Summer Holiday (Song)

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“Summer Holiday” is a song recorded by Cliff Richard and the Shadows, written by rhythm guitarist Bruce Welch and drummer Brian Bennett. It is taken from the film of the same name, and was released as the second single from the film in February 1963. It went to number one in the UK Singles Chart for a total of two weeks.

After that, the Shadows’ instrumental “Foot Tapper“—also from the same film—took over the top spot for one week, before “Summer Holiday” returned to the top spot for one further week. The track is one of Richard’s best known titles and it remains a staple of his live shows. It was one of six hits Richard performed at his spontaneous gig at the 1996 Wimbledon Championships when rain stopped the tennis.

The melody of the song is used in the chorus of the 1986 rap tune “Holiday Rap“, by the Dutch duo MC Miker G & DJ Sven.

In 2019, the UK Government’s Drinkaware campaign parodied Summer Holiday for a string of radio adverts and videos for the “No Alcoholiday” initiative to encourage people to have drink-free days.

This song is used in the 2023 film Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget.

Chart performance

Notes:

• * ^ Not all New Zealand chart weeks were published in Billboard. The record may have charted higher.

Dancing Shoes

The B-side “Dancing Shoes” also entered some charts, some of which are listed below.

Summer Holiday Covers

• OldGuitarMonkey

• Teresa

Summer Holiday (1963 Film)

Summer Holiday is a 1963 British CinemaScope and Technicolor musical film starring singer Cliff Richard. The film was directed by Peter Yates (his directorial debut), produced by Kenneth Harper. The original screenplay was written by Peter Myers and Ronald Cass (who also wrote most of the song numbers and lyrics). The title sequence and first three minutes are in black and white before jumping to colour.

The cast stars Lauri Peters, David Kossoff, Ron Moody and The Shadows and features Melvyn Hayes, Teddy Green, Jeremy Bulloch, Una Stubbs, Pamela Hart, Jacqueline Daryl, Madge Ryan, Lionel Murton, Christine Lawson, Wendy Barry and Nicholas Phipps.

Herbert Ross choreographed the musical numbers.

Plot

Don and friends Cyril, Steve and Edwin are bus mechanics at the huge London Transport bus overhaul works in Aldenham, Hertfordshire. During a miserably wet British summer lunch break, Don arrives, having persuaded London Transport to lend him and his friends an AEC Regent III RT double-decker bus (which throughout the film still purports to be a route 9 to Piccadilly).

They convert the bus into a mobile home, which they drive across to continental Europe, intending to reach the South of France. On the way, they are joined by a trio of young women Sandy, Angie and Mimsie, who are a singing group Do-Re-Mi, and change their destination to Athens in Greece. Their first stop is Paris where they go to a nightclub where Les Shadows are playing. That night they find a stowaway “boy”, Bobby. Bobby is really a runaway girl, Barbara, sick of her overbearing American mother. Next they encounter a mime artist Orlando (Ron Moody). Only after saying that they will give him a lift does he reveal that he also has a huge entourage to also be accommodated. Barbara’s mother works out where she is and organises for the bus to be stopped and the boys appear in court for carrying passengers. The judge agrees that if they can prove they are all entertainers then they can go, so they put on an elaborate mime show. The show ends in an explosion and they escape, however Barbara is revealed as a girl. The mime troupe depart.

Mrs Winters and a male driver-friend Jerry catch up with the bus in Switzerland. The bus struggles on the steep rough roads. Everyone gets off except Don driving and Barbara as a passenger to lessen the weight. The others walk, encountering a St Bernards dog, which they decide to keep. Mrs Winters and her friend follow the bus into Austria. They stop at Hotel zum Schloss and have a nice meal and pair off to dance. Don and Barbara go off to be alone and he admits that he loves her. Meanwhile Mrs Winters and her friend hide a diamond pendant on the empty bus and form the Yugoslavian authorities that it has been stolen. The bus is stopped by the border guards. The guards find it, but as it has a locket containing Barbara’s picture they give it back.

Despite the efforts of Mrs Winters a shepherdess in Yugoslavia puts them back on the right road, after taking them to her village for bread (they think). But there has been a mistranslation and the village thought Don said “bride” and a marriage ceremony is begun. The boys eventually escape and run back to the bus pursued by armed peasants.

