Green Light (Cliff Richard album)

Green Light is the 21st studio album by Cliff Richard, released in September 1978.

Richard had seen a dip in popularity in the early 1970s until his 1976 album I'm Nearly Famous gave him major success. This comeback kept him regularly in the charts until the mid-1980s. Of this period's release, only the 1978 Small Corners gospel album and Green Light failed to make the top ten. The latter, with full commercial expectations, was a particular disappointment, only reaching No.25 in the album chart and lacking any hit singles. These included "Please Remember Me" and "Can't Take the Hurt Anymore". This was the second year since 1958 that this had happened. A third and final release, the title track "Green Light" gave him a chart entry, but only crept to No.57.

Despite the commercial failure, Green Light was well received by critics. Allmusic said it is "Richard at his most commercial and appealing and deserved to be more widely heard - particularly in the US". Probably the most well-known song on the album is "Count Me Out", which was later released as the B-side to his 1979 single "We Don't Talk Anymore", the song that revived his career by selling more than any other. Another ballad, "Never Even Thought" whose orchestration builds to a dramatic crescendo, was first released by Murray Head in 1975 on his album Say It Ain't So and also covered by Colin Blunstone in 1978. He later added new instrumentation for his remix album My Kinda Life in 1992.

Since his 1977 Every Face Tells a Story album, Richard had released two more - a Christian music album, Small Corners and a compilation album 40 Golden Greats, which had reached No.1 in November 1977. Soon after this, he also released a live album, Thank You Very Much, which celebrated 20 years of he and The Shadows in the music business.

The title track was covered in 1979 by Yvonne Elliman on her album Yvonne. His album was remastered and reissued on Compact disc in July 2002.

Personnel

 * Cliff Richard - vocals
 * Alan Tarney - guitar, bass, keyboards and backing vocals
 * Alan Parker, Terry Britten and Tim Renwick - guitar
 * Alan Jones - bass
 * Duncan Mackay and Graham Todd - keyboards
 * Brian Bennett and Trevor Spencer - drums
 * John Perry, Stuart Calver and Tony Rivers - backing vocals
 * Richard Hewson - string arrangement
 * Gered Mankowitz - photography