Cliff Richard began his career with The Drifters which ultimately became Cliff Richard and The Shadows. In the summer of 1958 Cliff gained his first contract  with EMI. He was moulded as a solo performer, and The Shadows were his backing band, before becoming stars in their own right.

The first recording Cliff Richard made for EMI was the single Schoolboy Crush, but the B-side, Move It!, proved to be initially more popular, and so this Ian Samwell song became the A-side, and zoomed to number 2 in the UK charts. It should be remembered that at this time Cliff was regarded as an outrageous, even indecent, performer by some. Pelvic gyrations were a culture shock for any puritanical TV owners in 1950s Britain.

In 1959, Cliff Richard reached the top of the charts, with two records- Living Doll and Travellin’ Light. He was to become the biggest young British act until The Beatles.