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Cliff Richard has scored fourteen No.1 singles in the UK.

As a performer, Cliff Richard has scored the most top 10 hits on the UK singles charts (70), the most top 20 hits (97) and the most top 40 hits (125). (Double A-sides count as two hits; Richard has charted two double A-sides in the top ten, and five double A-sides in the top forty.)

Based solely on data used to compile the Official UK Singles Charts, Richard has sold more singles in the UK than any other act, with sales exceeding twenty million copies. Interestingly enough, he has scored only one million-selling single: “The Young Ones”. This does not reflect his total sales as the data used to compile the charts in the early part of his career was only partial. Sales from his 1950s singles would be significantly understated in this figure.

Cliff Richard has had top ten hits in each of the last six decades.

Cliff Richard is the only act in the UK to score a No.1 single in each of the first five decades since the inception of the UK Singles chart in 1952. His chart peak in the 2000s is No.2. The following list shows the number of chart toppers Richard has achieved in each decade.

1950s – 2:

“Living Doll”,

“Travellin’ Light”

1960s – 7:

“Please Don’t Tease”,

“I Love You”,

“The Young Ones”,

“The Next Time” / “Bachelor Boy”,

“Summer Holiday”,

“The Minute You’re Gone”,

“Congratulations”

1970s – 1:

“We Don’t Talk Anymore”

1980s – 2:

“Living Doll”,

“Mistletoe and Wine”

1990s – 2:

“Saviour’s Day”,

“Millennium Prayer”

Cliff Richard has spent the second highest time on the British charts of any act. The acts with the most aggregate time spent on the British record charts:

Elvis Presley (2,574 days)

Cliff Richard (1,983)

Queen (1,755)

The Beatles (1,749)

Madonna (1,660)

Elton John (1,626)

Richard is a lifelong bachelor. He has said that he once considered marriage to the dancer Jackie Irving, and later to tennis star Sue Barker. Richard currently lives with a former Roman Catholic priest, John McElynn, whom he met in 2001 while doing charity work in the United States. He has been described as Cliff’s property manager and looks after his houses while Cliff is away. This friendship has added to long-standing rumours that Richard is gay, a claim that he denied in 1996. Describing McElynn as a close friend and companion, Richard has said: “I am sick to death of the media’s speculation about it… What business is it of anyone else’s what any of us are as individuals? I don’t think my fans would care either way.

He has also gone on record to suggest the Church of England affirm a commitment to same-sex marriage. In his recent autobiography, he states clearly that “… many of my friends are gay – let’s face it, homosexuality has been legal for more than thirty years. For me, the commitment is what counts – and I’ll leave the judging to God.”

With his backing group The Shadows, Richard dominated the British popular music scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s, before and during The Beatles’ first year in the charts. A conversion to Christianity and subsequent softening of his music led to his having more of a pop than rock image. He never achieved the same impact in the United States despite several chart singles there, but he has remained a popular music, film, and television personality in the United Kingdom and he retains a following in other countries.

During six decades, Cliff Richard has charted many singles, and holds the record (with Elvis Presley) as the only act to make the UK singles charts in all of its decades (1950s–2000s). He is the only singer to have had a number one single in the UK in five consecutive decades, doing so from the 1950s through to the 1990s. On the British charts, Richard has had more than 130 singles, albums and EPs make the top 20, more than any other artist.He has sold more than 260 million records.