Cliff and Shadows performing Gee Whiz It's You on the second show
of his six-part series for ATV broadcast on Thursday 23 February 1961
A catchy rock track that has now come to be regarded as something of a Cliff and The Shadows classic – perhaps because the soundtrack is so archetypically Shadows. This joint Hank Marvin and Ian Samwell composition was recorded at Abbey Road Studios on 17 March 1960 and originally intended for release just on the Me And My Shadows album the following October. However in early 1961 it was released as a single in continental Europe and so many copies were imported into Britain that EMI recognized its potential and belatedly released it as Cliff's thirteenth single. It reached number 6 in the UK charts during April 1961.
The track featured regularly in Cliff's live act and on television and radio too. He performed it on BBC Radio's 'Saturday Club' on four occasions — 6 August and 1 October 1960, 22 April and 10 June 1961. He also sang it on BBC's 'Big Beat Show' on 8 April 1961.
Fortunately several early television performances of this song also survive, including the 'Saturday Spectacular' from 30 July 1960 where Cliff, The Shadows and Norrie Paramor appear in a mock recording studio after which Norrie hands Cliff an award for a near million sales of his 1959 hit single Travellin' Light. An even better rendition is performed on the second of Cliff's six part ATV 1961 television series, simply entitled 'Cliff', which was broadcast on 23 February 1961. Not only is The Shadows' sound prominent but it features close up the classic line-up of Hank, Bruce, Jet and Tony flanking Cliff on the stage.
The quality of the surviving track made at the Luxembourg Recording Studios in the summer of 1960 is fairly poor with a lot of static interference.
MC: One of the best rockers ever, easily a match for the more familiar Move It!, but represented by one of the poorest-sounding RL survivors, sad to say, since the performance was obviously a powerful one.