The Young Ones (album)

The Young Ones
Soundtrack album by Cliff Richard and the Shadows
Released	15 December 1961
Recorded	January – August 1961
Genre	Pop[1]
Label	Columbia (EMI) 33SX 1384
Producer	Norrie Paramor
Cliff Richard and the Shadows chronology
21 Today (1961) The Young Ones (1961) 32 Minutes and 17 Seconds (1962)
Alternative cover
US release of "Wonderful to Be Young"

The Young Ones is a soundtrack album by Cliff Richard and the Shadows to the film of the same name. It is their first soundtrack album and Richard's sixth album overall. It was produced by Norrie Paramor, with music by Ronald Cass and Stanley Black. The album topped the UK Albums Chart for six weeks (with another eleven weeks at number two) and charted for 42 weeks in total when the chart was a top twenty.^[2] The album became the first UK soundtrack to sell more than one million copies in total, combining UK and international sales.^[3]

Three singles were released from the album, the first two prior to the album release. "When the Girl in Your Arms is the Girl in Your Heart" was released in October 1961 and reached number 3 in the UK Singles Chart. The Shadows' instrumental, "The Savage", was released in November and reached number 10. Lastly, "The Young Ones" was released in January 1962 and, with half a million pre-orders, debuted at number 1. It spent 6 weeks at the summit, going on to sell a million in the UK and become Richard's biggest selling single in the country.^[2][4][5]

In North America, the album was released under the title Wonderful to Be Young, with the addition of the "Wonderful to Be Young" track which was also released as a single, reaching number 16 on the Canadian CHUM Chart.^[6][7]