1959 Cliff Richard & The Drifters: Living Doll

When Cliff first appeared on the popular music front he was touted as Britain's answer to the rock and roll rebellion of Elvis. And for good reason - 'Move It' was as authentic a rock and roll single as this country ever produced. It still thrills today. But alas, it didn't take too many miles later before Cliff Richard's vehicle veered from left of centre to the middle of the road and whatever edge was present on 'Move It' had settled into a comfy armchair by the fire and put it's feet up by the time of 'Living Doll', a song that marked the emergence of a softer style that Cliff followed ever since.

A Lionel Bart song, to my mind 'Living Doll' has always hinted of something originally intended for a full length musical that never actually got written (much like Keith West's 1967 'Excerpt From A Teenage Opera'). The narrative of the lyric could have made sense in the progressive context of an ongoing storyline (in the way that West's tale of Grocer Jack does when you know the background), but when taken in isolation there's something downright creepy about it all - much like 'Dream Lover', there's an ambiguity about the lyric that doesn't show Cliff in a good light whatever interpretation you settle on.

Is Cliff's girl so good to be true that she must be a fake, or is she some life sized automated mannequin that he keeps locked up in a trunk solely for his own gratification? Dunno, but whichever way you cut it there's little that's wholesome in "Take a look at her hair, it's real, and if you don't believe what I say just feel" or "Got a roving eye and that is why she satisfies my soul". At least Bryan Ferry had the decency to dress his antisocial dalliance with a sex doll up in a weird swirl of ennui and electronica* - the nursery rhyme tune and sing song vocal of 'Living Doll' lures you into it's oddness like a n'er do well with a bag of sweets and the promise of some non existent puppies in the bushes. And it's those same qualities that ultimately sink the song - put simply, it's too polite, dull and repetitive to truly be any fun. Rock and roll it most definitely isn't, and while Hank Marvin tries to chivvy it along with a twangy guitar break it's not enough - 'Living Doll' is Boresville, pure and simple.

Though saying that, although there is no parent musical to make sense of the weirdness, 'Living Doll' does feature in his 1959 film 'Serious Charge' in a far more upbeat and swinging style with Cliff himself singing it while lounging resplendent amongst a gaggle of adoring females in a coffee bar like some hoodlum king in his teenage pomp. It still doesn't make it a wonderful song, but it sounds better with this bit of bite whereas the 45 version could have been recorded by that Cliff's square twin brother in between Bible study. Which by itself neatly sums up the two sides of Mr Richard. And I know which side I prefer.

* Roxy Music - In Every Dream Home, A Heartache.