Album of the Day

On this day in 1958, Cliff Richard played his first concert with the band that would later be known as The Shadows; if you're looking for ground zero of British rock, that's about as close as you'll get. Like Elvis Presley in America, Richard was a teen idol who could make female fans swoon but was also capable of blowing the roof off the joint, and the CLIFF/CLIFF SINGS two-fer of his first albums shows both sides of the vocalist to excellent effect. Recorded live at EMI's Abbey Road studio in front of a rabid audience in February 1959, CLIFF features tough performances by Richard and band (then still called The Drifters) of 16 rockers including their own hit "Move It" as well as Presley, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis classics. Released at the end of the same year, CLIFF SINGS is split evenly between rock with The Shadows and orchestrated pop arranged by producer Norrie Paramor; the set reached No.2 on the U.K. chart.