Now You See Me, Now You Don't (album)

Now You See Me, Now You Don't
Studio album by Cliff Richard
Released August 1982
Recorded September 1981; January 1982[1]
Genre Rock, gospel
Label EMI
Producer Cliff Richard & Craig Pruess
Cliff Richard chronology
Wired for Sound
(1981)		 Now You See Me, Now You Don't
(1982)		 Dressed for the Occasion
(1983)
Singles from Now You See Me, Now You Don't
  1. "The Only Way Out"
    Released: July 1982
  2. "Where Do We Go from Here"
    Released: September 1982
  3. "Little Town"
    Released: November 1982

Now You See Me, Now You Don't is a rock gospel album by English singer Cliff Richard released in August 1982 on the EMI label. It reached No. 4 in the UK albums chart, No. 1 in Denmark, No. 21 in Australia and No. 19 in New Zealand.[2][3][4][5] It was certified Gold in the UK.[6]

The lead single from the album, "The Only Way Out" was released in July 1982, and following on from the top 5 successes of Richard's previous singles "Wired for Sound" and "Daddy's Home", it managed to reach No. 10 in the UK Singles Chart. With this foundation, the album peaked at No. 4 on debut in early September - matching Richard's previous two studio albums. However the album did not receive a significant chart boost from the follow-up singles. The next single "Where Do We Go from Here" was released in September, but failed to have much impact, only managing to reach No. 60. In Germany, "It Has to Be You, It Has to Be Me" was released as a single instead, and did a little better, reaching number 36 in a five week chart run.[7]

Late in November, "Little Town" was lifted from the album to become Richard's first Christmas song to be released as a Christmas single. It reached No. 11 in the two weeks leading up to Christmas and New Year.[2] This was just the humble beginnings of Richard's association with Christmas songs. Over the coming decade, due to the success of his subsequent Christmas songs Mistletoe and Wine (1988), Saviour's Day (1990) and numerous other Christmas singles, Richard would became somewhat synonymous with Christmas in the annual battle for the No. 1 UK Christmas single.[8][9]

Background

Richard first announced his Christian faith in June 1966. The following year he released Good News, his first gospel album of traditional gospel songs in a mix of both rock come American gospel styles and traditional hymn performances.[10] Richard followed it up with further gospel and Christian albums intermingled between releases of his mainstream pop albums, About that Man (primarily spoken word, 1970), His Land (a film soundtrack, 1970), Help it Along (a live album, 1974) and Small Corners (his second studio gospel album, 1978).

Richard had also begun intermingling gospel tracks into some of his mainstream pop albums, starting with "Such is the Mystery" on his 1976 comeback album I'm Nearly Famous and continued on 1977's Every Face Tells a Story. With an increasing availability of gospel songs considered by Richard to be high-calibre musically, he included three gospel songs on his 1981 album Wired for Sound. Then for his 1982 follow-up album (which became Now You See Me, Now You Don't), Richard planned a gospel album. He chose to produce it together with Craig Pruess. A quote from Pruess identifies two particular goals Richard had in mind for the album, "He wanted this album to be more heavyweight and wanted to break away from the pop sound. He approached it to prove a point. He didn't want his gospel albums to be regarded as inferior to his other albums. He felt they could be as good as anything else he did. He wanted to fuse his beliefs and his enthusiasm with his professional life."[11]

The resultant album is not made up entirely of overtly gospel songs though, and has been described as a "gospel album in disguise" in the liner notes of the 2002 digitally remastered CD re-release. In reflection on the album, Richard himself said "I knew people would say the album is neither one thing nor the other. But it was very satisfying for me not to have to divide my musical tastes in two and produce an album simply offering music that I enjoyed."[10]

The track "Thief in the Night" was originally recorded by Christian trio Nutshell on their 1979 album Believe It or Not. Richard also went on to record an orchestral version of the song with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for his 1983 live album Dressed for the Occasion and later included it on his 1985 CCM compilation album Walking in the Light.

