Cliff Richard ~ Dreamin’ 1980 Pop Purrfection Version

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 UK hits with five of those going Top 10. Alan Tarney was Cliff’s guitarist and he wrote a song called “Dreamin’“ with music by Alan and lyrics courtesy of Leo Sayer (You Make Me Feel Like Dancing). Written in a higher key than Cliff was used to, he felt it was not using the best part of his voice. Alan thought that Cliff could do it and asked him to just try it. He sounds like he is on fire! It lends an urgency that underlines the poignancy of losing a perfect performance! Released as a US single on September 13, 1980 it entered the chart at #77 the third highest entry that week after Doobie Brothers “Real Love“ (#40) and second highest Barbra Streisand with “Woman In Love“ at #49. Diana Ross was on her second week at #1 with “Upside Down“. Robbie Dupree’s “Steal Away“ was at #100 after spending 23 weeks on the chart. “Dreamin’“ eventually peaked at #10 a very respectable achievement. An interesting side note was that Leo Sayer “More Than I Can Say“ was also on the Hot100 during the run of “Dreamin’“ but beat it by going all the way to #2 and staying there for five weeks.