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Living Doll (song)

"Living Doll"
Single by Cliff Richard and the Drifters
from the album Serious Charge (EP)
B-side "Apron Strings"
(Weiss/Schroeder)
Released July 1959
Format 7" single, 78 rpm disc
Recorded 28 April 1959, EMI Studios, London
Genre Pop, Rock and Roll, Light Rock and Roll
Length 2:35
Label Columbia DB4306
Writer(s) Lionel Bart
Producer(s) Norrie Paramor
Cliff Richard and the Drifters singles chronology
"Mean Streak"
(1959)
"Living Doll"
(1959)
"Travellin' Light"
(1959)
"Living Doll"
Livin Doll.jpg
Single by Cliff Richard and The Young Ones featuring Hank Marvin
B-side "(All the Little Flowers Are) Happy"
Released 8 March 1986
Format 7", 12" vinyl
Recorded 29 January 1986 at Master Rock Studios, London
Genre Pop/Novelty song
Length 4:18
Label WEA YZ 67
Writer(s) Lionel Bart
Producer(s) Stuart Colman
Cliff Richard singles chronology
"It's in Every One of Us"
(1985)
"Living Doll"
(1986)
"Born to Rock and Roll"
(1986)

"Living Doll" is a song written by Lionel Bart made popular by Cliff Richard and the Shadows (then still The Drifters) in 1959. It has topped the UK charts twice; in its original version in 1959 (their first number 1 single) and a new version recorded in 1986 in aid of Comic Relief.

"Living Doll" was written for the film Serious Charge. Lionel Bart had been approached by film producer Mickey Delamar to write songs for the film. The idea for the song came on a Sunday morning in October 1958 while reading a newspaper and seeing an advert for a child's doll. The doll was said to "kneel, walk, sit and sing". Bart recounted, "I was looking at the back pages and there was a small advert for a doll which could apparently do everything. I wrote the song in ten minutes." The song was written as an up-tempo light rock and roll song (rather than a ballad), and this is how Cliff Richard performs the song in the film.

Unbeknown to Richard, his contract to appear in the film required that there would be a single of one of the film's songs released. Richard recounts, "I remember passionately refusing to record 'Living Doll'. There was a day of telephone calls from Norrie Paramor, with me saying I hated the song and that it wasn't right for us." Richard did not like what he called its "pseudo-rock" beat. "It did not sound like real American rock 'n' roll to us" said Richard. Paramor told Richard "Change it. Do it any way you like, but do it". While sitting around one afternoon before a show, thinking about what they could do with the song, Bruce Welch, while strumming a guitar, suggested they do it like a country song. Richard and his band agreed and duly rerecorded the song with the slower tempo.

The song was recorded in April 1959 by Cliff Richard and the Drifters and produced by Norrie Paramor. It was first released in the UK in May 1959 on the Serious Charge (EP) soundtrack before being released as a single in July 1959. It was number 1 on the UK Singles Chart for six weeks from July, selling over a million copies in the process and earning the record company's internally awarded Gold disc for the achievement. It also became the top selling single of 1959 in the UK. In the US, it was Richard's first hit single, reaching number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was a number 1 hit in several European countries including Ireland, Norway and Sweden. The song won Bart an Ivor Novello Award for best song. The single featured Apron Strings on the b-side. It was their first number 1 in the UK Singles Chart. Their debut single "Move It", released the previous year, is often cited as their first number 1, but in fact it peaked at number 2.


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