A Head Full of Music: The Soundtrack to My Life

Foreword by Bob Stanley

On a sunny Saturday morning in May 1956, a fifteen-year-old, then called Harry Webb, was mooching down Waltham Cross High Street. He heard some music blaring out of a parked car. It stopped him in his tracks.

The song was ’Heartbreak Hotel’ by Elvis Presley. It sounded like nothing he had ever heard before. In that instant, the schoolboy who was destined to take the hit parade by storm as Cliff Richard fell in love with rock and roll. It gave him the thrill, the purpose and the mission that has shaped his life ever since.

Cliff lives in and for music. And with 65 years as a hitmaker, the music filling his head is a broad category. His soundtrack begins by blasting us all back into that first life-changing explosion of rock and roll, and also includes great soul soul stars such as Aretha Franklin, longtime colleagues like Elton John, and much-missed close friends Cilla Black and Olivia Newton-John.

This book is meaningful to Cliff on many levels. The 30 or so songs here that make up the soundtrack to his life have each moved him deeply, but it’s also about the legendary artists he met, and often got to know. He shares those stories and memories with you, too.

A Head Full of Music is a vibrant personal journey for Cliff, and it’s a joy to accompany him on it. Get wired for sound with him and read on.

Sir Cliff Richard OBE (born Harry Rodger Webb on 14 October 1940) is a British singer, musician, performer, actor and philanthropist. He has total sales of over 21 million singles in the UK and is the third-top-selling artist in UK singles chart history, behind The Beatles and Elvis Presley. Over a career spanning 60 years, Cliff has amassed many awards, including two Ivor Novellos and three Brits. He lives in Portugal and Barbados.