When they reach Athens a large crowd greet them due to media coverage. Wrightmore from the British embassy explains the situation. Mrs Winters arrives. She first wants them arrested then she sees the publicity potential. Don goes off alone to clear his head on a hill overlooking the Acropolis. Mrs Winters locks Barbara in her hotel room while she holds a press conference. Don finds Barbara and asks her to marry him. The team help her escape through the window over the door. At the press conference Barbara announces their engagement and Don seems set to start a holiday firm operating 200 buses so all is forgiven.

Cast

• Cliff Richard as Don
• Lauri Peters as Barbara Winters (Bobby)
• David Kossoff as Magistrate
• Ron Moody as Orlando
• The Shadows as themselves
• Melvyn Hayes as Cyril
• Teddy Green – Steve
• Jeremy Bulloch Edwin
• Una Stubbs as Sandy
• Pamela Hart as Angie
• Jacqueline Daryl as Mimsie
• Madge Ryan as Stella Winters, Barbara’s mother
• Lionel Murton as Jerry
• Christine Lawson as Annie
• Wendy Barry as Shepherdess in Yugoslavia
• Nicholas Phipps as Wrightmore
• Tom Oliver

Production

The original director was Sidney Furie but he was held up on The Boys. He was replaced by John Krish. Eventually Peter Yates directed the film.

In April 1962, Associated British Picture Corporation of Elstree bought three used RT double-decker buses (RT2305 (KGU334), RT2366 (KGU395), and RT4326 (NLE990)) from London Transport. They were all converted to look like RT1881 (with a fake registration number, WLB991) so they could be used for filming different segments.

The opening ten minutes were filmed at the Aldenham Works, Elstree, where Cliff’s character and friends are mechanics at the main bus servicing depot for London Transport. While on lunch one rainy day, they come up with the idea of converting an old RT bus into a mobile home. They enlist the help of their workmates in a musical segment that uses the track Seven Days to a Holiday. The scenes were shot at the works in 1962, during its annual summer shutdown. Filming included large parts of the works as well as numerous actual employees as extras.

The rest of the film was shot in Greece.

Soundtrack

There are 16 song and musical numbers in the film: “Seven Days to a Holiday”, “Let Us Take You for a Ride”, “Stranger in Town”, “Swinging Affair”, “Really Waltzing”, “Yugoslavian Wedding”, “All At Once”, “Summer Holiday“, “Bachelor Boy“, “Dancing Shoes”, “Foot Tapper“, “Big News”, “The Next Time“, “Les Girls”, “Round and Round”, and “Orlando’s Mime”.

The film’s producers felt that female lead in the film, Lauri Peters, was not a strong enough singer after several test recording sessions, and all of her parts, both in the film and on the soundtrack album, were dubbed by session vocalist Grazina Frame. Frame had overdubbed female singing voices in Cliff Richard’s earlier film The Young Ones.

Cliff Richard, Melvyn Hayes, and the Shadows were recalled to Elstree some weeks after completion of shooting to record Bachelor Boy, as the distributors felt the film was too short.

Summer Holiday (Album)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
New Record Mirror

Summer Holiday is a soundtrack album by Cliff Richard and The Shadows to the film of the same name. It is their second film soundtrack album and Richard’s eighth album overall. The album topped the UK Albums Chart for 14 weeks. Three singles from the album were released. Before the album release both “The Next Time” and “Bachelor Boy” (A- and B-side respectively) had already been hits. This was followed by “Summer Holiday” and lastly “Foot Tapper” (by the Shadows). All three singles topped the UK Singles Chart.

Rare Release

A “special edition” double-album (limited to 80 copies) was given to the cast and crew of the movie and has since become very collectible, with an original selling for £498 in 2010.

