Once Upon a Time in the Top Spot: Cliff Richard and The Shadows, Summer Holiday

52 years ago today, in the middle of winter, the UK Albums had a sudden burst of summer, thanks to Cliff Richard and The Shadows taking a certain soundtrack to the top of the charts.

The film Summer Holiday was the fourth cinematic endeavor of the future Sir Cliff, following in the footsteps of 1959’s Serious Charge, 1960’s Expresso Bongo, and 1961’s The Young Ones, but of those three films, the first two did well enough, but the third was the second most successful film of the year in the UK. As such, hopes were high that Summer Holiday would be another smash hit, and – what luck! – it turned out that it was. In fact, to give you an idea as to the level of buzz surrounding the film, the soundtrack was released and became a smash success during the window between the film’s world premiere in London (January 10) and its proper UK opening (February 18)…or, in other words, almost no one had even seen the film before it hit #1 on the UK charts!

And it wasn’t just the album that was a success for Richard: the double A-side of “The Next Time” and “Bachelor Boy” hit the top spot on the UK singles chart, and so did the title track. Plus, lest we forget, even the instrumental “Foot Tapper,” done by The Shadows without any contribution from Cliff, was a chart-topper.

Mind you, there’s an entire generation who thinks of the song “Summer Holiday” not for its role in the film but, rather, for its use in the final episode of The Young Ones:

Listening to Summer Holiday now, it’s certainly an artifact of a kinder, gentler, more carefree time, filled with songs that will make you giggle for all the wrong reasons in some instances, but there’s still more than enough catchy pop tunes to be had that it’s worth taking a spin.