kaye had his first big songwriting success with “This Is No Laughing Matter” for the Charlie Spivak Orchestra, featuring Garry Stevens and the Stardusters in 1942. Kaye wrote “Till The End of Time” for Perry Como, a number one hit in 1945.  In 1946 Kaye had Top 20 successes with  “Full Moon And Empty Arms” for Frank Sinatra and “Don’t Be A Baby, Baby” for the Benny Goodman Orchestra. In 1947 Buddy Kaye had a Top 10 hit with Andy Russell’s recording of “I’ll Close My Eyes”. A few years later Kaye was going to the bank with “A You’re Adorable (The Alphabet Song)” which was a number two hit for Perry Como & The Fontaine Sisters in 1949. In 1951 Kaye wrote “A Penny A Kiss” a #8 hit for Tony Martin and Dinah Shore. In 1955 the McGuire Sisters had a #6 hit called “Rhythm ‘n Blues” penned by Buddy Kaye. In 1962 Kaye wrote “Speedy Gonzales” for Pat Boone. The song went to #6 and was Pat Boone’s last Top 40 hit. Buddy Kaye also penned several Top 40 hits for Dusty Springfield, “All Cried Out” and “Little By Little”.

Philip Springer was born in New York City in 1926. He had written over 500 songs that appeared on the pop charts in the USA. These include “Santa Baby” for Eartha Kitt; “Moonlight Gambler” for Frankie Laine; “(How Little It Matters) How Little We Know” for Frank Sinatra; “Heartbroken” for Judy Garland; “Not One Goodbye” for Jaye P. Morgan; and “All Cried Out” for Dusty Springfield. Springer also wrote music for TV shows Gunsmoke, Mannix, Medical Center and Then Came Bronson. As well, Philip Springer wrote music for the films Twist Around The Clock, Impasse, Kill a Dragon, Tell Me That You Love Me Junie Moon, More Dead Than Alive, and I Sailed to Tahiti with an All Girl Crew. Philip Springer wrote music in the Brill Building at 1619 Broadway in Manhattan. His daughter, Tamar Springer is currently working on a production of a musical with the title The Bells of Notre Dame, about the music of Philip Springer. At 96, Philip Springer continues to write songs.

Kaye and Springer wrote numbers of songs together, including “Time” for Jerry Jackson – a Top 20 hit in Vancouver in 1961.

“The Next Time” peaked at #1 in Vancouver. It got a little airplay in New Hampshire, but otherwise was shut out of radio markets across Canada and the USA. Internationally, “The Next Time” peaked at #1 in India, Ireland, Israel and the UK, #2 in New Zealand and Norway, #3 in Belgium and #4 in Hong Kong.

Cliff Richard’s followup hit in Vancouver was a cover of Tommy Edward’s 1958 number-one hit “It’s All In The Game”. The following Top Ten hit in Vancouver was “Don’t Talk To Him“. Other hits in Vancouver for Cliff Richard in 1964 were “Constantly [L’Edera]“/”True True Lovin'” and “I’m The Lonely One“. The last of Cliff Richard’s eight consecutive Top ten hits in Vancouver was in the fall of 1964 with “On The Beach”.

Cliff Richard also had a Top Ten hit in Vancouver in 1965 with “Just Another Guy“, while the B-side “The Minute You’re Gone” stalled at #11. Then in 1966 Richard was back in the Top Ten with a cover of the Rolling Stones “Blue Turns To Grey“. While “I Don’t Wanna Love You” stalled at #14 in 1965.

In the UK Cliff Richard had 26 of his first 28 singles, from 1958 reach the Top Ten, which included a record of 23 Top Ten singles in a row, ending in the middle of 1965. Of these 15 singles were non-album singles. It would seem with the coming of the British Invasion that Cliff Richard would be discovered by the American record-buying public. However, it was not to be. He remained almost completely off the radar in the USA until his Top Ten hit in 1976 on the Billboard Hot 100 called “Devil Woman.”

In the late ’70s into the early ’80s he scored again with “We Don’t Talk Anymore” and “Dreamin’.” Other hits in the early ’80’s that did well in Vancouver were “A Little In Love” and “Wired For Sound”.

In 1982, he covered the 1961 doo-wop classic “Daddy’s Home” by Shep and the Limelights. The single was a Top Ten hit in Australia, Belgium, Ireland, New Zealand, and the UK.

In 1982 Richard released a contemporary/Christian album Now You See Me, Now You Don’t. The debut single, “The Only Way Out”, was a Top Ten hit in the Belgium, Ireland and the UK. In 1983 Cliff Richard and Phil Everly recorded a duet, “She Means Nothing To Me”, which was a Top Ten hit in Ireland and the UK. Richard also enjoyed a second Top Ten hit in both nations that year with his cover of the Buddy Holly tune “True Love Ways”. And an album marking his 25 years as a recording artist, Silver, featured a third Top Ten hit in Ireland and the UK in 1983 titled Please Don’t Fall in Love”.

In 1986, Cliff Richard released a new recording of his 1959 hit “Living Doll”. It became a number-one hit this time in Australia, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the UK. As well, it made the Top Ten in Switzerland and Norway. And in 1986, Richard recorded a duet with Sarah Brightman titled “All I Ask of You”. It was a chart-topper in Ireland and South Africa, and a #3 hit in the UK.

During the 1980s, Cliff Richard had three number-one hits and 17 Top Ten hits in Ireland, and two number-one hits and 14 Top Ten hits in the UK. He had six Top Ten hits in Belgium and five Top Ten hits in Australia, with a #1 hit in each nation across the ’80s. And in the 1990s, Cliff Richard had 7 more Top Ten hits in the UK with “Savior’s Day” and “The Millennium Prayer” both topping the UK charts. And in the 2000s, the singer had five more Top Ten hits in the UK.

Cliff Richard was among the performers at the Diamond Jubilee concert held outside Buckingham Palace in June 2012. Then, on June 30, 2012, he helped to carry the Olympic torch from Derby to Birmingham as part of the torch relay for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Cliff Richard has also been active as a philanthropist. In October 2015 he went on tour at the age of 75. Over the course of his recording career, Cliff Richard has had 68 singles reach the Top Ten on the UK singles chart between 1958 and 2008.

In late June and early July, 2019, Cliff Richard celebrated his 60th year as a recording artist with his Diamond Encore Tour. He performed in the village of Cartmel in Cumbria, just south of Scotland. He gave a concert in Scarborough by the North Sea, and in Greenwich, London.

October 19, 2022
Ray McGinnis

References:
“Cliff’s Career,” Cliff Richard.org.
“Cliff Richard UK Singles chart discography,” official charts.com.
“Buddy Kaye, 84, songwriter of hits for Como and Sinatra, Dies,” New York Times, November 23, 2002.
Randall Roberts, “‘Santa Baby’ composer Phil Springer, 91, still can’t figure out why his sexy Christmas song endures,” Los Angeles Times, December 22, 2017.
“C-FUNTASTIC FIFTY,” CFUN 1410 AM, Vancouver, BC, September 14, 1963.

For more song reviews visit the Countdown.