Quite incredible to think that Cliff Richard has been in the business of making chart-busters for more than 50 years and that apparently there still is a market for his music.

OK, so his original fan club has probably dwindled to baldies and boeps, the blue-rinse brigade, and Zimmer-frame racers, but he was huge when real rock ‘n roll was sweeping the world.

Born Harry Rodger Webb in India in 1940 he moved with his parents to England in 1947 and after a few gigs in coffee bars and small clubs in Soho he hit the British charts with a real foot-stomper called 'Move It' (which on this album now sounds almost embarrassingly out-dated).

But it was good enough to elevate him to the status of the first real British rock ‘n roller. Soon his band (as any group made up of three guitars and a set of drums was called in those days) changed its name from The Drifters to The Shadows and they were on their way to a spectacular career.

Always the good, squeaky clean Christian lad throughout his long career in the public eye, the handsome young single lad has survived to this day without a blemish of illicit affairs or steamy relationships.

In Cliff’s case, the only hint of naughtiness only came through his music and soon the clean-cut young youngster was vying for radio playing time with Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Elvis Presley and the rest of the gang of genuine rockers from across the pond.

To the baby boppers of Britain he was the local rock version of James Dean, even inspiring great UK groups such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones with the type of driving, hard rock which was up to then only associated with the country of hamburgers, hot rods and greased-back slickers.

Sadly, for many of his early fans a lot of the magic of those heady early days has faded. Even though he became Sir Cliff (the UK’s first rock ‘n rolling Knight) his music and image never quite had the same high-impact and staying power of some of America’s best.

But that didn’t stop him from building up a massive fan club all over the world (including in South Africa where he staged a number of live shows) and from producing a string of popular rock tunes and ballads, including 69 Top 10 hits.

This double album highlights his spectacular career, from way back in the time of 'Move It', 'Living Doll', 'Travellin’ Light' and 'Bachelor Boy', through to 'Devil Woman', 'Miss You Nights', 'Dreamin’' and 'Carrie', to his toned-down renditions of 'From a Distance', 'Mistletoe and Wine', 'What a Wonderful World' and 'Thank You for a Lifetime'.

This is a compound overview of the UK’s first real rock ‘n roll musician, but I’m afraid most of his surviving fans might have to adjust their hearing aids to compensate for their old-age deafness to listen to their almost forgotten hero in this collection of his best songs.

Somehow the tunes that had us all jiving and bopping way back in the days of Brylcreem, stove-pipe jeans and oil-leaking British motorbikes seem to have lost their glory-days magic….

Sadly, one has to be seriously sentimental or slightly sozzled to rekindle the memories of Cliff at his best, for even foot-tappers like 'Lucky Lips', 'Summer Holiday', 'On the Beach' and 'In the Country' have faded to obscurity.