Cliff Richard - Hits From the Original Soundtrack of Summer Holiday Includes Lucky Lips

All Music Guide

Before the Summer Holiday movie opened in the U.S., ABC-Paramount eschewed the conventional soundtrack release and opted, instead, for a virtual hits collection, built around material drawn from both the movie and Richard's most recent run of U.K. hits. It was a wise choice. The putative title track, "Lucky Lips," promptly became Richard's second U.S. hit during summer 1963 (it peaked at number 62); while "Bachelor Boy," the opening track, would make number 99 in the new year. Three further cuts from the soundtrack, "The Next Time," "Dancing Shoes," and, of course, "Summer Holiday" itself were then joined by 1960's chart-topping "I Love You," a pair of 1962 number twos ("I'm Looking out the Window" and "It'll Be Me"), and a driving version of "Do You Wanna Dance," a U.K. B-side. The set wrapped up with excerpts from Richard's EP catalog -- "All I Do Is Dream of You" from Dream, and two cuts from Holiday Carnival, the irresistibly continental-sounding "Some of These Days" and "Carnival"... -- those tracks' first and, for the next 30 years, only ever appearance on album. A hodgepodge indeed, but an extraordinarily successful one. Hits From the Original Soundtrack isn't simply a superior album to the conventional soundtrack album, the inclusion of the Holiday Carnival cuts ensure that it also retains much of the flavor of the movie. Those songs, after all, were cut with the movie in mind, only to be pushed out as other material came to the fore. Restored to something approaching their intended context, both testify to the sheer depth and breadth of creativity buzzing through the Richard/Shadows camp at this time. The inclusion of two U.S. hits, minor though they were, only confirms this album's magnificence. - Dave Thompson, All Music Guide Read more Less