Cliff Richard

Who the Heck Is Cliff Richard? Ask a Brit

Two weeks ago, this column discussed singer Joe Brown, who is virtually unknown in the U.S. but has some fans in England, where several of his songs charted in the 1960s. Cliff Richard’s career offers a more extreme example of a similar dichotomy. Though he scored two Top 10 hits in America in the 1970s, […]

Continue Reading
Joe Brown in Concert

Music Reviews: George Harrison’s Pal, Joe Brown, plus John R. Miller and Collective Soul

Have you watched Concert for George, the film of the memorial show held on the first anniversary of George Harrison’s death? If you have, you witnessed performances by some of popular music’s best-known acts, including Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr. But you also saw a prominently featured artist whose name likely […]

Continue Reading
Waterboys_Atlantic Rain

Music Review: The Waterboys’ Excellent ‘Atlantic Rain: The Lost Fisherman’s Blues Recordings’

Fisherman’s Blues, the fourth and best-known album by the UK’s Waterboys, signaled a quantum leap for an already excellent band. The result of three years of studio work, this 1988 LP found the group expanding its focus from alt-rock to embrace country, folk, gospel, and soul as well as traditional Irish, Scottish, and Celtic music. […]

Continue Reading
Pete Ham

Music Reviews: A Tribute to Badfinger’s Pete Ham, plus Graham Parker, the Tasty Kings, and the Claudettes

Pete Ham, who died by suicide in 1975 at age 27, achieved considerable success during his lifetime as the lead singer and a principal composer for England’s Badfinger. The extent of the Welsh power pop musician’s talent has become even more evident in recent years, however, thanks largely to a series of albums from Miami’s […]

Continue Reading