Cliff and Friends

Sir Cliff Richard was born Harry Rodger Webb on October 14, 1940 in Lucknow, British India who became the UK’s most successful home grown artist ever with 21.5 million singles sold, behind The Beatles and Elvis Presley.

He began his career a rock and roll rebel in the vein of Little Richard and Elvis along with his backing band, The Shadows in 1959. He added acting to his accomplishments and had a healthy career in film.

He never approached that level of popularity in the States and had nine Top 40 hits with five of those going Top 10.

Alan Tarney was Cliff’s guitarist and he wrote a song called “We Don’t Talk Anymore” and felt that it had hit potential so he played the demo for producer Bruce Welch who was in the studio recording with Charlie Dore for her “Pilot Of The Airwaves” album. He was over the moon for the song and took it to Cliff who agreed it was a hit.

They spent two days in the studio and finished the song. Cliff had already released the “Rock ‘N’Roll Juvenile” LP in 1979 which included the song for the UK, but a special release of the album entitled “We Don’t Talk Anymore” specifically for North America that rejiggered the sequence and abridged the album tracks to focus on the hit single.

The song hit #1 in the UK and stayed there for four weeks, while the song peaked at #7 on the Hot100 and became his second biggest US hit behind 1976’s “Devil Woman” that peaked at #6. Tarney relates that he was driving with Phil Everly when “We Don’t…” came on the radio and Phil pulled over to hear the rest of the song and said he was going through a divorce and “that song is my life”. He then played the song for his wife and they had a conversation about why they decided to divorce but could not save their marriage.

Alan Tarney went on to produce and brought aHa to us with their breakthrough hit “Take On Me” a #1 pop hit in the US and the UK for one week.

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