In three years time, I’ll be 66, so I might follow Paul Weller’s example and make an album and do a tour. Only difference is I’ll make the album on my computer, and I’ll do a tour of my own house 😀.
I don’t really know what my life will be like. I’ll be getting my pension, and I’ll have free travel. But I don’t know how healthy I’ll be. I could be in heaven in three years’ time. That would be good 😀. I remember someone asking Cliff Richard many years’ ago if he’s afraid of death. He said that he wasn’t afraid of death, but he did worry about the dying process. I suppose I’d be the same. But I might have many years on earth yet. And I might die in my sleep 😀. Or Jesus might return before I die.
Matthew 6:34
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
We shouldn’t worry, but we shouldn’t be complacent either. I think of the parable of the rich fool:
Luke 12:19–20
“You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry. But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.“
Maybe the best outlook is that of the Apostle Paul. He looked forward to being with Christ, but he also realized that God might have work for him to do here on earth for a while:
Philippians 1:21-14
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.
I’m not quite as important as the Apostle Paul 😀, but even little things like prayer, encouraging others and giving reason for the hope that you have (1 Peter 3:15-17) make a difference.
Cliff Richard has certainly had a long life so far. When I look up his name on Retrocharts, to find his hits, it runs out of space. Cliff Richard has had 134 singles in the UK charts.
Cliff is 85 now. He was born on October 14, 1940, in Lucknow, India. And he’s on tour. Maybe I’ll be touring when I’m 85. I can do a tour of the house and garden 😀. I might even visit Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom – on Google Earth 😀.
I was never a fan of Cliff Richard. I tended to categorize him as a Eurovision star, and generally speaking, Eurovision stars weren’t cool, though I did like Abba, and I loved Celine Dion’s 1988 winner. She won in Dublin. She has health problems, but she made a surprise appearance via video at the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest, which reignited public interest in her health journey
But Cliff has had some good singles. They were a bit too poppy for me when I was into punk. But looking back now, they were musically better than most of the punk stuff. And he did some Christian songs too, particularly in 1982. I’m tempted to check out all his albums on Spotify.
I have huge respect for Cliff Richard. He has suffered criticism from the world from being a “goody two shoes” and he gets criticized by Christians for playing worldly music. You do hear of pop stars coming to Christ, but sometimes it seems like a phase they go through. They run into difficulty and they “try Christianity” as a solution. But becoming a Christian is about having real repentance and faith. It isn’t necessarily going to make life better for you in this world, though it sometimes does. But Cliff Richard strikes me as someone who has real genuine faith, and he has always been quite vocal about it.
And he’s always been up for fun and charity singles. Here’s a particularly funny one from 1986. It featured Cliff with The Young Ones. The Young Ones was a comedy about four students, one of whom was a Cliff Richard fan, which was a bit of a joke because it wasn’t cool to be into Cliff 😀.
I’ll list my top 20 Cliff Richard Singles – remember that this is just 20/134:
- Move It (1958)
- Too young to remember this, but this was his first hit as England’s answer to Elvis
- Congratulations (1968)
- I was six – I remember him winning the Eurovision with this one.
- Power to All Our Friends (1973)
- I sang this in a talent contest when I was 11
- I Can’t Ask for Anymore Than You (1976)
- Falsetto was fashionable back then – There was Cliff, Leo Sayer (You Make Me Feel Like Dancing), and the Bee Gees (You Should Be Dancing)
- We Don’t Talk Anymore (1979)
- This was a huge hit in the Summer of 1979. I was too punky to like it back then, but it is a good song.
- Carrie (1980)
- A Little in Love (1981)
- Please Don’t Fall in Love (1983)
- Saviour’s Day (1990)
- I remember creating and distributing a gospel leaflet about this at Christmas 1990
- Millenium Prayer (1999)
- This was the Lord’s prayer sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne. Unfortunately, Westlife got the millennium Christmas number 1 in the UK instead of Cliff. But Millenium Prayer was number 1 the week before.
Anyway, back to me. What does Cliff think he’s doing, taking over my post? 😀. When we’re under mad pressure at work, we look forward to retirement, but all phases of life have their joys and troubles. I just go on trusting in Jesus.
John 5:24
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.
Hibernia Gospel 