Track listing

Side one

1. “Seven Days to a Holiday” (Cliff Richard, A.B.S. Orchestra, The Michael Sammes Singers) – 3:13

2. “Summer Holiday” (Cliff Richard and the Shadows, The Norrie Paramor Strings) – 2:10

3. “Let Us Take You for a Ride” (Cliff Richard, A.B.S. Orchestra, The Michael Sammes Singers) – 4:39

4. “Les Girls” (The Shadows) – 2:00

5. “Round and Round” (The Shadows) – 2:05

6. “Foot Tapper” (The Shadows) – 2:27

7. “Stranger in Town” (Cliff Richard, A.B.S. Orchestra) – 2:35

8. “Orlando’s Mime” (A.B.S. Orchestra) – 2:18

Side two

1. “Bachelor Boy” (Cliff Richard and the Shadows, The Michael Sammes Singers) – 2:02

2. “A Swingin’ Affair” (Cliff Richard, Grazina Frame, A.B.S. Orchestra) – 4:18

3. “Really Waltzing” (Cliff Richard, A.B.S. Orchestra, The Michael Sammes Singers) – 1:57

4. “All At Once” (Cliff Richard, A.B.S. Orchestra) – 3:52

5. “Dancing Shoes” (Cliff Richard and the Shadows) – 2:11

6. “Yugoslav Wedding” (A.B.S. Orchestra) – 3:00

7. “The Next Time” (Cliff Richard and the Shadows, The Norrie Paramor Strings) – 2:58

8. “Big News” (Cliff Richard and the Shadows) – 1:54

Personnel

Cliff Richard and the Shadows

• Cliff Richard – lead vocals
• Hank Marvin – lead guitar, electric piano on Bachelor Boy
• Bruce Welch – rhythm guitar
• Brian ‘Licorice’ Locking – bass guitar
• Brian Bennett – drums

Chart performance

Release

The film had its world premiere at the Warner Theatre in London’s West End on 10 January 1963. A crowd of 3,000 people turned up to Leicester Square and Cliff Richard was unable to exit his car due to the crowds, so did not attend the opening.

Box-office

The film was a box-office hit, repeating the success of Cliff Richard’s previous film The Young Ones (1961).

Summer Holiday was the second most popular movie at the British box office in 1963, after the James Bond feature From Russia with Love, with comedy film Tom Jones coming third.

The film’s release helped Cliff Richard to be voted by exhibitors as the most popular star at the British box-office in the same year. However it flopped in the US, where it was released two days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Cultural impact

The majority of the numbers integrated dance with song – not merely serving as scenes to promote a number of “hit-parade” songs. Ross, an American choreographer later became a film director in his own right.

Many singles from Cliff Richard lifted from the film, including the title track “Summer Holiday“, as well as “The Next Time“, “Bachelor Boy” and The Shadows instrumental “Foot Tapper” all reached Number one in the British charts during the first three months of 1963.

The film suggested to the photographer Daniel Meadows a way in which he might emulate Benjamin Stone and travel around and photograph Britain from 1973 to 1974.

Stage adaptations

Summer Holiday was adapted into a stage musical in the mid-1990s, starring Darren Day in the role that Cliff Richard played. It premiered for a summer season at The Opera House in Blackpool in 1996, and then later toured nationally, before returning to Blackpool in 1998. The cast for these included Claire Buckfield, Isla Fisher, Faith Brown, Ross King, Peter Baldwin, and Stephen McGlynn. It was also recorded and released on video, entitled “Summer Holiday – The Hits”, which was all the musical numbers strung together by clips of Darren Day writing postcards to his friends, and describing what was happening in the story as he wrote.

The stage musical differs in a number of respects from the film version. For example, the route to Athens is via Italy in the stage version rather than the original film route via Yugoslavia. The songs also differ, and include a number of songs from Cliff Richard’s other early back catalogue, such as “The Young Ones“.

It was revived in 2003, starring Stefan Booth, but later starred Darren Day again. This production also included Day’s future partner Suzanne Shaw (from the pop group Hear’say) as Bobby, and Aimi MacDonald as Bobby’s mother. The production toured the UK. A further production in 2018 toured the UK with Ray Quinn in the Cliff Richard role and Bobby Crush as “Jerry”, the agent.

A revival of the stage musical toured East Anglia in Summer 2022, featuring a professional cast of actor-musicians augmented by local dancers. The production toured the Suffolk and Norfolk coasts, starting in Southwold before heading to Sheringham and finishing in Great Yarmouth.

Summer Holiday Trailer

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