Recommendations of the Editorial team
August 29, 1958: MOVE IT! – Cliff Richard & The Drifters start the British Rock’n’roll
Skiffle had helped Britain’s youth over the worst years. The post -war depression was primarily economic, but where houses are in ruins and the food is strictly rationed, there is not much space for musical high spirits. Rock’n’roll? An import hinge for a small minority of daring teenagers who struck the nights in the bars and cafes of Soho around the ears, dancing wildly and whistling on the adverse circumstances. “This enthusiasm for rock’n’roll is a scary alarm sign”, wrote the pop music sheet “Melody Maker”, “a terrible threat that can be resolutely combated.” The reputable press also complained of “the unbritic, anarchic spirit of this so -called music”, asked for “educational measures to stop the cult”. Too late …
In the course of 1958 the dams break. One by one. In February the Elvis film “Jailhouse Rock” provides Rabatz at Matineses. In March, Buddy Holly & The Crickets cause local turmoil on their UK tour. In May, Jerry Lee Lewis is chased away with a scandal and shame that he was public that he had led his 13-year-old cousin. In July, a 17-year-old Elvis clone named Cliff Richard, the Drifters, enters the EMI studios in Abbey Road, to record two tracks for a single.
Grandios flashing reef and American swinging rock’n’roll-Groove
“Schoolboy Crush”, a brisk teen ballad with whistled intro, is to be the A-side. For the back, the young people are patronized. That use for a song. No, for an improper postulate title “Move it!”. Written by Drifter Ian Samwell, opens “Move it!” With such a grandiose reef. And then falls into such an American swinging rock’n’roll-Groove that hardly anyone comes up with the idea that it could be a British band.
Even the TV producer Jack Good, who happens to fall into the hands of the single. It is this flipside that “hits him in a completely unprepared manner”. And “simply converts”, as he hurts to the label and the media. Goods judgment has weight. Not least because of this new Weekend TV show “Oh Boy!”, Which will start in September. And for whose first broadcast he chose the young Nobody Cliff Richard. The single appears in August. “Move it!” Device to the hit, but previously to the menetcle in the music press. There is talk of “tortured, exhibitionist vocals”. The “unfortunately en vogue”. From “aggressive guitars” and the “extremely unfortunate fact” that the “unculture” of the Rock’n’roll had now “grasped British pop music”. Probably true.