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Cliff Richard: 'The charts don't have value anymore'

4 December 2018, 16:06

By Tom Eames

Sir Cliff Richard is one of the most prolific UK chart acts of all time, and sits behind only Elvis and The Beatles in terms of chart success.

However, he's not a huge fan of how charts are compiled today. Since streaming and downloads were included, Sir Cliff feels like most people don't really care about the charts like they used to.

Speaking exclusively to Smooth Radio, Sir Cliff said: "Now, everything's changed. I don't even know where to look for charts, apparently I was number one in the Amazon chart, I don't even know what that means!

"We don't seem to have charts that have any value anymore. I guess because people aren't buying records like we used to.

When The Shadows and I had our number one hits in the '60s, '70s and '80s, if you were number one for three weeks, that every week you'd be selling 80,000 copies a day. Now someone told me you could be number one and sell 38,000 in a week. So things have changed drastically."

Sir Cliff also dismissed talk that he is "Mr Christmas" due to his previous festive releases.

Cliff Richard - Mistletoe and Wine (Official Music Video)

He said: "The whole Christmas idea, everyone thinks that Christmas belongs to me and it doesn't at all. In actual fact, I think I've only had one two Christmas number ones: 'Mistletoe and Wine' and 'Saviour's Day'.

"Yes, I've had Christmas records released, not every year but quite a lot of the times.

"But funnily enough, on my new album, I was surprised when I played the record company a song called 'The Miracle of Love', I said 'I don't know whether you're gonna like it or not and maybe it's not right for the album because it's a Christmas song'.

"Well, we played it, and there was silence afterwards, and I said 'what do you think?' and they said 'it's a no-brainer, it has to be on the album'. So Chris Eaton, who wrote it, had saved it for me. And it will be my Christmas single."

By pure coincidence, 'Mistletoe and Wine' first hit number one in the UK 30 years ago today (December 4).

Sir Cliff Richard's new album Rise Up gave him yet another UK top five success last month. Listen to Sir Cliff's new single 'The Miracle of Love' below: