Cliff Richard

Cliff Richard was eight when his family came to Hertfordshire following independence in India. At 16 his father bought him a guitar and he joined the rush of British teenagers forming skiffle groups with makeshift instruments, going on to front one of Britain's first rock'n'roll groups, The Drifters. Cliff wrote their first hit Move It and was marketed as Britain's answer to Elvis. Other early hits included High Class Baby, Livin' Doll and Travelling Light, while his backing group The Drifters transmuted into The Shadows and Cliff adopted a softer, more family friendly persona. Feel-good films The Young Ones and Summer Holiday helped turn him into a British institution as he went on to become one of the UK's most successful chart acts, specialising in Christmas records and uniquely topping the charts in five different decades. A committed Christian, he developed a parallel career with gospel concerts and, in 1995, became the first rock star to be knighted.