The Young Ones (album)

The Young Ones
Soundtrack album by
Released15 December 1961
RecordedJanuary – August 1961
GenrePop[1]
LabelColumbia (EMI) 33SX 1384
ProducerNorrie 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]

  1. ^ "The Young Ones [Original Soundtrack] - Cliff Richard, the Shadows | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic". AllMusic.
  2. ^ a b "Cliff Richard UK Chart History". officialcharts.com. Official Charts Company.
  3. ^ Omnibus Press; Official Charts Company (4 November 2012). The Million Sellers. Omnibus Press. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-85712-882-9.
  4. ^ "Shadows UK Chart History". officialcharts.com. Official Charts Company.
  5. ^ "The best-selling singles of all time on the Official UK Chart". officialcharts.com. Official Charts Company. 14 December 2018.
  6. ^ Cliff Richard & The Shadows (1962). Wonderful to Be Young (LP). Canada: Dot Records.
  7. ^ "Cliff Richard Wonderful to Be Young". Allmusic. Retrieved 24 January 2020.