By late 1964,
Cliff Richard had done everything a top entertainer could do. Everything, that is, apart from pantomime, that peculiarly British tradition of dressing the day's top names up in outlandish costumes, and sending them out to sing and dance their way through a musical adaptation of a favorite fairy tale. The story of Aladdin and his magic lamp should be familiar to all, and on-stage at the London Palladium,
Cliff Richard & the Shadows stuck with all the expected traditions, with just a string of specially composed musical numbers to distinguish their version from any of the countless other revivals that have been staged around the country over the years. Not that the songs are especially memorable in themselves; indeed, one doubts whether any Best of Cliff-style compilation has ever so much as glanced at "Widow Twankey Song, "Make Ev'ry Day a Carnival Day," or "There's Gotta Be a Way," while the heavy proportion of orchestral instrumentals essentially renders
Aladdin & His Wonderful Lamp an outsized EP for fans of
Richard himself. So, it's a lightweight offering, as twee as it is sweet, and -- listened to today -- something of an embarrassment if listened to as part of
Richard's overall canon. Remember that it was never intended as more than a souvenir of a heavily attended and, at the time, much-loved series of shows, however, and it at least becomes an appealing period piece. ~ Dave Thompson