'Ultimate Pop Star' Cliff Richard launches astonishing attack on 'horrific, out of tune' Beatles

Sir Cliff Richard has launched an astonishing attack on The Beatles, claiming some of their music was "horrific" because it was "out of tune".

Sir Cliff, who has a reputation as pop's Mr Nice, maintained some was so off-tune it was "unbelievable" – and "unforgivable".

His criticism of the pop icons concentrated on the guitar solos, often played by George Harrison, who died of cancer in 2001.

The 67-year-old singer said he could not believe these were not re-recorded.

He insisted: "The Beatles were an incredible force. Of course they had their own sound, style and wrote their own songs.

"But, yes, even now, when I listen to them, some of the guitar is so out of tune, it's unbelievable.

"I couldn't believe that here they were in this high-tech age, with four-track recording machines, and they couldn't go back and do it with a tuned guitar.

"Being out of tune – I find it unforgivable.'

Sir Cliff said he could not remember which songs offended him the most.

"It's mostly their guitar solos, which can be fairly horrific," he added.

Later, in the interview with Q Magazine, he was quick to point out he had achieved things that The Beatles had not.

The man dubbed the Peter Pan of Pop said: "My only gripe is when critics writing the history of rock'n'roll leave me out altogether."

Speaking of his emergence in British pop half a decade before The Beatles, he went on: "All I'm asking is that [the critics] recognise that I did something that no one else had done before, and five years before The Beatles. "I am the UPS – Ultimate Pop Star – and no one can take that away from me.

"A few years ago, Channel 4 did a programme called The Ultimate Pop Star – and it turns out I have sold more singles than not just Elvis, but everybody.

"That's my big claim to fame."

The Beatles biographer Hunter Davies said: "It doesn't sound like Cliff Richard. He's usually banal in his comments.

"I've never heard the guitar-playing being attacked before. I'm surprised.

"George is someone everyone thought was one of the best guitarists ever.

"Historically, Cliff's nose was put out of joint when The Beatles came along.

"He was a total pinch from Elvis Presley, with the same gyrating hips.

"The Beatles looked totally different. They sang in Liverpool accents, whereas Cliff affected a mid-Atlantic accent. They wrote their own songs, while he sang other people's."

http://www.dailymail.co.u...ages/live/articles/showbiz/show

will you please leave me out of this? i have nothing to do with cliff richard

Cliff was quite happy to sing along with Paul at the Queen's Jubilee concert a few years ago.
Next time I hope Paul throws him off the stage or invites him to play the guitar solo!
It would be fun to see two pensioners having a fight.

Poor old Sir Cliff. But I'm a bit suprised by Hunter Davis's comments. He's never heard George's guitar playing criticised before? And The Beatles sang with Liverpool accents?

Quoted from Kevin

And The Beatles sang with Liverpool accents?

Yes, that bit stumped me too. I know some people achieve it by having a very strong regional accent, but it's very difficult to not sound American when you sing. Unless you're Paul Weller, or Billy Bragg.

Shame he couldn't name the offending tracks! The worst solo in my opinion has to Dizzy Miss Lizzy.

Now, you don't suppose any of this nonsense has its roots in the outspoken animosity the Beatles expressed toward Cliff Richard and the Shadows back in the day, do you?  Consider these comments in the fall of 1963 to a British reporter, quoted by Michael Braun in his excellent 1964 book "Love Me Do":

Paul: “Cliff and the Shadows invited us to this great kind of party.  I mean all I could say was, 'Oh, wait till I tell the girls back home.'  Mind you, I knew it was a soft thing to say."

John: “Yeah, you're supposed to make things up, like, uh, 'What a great job you're doing in the industry...'"

Paul: "Because we've never been fans of Cliff's..."

John: "We've always hated him.  He was everything we hated in pop.  But when we met him we didn’t mind him at all.  He was very nice.  We still hate his records, but he's really very nice."

Long time to hold a grudge.

I seen Cliff on the Paul O' Grady show a while back wearing an all- in- one leather outfit........nuff said

Quoted from Paul Doherty

The Beatles biographer Hunter Davies said: "It doesn't sound like Cliff Richard. He's usually banal in his comments. ...

"The Beatles looked totally different. They sang in Liverpool accents, whereas Cliff affected a mid-Atlantic accent. They wrote their own songs, while he sang other people's."

I love Hunter Davies! He's someone who's earned his right to an opinion, in my book. *pets him*

Quoted from BlueMeanie

Yes, that bit stumped me too. I know some people achieve it by having a very strong regional accent, but it's very difficult to not sound American when you sing.  

I agree the Beatles sound more American when they sing, but their accent does come through. They sound a bit odd, different, hard to place -- which I'm sure was one of the "stand up and take notice" things about them. In some songs, you can hear the accent quite clearly: "Hur" and "Thur" (for hair and there), particularly when George is singing. I just happened to play the Live at the BBC CD after reading this post, and you can really hear their accents on "I'll Be on My Way" and "Young Blood". Any other Americans notice this?

