Cliff Adams: leader, arranger, director. vocals, trombone (b. 21 Aug 1923, London, England – d. 22Oct 2001).
Musician, broadcaster and entrepreneur, Cliff Adams carved a niche for himself in British broadcasting history.
During the 1950s, while working as a trombonist and arranger with various big bands, Cliff Adams formed a vocal group called The Stargazers to provide musical interludes for popular radio shows – they were regular guests on The Goon Show among others. The group went on to have hits with novelty songs like “I See the Moon”, 1954 and “Twenty Tiny Fingers”, 1955.
Adams quickly established himself as a composer of jingles for the brand new TV advertising industry. This work led directly to another hit single in 1960 – “The Lonely Man Theme” – an instrumental taken from a campaign for Strand Cigarettes, as moodily atmospheric as the dark, rain-soaked London street featured in the commercial, The tune has had a much longer shelf life than the cigarettes it was meant to promote. The theme turned up briefly in Cliff Richard’s movie “The Young Ones” and was rearranged for guitars and recorded by The Rapiers in 2000.
During the early 1960s Adams became part-owner of the Olympic recording studios, in London, which was to become one of the most prestigious studios in the world.
Formed in 1954 The Cliff Adams Singers comprised of twelve male and four female session vocalists, who backed solo artists on radio and TV. They also had their own show “Sing Something Simple” which ran each week on the BBC Light Programme from 1959 to 1967, then on Radio 2 until Cliff Adams’s death. By the time of its final broadcast it was the longest running, continuous music programme in the world.
The show included traditional songs, nostalgic numbers from past decades and more recent hits, performed in sing-along arrangements. A spot for unaccompanied male voices became a regular feature, as did a piano solo by Adams.
In the early days of “Sing Something Simple” each individual show was recorded between five and seven weeks in advance. The Adams Singers, together with the Jack Emblow Quartet, would assemble in the BBC’s studios at 201 Piccadilly – at 9.30 on Sunday mornings – for three hours of rehearsal. Recording of one edition would then take place between 12.30 and 1.30p.m. After an hour lunch break rehearsals would commence for the next, which would be recorded between 5.30 and 6.30.
Ten of the singers were paid four pounds and five shillings (£4.25) for their services in each edition, while six received six pounds. The Jack Emblow Quartet’s collective fee was twenty six pounds eighteen shillings (£26.90).
The group’s chart entries, an original release from 1960 and its 1962 reissue, demonstrate the relaxed, undemanding style of this Sunday evening institution.
April 1960 Sing Something Simple – (UK) Pye NPL 28013 Highest position 15
(US) unreleased
1 Sing Something Simple (Adams, Logan, Barnes)
2 Hometown (Carr, Kennedy)
3 Underneath The Arches (Flanagan)
4 Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes (Jonson, Trad.)
5 Cruising Down the River (Beadell, Tollerton)
6 Home on the Range (Higley, Lomax, Kelley)
7 Wheezy Anna (Sarony)
8 Little Dolly Daydream (Stuart)
9 Lily of Laguna (Fiorito, Stuart, Francis, Webster)
10 I Love You Truly (Jacobs-Bond)
11 Me and My Shadow (Dreyer, Jolson, Rose)
12 My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean (Trad.)
13 Let the Great Big World Keep Turning (Anon.)
14 Ferry Boat Serenade (Adamson, diLazzaro, Panzeri)
Recorded:not stated – (probably Olympic or Pye Studios, London)
16 member vocal ensemble (12 male, 4 female); Cliff Adams arranger, director, piano; Jack Emblow accordion; unknown guitar/bass/drums
November 1962 Sing Something Simple – (UK) Pye Golden Guinea GGL 0150 Highest position 15
(US) unreleased
Details as above.
