Two's Company. The Duets

Come Christmas time and a new Cliff Richard album can't be far away. Throughout his career, Richard had regularly performed duets, sometimes with longtime collaborators like Hank Marvin on the hit "Throw Down a Line," and sometimes with one-offs like "She Means Nothing to Me" with Phil Everly, "All I Ask of You" with Sarah Brightman from Phantom of the Opera, "Suddenly" with Olivia Newton-John, and "Slow Rivers" with Elton John, and the album Two's Company: The Duets develops this theme and sees 14 such collaborations collected together. All of the aforementioned hits are featured on Two's Company and most of the remaining songs were old-style with classic singers taking turns with Richard, verse by verse or line by line -- "Let There Be Love" with Matt Monro, "Up Where We Belong" with Anne Murray, and "Fields of Gold" with Barry Gibb's distinctive vocals. The album opens with a new version of his very first hit "Move It," a duet in the loosest sense with Brian May and Brian Bennett (did that make it a trio?) interrupting Richard's lone vocals with guitar licks, and he shows he still has his finger on the pulse of current trends as he duets with G4 on his own track "Miss You Nights," a song they recorded for their G4 and Friends album, and he performs a breakbeat version of Peaches & Herb's "Reunited" with Lulu as the guest partner. Two's Company: The Duets peaked at number eight the week after its release and was Richard's 37th Top Ten album. There were not many artists who could have said that. — Sharon Mawer.