Sir Cliff Richard has revealed why his new record features a song with Dame Olivia Newton-John.
The 82-year-old singer announced the release of an orchestral album, which celebrates his 65th year in the music industry, on Tuesday.
His new record, Cliff With Strings – My Kinda Life features a duet, Suddenly, with his “dear friend” Dame Olivia, who had an extensive career in music and was known for playing Sandy in the 1978 film Grease.
She died in August last year at the age of 73.
Sir Cliff told ITV’s Loose Women: “Olivia called me and said ‘look I’m doing this movie and unfortunately my co-star doesn’t sing…’ And I’m going ‘yes’ and of course, she said ‘would you come over and sing it with me?’
“I would normally say ‘please send me the track’… you can’t record songs you don’t like… but I didn’t bother. I went across and recorded it in the engineer’s garage so every now and then we’d have to stop when a truck went by.
“But all in all, Olivia and I sing well together and it was the best duet I think because it suited the male voice and it suited the female voice. Quite often it’s difficult for a male to sing with a female… probably it’s just luck that it did blend.”
Sir Cliff’s new album is a compilation of his biggest hits and favourite tracks, with orchestral arrangements from composer Chris Walden.
The collection includes the 1999 recording from Sir Cliff’s performance of Everything I Do (I Do It For You) at his Countdown Concert celebrating the millennium.
He is also set to release a new memoir, A Head Full Of Music: The Soundtrack To My Life, in October which will also look at one of his earliest inspirations, Elvis Presley.
Sir Cliff said: “The first time I ever heard (Elvis)… we were still at school and we were walking around in Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire and this guy pulled up in a green Citroen, it had this sweeping thing like it was a spacecraft and the windows were open, the engine was running and the radio was on.
“We’re looking at the car going, we’re going to have one of these one day, when suddenly we heard (Elvis’ playing)… and then the guy came, shut the window and drove off. So we had no idea who it was, we didn’t have phones in those days and we certainly couldn’t afford cars.
“It was (Drifters musician) Norman (Mitham)… who came round and said ‘I know who it is!’. He had been listening to the American Forces network from Germany and he said ‘the song is called Heartbreak Hotel and the singer is Elvis Presley’ and we went ‘Elvis?! Who’s got a name like Elvis?’… that’s the time I thought ‘I have to do this!’ so we chased it.
“Luck does come your way but I think people in our industry, luck comes to us all at some point but you need to grab it by the throat. We’ve all done that and so I say, luck has come my way but you have to actually work at it still.”
Sir Cliff, who also did some dance moves on the show, said he does not see any point about worrying about ageing.
He added: “I will one day die but I haven’t decided when.”
Cliff With Strings – My Kinda Life will be available digitally and on CD on East West Records from November 3, with the vinyl release set for November 24.
Loose Women airs weekdays from 12.30pm on ITV1 and ITVX.