Critical reception

Billboard in 1982 gave a positive albeit brief review of the album, saying "Richard has made some of the best pop singles of recent years, and several cuts here are worthy to join that list." The album was described as "Richard's latest continues the pattern of his recent LPs, concentrating on sleek, buoyant pop tracks that bristle with excitement. There are also a few ballads for balance, including two traditional pieces - 'The Water is Wide' and 'Little Town,' where a new melody was put to the Christmas favourite 'Oh Little Town of Bethlehem'."[12]

Track listing

Side One

  1. "The Only Way Out" (Ray Martinez) - 3:20
  2. "First Date" (Aleksander John, Nicholas Battle) - 3:33
  3. "Thief in the Night" (Paul Field) - 3:50
  4. "Where Do We Go from Here" (Chris Eaton) - 2:53
  5. "Son of Thunder" (Mart Jenner, John Perry) - 3:58
  6. "Little Town" (Traditional; words and music by Chris Eaton) - 4:03

Side Two

  1. "It Has to Be You, It Has to Be Me" (David Cooke, Paul Field) - 4:17
  2. "The Water Is Wide" (Traditional; arranged by Cliff Richard and Craig Pruess) - 3:50
  3. "Now You See Me, Now You Don't" (Aleksander John, Stephen Turner) - 3:00
  4. "Be in My Heart" (John Perry) - 4:38
  5. "Discovering" (Chris Eaton) - 4:50

Bonus tracks (2002 re-issue):

  1. "Under the Influence" (Garth Hewitt) 2:49 (from the B-side of "The Only Way Out" single, 1982)
  2. "Love and a Helping Hand" (Cliff Richard) 3:06 (from the B-side of "Little Town" single, 1982)
  3. "You, Me and Jesus" (Cliff Richard) 2:17 (from the B-side of "Little Town" single, 1982)

Personnel

Orchestra on "Little Town"

Production

Charts and certifications

Charts

Chart (1982) Peak
position
UK Albums (OCC)[2] 4
Australian Albums (Australian Music Report)[4] 21
Denmark Albums (IFPI Denmark)[3] 1
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[5] 19

Certifications

Region Certification Sales/shipments
United Kingdom (BPI)[6] Gold 100,000

^shipments figures based on certification alone

References

  1. ↑ Lewry, Peter; Goodall, Nigel (1991). Cliff Richard The Complete Recording Sessions 1958-1990. London: Blandford. pp. 129–130. ISBN 0-7137-2242-8.
  2. 1 2 3 "Cliff Richard | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart
  3. 1 2 Nielsen Business Media, Inc. (16 October 1982). Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. p. 116. ISSN 0006-2510.
  4. 1 2 Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. Australian Chart Book, St Ives, N.S.W. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  5. 1 2 "Charts.org.nz – Cliff Richard – Now You See Me... Now You Don't". Hung Medien.
  6. 1 2 "British album certifications – Cliff Richard – Now You See Me, Now you Don't". British Phonographic Industry. Enter Now You See Me, Now you Don't in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Select Gold in the field By Award. Click Search
  7. ↑ "German charts". GfK Entertainment. In the Search box type "Cliff Richard" (without the quotes), press Enter, and his German chart discography will be displayed.
  8. ↑ Connolly, Ray. "Naff? Perhaps. But they don't make Christmas hits like they used to...". www.dailymail.co.uk. Daily Mail. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  9. ↑ Rupert Adams, William Hill Bookmakers. "The Christmas No.1 Story". YouTube. BBC TV (aired 19 December 2012). Retrieved 2 January 2016. In his heyday there's absolutely no doubt Sir Cliff had us on the run. It was always a question will he - won't he? Will Sir Cliff produce a Christmas tune, 'cos if he does it's probably unbettable.
  10. 1 2 Cliff Richard (artist), Peter Lewry, Nigel Goodall (album liner notes) (2002). Now You See Me, Now You Don't (CD) (Digitally Remastered with Bonus Tracks ed.). EMI Records.
  11. ↑ Turner, Steve (1993). Cliff Richard: The Biography (1st ed.). Oxford: Lion. pp. 282–283, 291. ISBN 074592249X.
  12. ↑ Nielsen Business Media, Inc. (2 October 1982). Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. p. 91. ISSN 0006-2510.
  13. ↑ Album dust jacket
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