Cliff opens his ATV 'Saturday Spectacular' on 21 May 1960
with a driving version of Twenty Flight Rock
This was a personal favourite from Cliff's rock 'n' roll repertoire during the early days and it is no surprise to find that he recorded two different versions of it for the Luxembourg shows. The song was originally a hit for Eddie Cochran in 1958 and featured in the film 'The Girl Can't Help It'.
Cliff had first sung this number during his short four-week residency at the Butlins Holiday Camp in Clacton, Essex, England during August 1958 – and it was preserved for posterity by Redcoat Stan Edwards who recorded Cliff with his Drifters during one of his stage performances in the rock 'n' roll Calypso Ballroom.
It is likely Cliff performed this on one of the early 'Oh Boy!' ABC TV shows during October to December 1958, but sadly no telerecordings exist as evidence, or indeed were probably ever made in the first place. Cliff of course later went on to officially record Twenty Flight Rock at EMI's Abbey Road Studios on 6 September 1959, and it was released on the Cliff Sings album two months later in November 1959.
The earlier of the two Luxembourg performances is much raunchier, while most notably Hank Marvin's guitar solo is strikingly different on the latter 1961/62 take of the song. Apart from these Luxembourg recordings Cliff also sang it on BBC Radio's 'Saturday Club' on 24 October 1959, which would predate the first Luxembourg version here by about 10 months.
Film footage of this classic rock 'n' roll track has survived in the ATV archives. Cliff and The Shadows performed this number at the beginning of the Cliff Richard 'Saturday Spectacular' in May 1960, which was the second of three shows he produced for the ATV network that year.
MC: the earlier version certainly has some muscle, the later recording, with an ultra-slick solo fighting its way out of the general mush, mirroring the relatively restrained approach adopted on Cliff Sings.