Banglalink did a tribute to George Harrison for his work on Bangladesh. I think it's adorable that the Indian singer who plays WMGGW in the second half mimics George's accent, down to "the love thur that's sleeping..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SwCDCvF7AE

Quoted from Kevin

Poor old Sir Cliff. But I'm a bit suprised by Hunter Davis's comments. He's never heard George's guitar playing criticised before? And The Beatles sang with Liverpool accents?

Here's that thread, I couldn't find it to answer when I was listening to "Penny Lane" and noticed Paul sang "shave another coooostumer". That's not American, I'm guessing it's a Liverpudlian accent?

Also, I think they sing "hair" for "her" a few times in their songs. And do they sing "ghell" for "girl" every now and then? Maybe I'm making this last one (or two) up, but take a listen to Penny Lane ...

Poor Cliff he really is becoming bitter , 40 years of praying and denying his true self , it's such a pity he never found the love of a good man .
I just hope when he gets to heaven Elton's waiting there with a big smile on his face  

I can't get over how they sing with accents. I mean sometimes you hear the occasional accent. I think it mostly comes from Paul and George, but even then most if not basically all of the time they sound american-ish. If that makes sense.

Thanks, Alexis and PaulieBear. I sometimes hear  "ghell" for "girl", too. Yes, they do sound American-ish, but they can't keep it up. "Well I saw hur yesterda-a-ay..."  

I wonder which guitar solos he is thinking of?

I always wondered about the solo in "Not a 2nd time". The last note (actually notes, I think it is two at once) always sounded off to me, then I read it was intentionally playing the 6th instead of the 5th.

What do you folks think?

Oh gosh, I hope it's the right song title ...

The solo in 'I Should Have Known Better' has always made me cringe a bit.

In fairness to our George he's not the only one guilty of some cring-inducing solos from those early days. The Kinks early work, especially on (I think) You Really Got Me is Really Bad. A whole run of bum mistimed notes. Maybe listeners weren't that demanding of guitarists in those prehistoric days

I'll Follow the Sun is probley the weakest solo George ever gave on record!  

It's 6 seconds long! 4 glissandos! I don't understand what all the fuss is about this "solo". It's more a transition that had to fill a space because George Martin was standing there saying, "Move along, we're on the clock." No one had any better ideas but, really. It's 4 notes. (Sorry, Andy; it's not you. I'm really mad at Geoff about this, among other things.)

Quoted from harihead

It's 6 seconds long! 4 glissandos! I don't understand what all the fuss is about this "solo". It's more a transition that had to fill a space because George Martin was standing there saying, "Move along, we're on the clock." No one had any better ideas but, really. It's 4 notes. (Sorry, Andy; it's not you. I'm really mad at Geoff about this, among other things.)

I'm with Harihead on this one. It wasn't meant to be (I would think) the be-all and end-all of solos, if such a thing existed at the time. A filler, like HH says, never seemed offensive at all to me. Thanks for helping me see how I really felt about it, HH ... I think I was very close to piling on and saying "How could he!!"

Signed,

Hate to admit it, but easily manipulated

Quoted from BlueMeanie

The solo in 'I Should Have Known Better' has always made me cringe a bit.

Oh dear, that's the song I meant in my post just before yours, BM, not "Not a Second Time".

That last note always seemed a bit jarring, I read somewhere it was actually a 6th added, never went back to figure it out. But even if it was ... why?

Alexis, I think George was probably in his "added 6th" phase. You and poor Paul are stuck! The note never bothered me; I just took it as an artistic flourish, but it is definitely jarring.

About the "I'll Follow the Sun" solo, it's hard to think of what you might put in such a gentle, low-key song for 6 seconds. If these same notes were played on a flute, it would certainly match the mood. I think George was going for a dreamy little fill that would not take you out of the song.

Quoted from alexis

That last note always seemed a bit jarring, I read somewhere it was actually a 6th added, never went back to figure it out. But even if it was ... why?

I'm not a musician, so forgive me if I use non technical terms, but I think I'm right in saying that some notes and chords sound out of tune simply because they are not commonly used? Chords like the one in 'I Should Have Known Better' are not accepted as 'standard' chords. So someone like Sir Cliff, who's just a strummer, as far as I know, and pretty middle of the road, would consider them out of tune. Does that make sense to anyone?

Someone on the Dutch Beatlesforum explained that in the early years, the Beatles guitars were tuned at 435 Hertz instead of the usual 440. That means that if you (having your guitar tuned at 440) try to play along, it always sounds as if The Beatles are slightly out of tune. They are not however.

Do you know of a reason that they would have done that, instead of just using a standard tuning? After all, they weren't really very experienced musicians at the time.

I don't even know if it's true!

If it's true, they might have adjusted the tuning to better suit their voices without having to change the key or to use the standard position without having to capo up. I often tune my guitar "wrong" for that reason.