Daddy's Home
 

Cliff Richard -- Daddy's Home

An in-depth song analysis

  • Record Date: May 1, 1981 (performed); December 14, 1981 (broadcast)
  • Record Location: Hammersmith Odeon, London
  • Written By: James Sheppard & William Miller
  • Arranged By: Tony Rivers (vocals)
  • Produced By: Cliff Richard
  • Engineered By: Unknown (original recording) & Nick Glennie-Smith (album preparation)
  • Mixed By: Nick Sykes
  • Mix Location: Gallery Studios, London
  • Performed By: Cliff Richard (vocals), Stu Calver (backing vocals), John Clark (guitars), Mark Griffiths (guitar), Graham Jarvis (drums), Martin Jenner (guitar), Alan Park (keyboards), John Perry (backing vocals), Tony Rivers (backing vocals), Graham Todd (keyboards), Howie Casey (saxophone)

    Initially Released On: Wired For Sound LP album (1981 November — UK — EMI EMC 3377)

    • Comments and Observations

    Recording the Song: Daddy's Home is not a studio recording, but rather a live concert recording. It was extracted from a live concert at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on May 1, 1981. This concert, along with two earlier concerts, were recorded for the BBC four part Cliff TV special that aired in late 1981. Daddy's Home from this Hammersmith Odeon concert appeared during the fourth part (subtitled "My Kinda Life") first broadcast on December 14, 1981, although Cliff and Olivia Newton-John are speaking over much of the performance on the TV special. It is quite likely that some studio post production on the song added or enhanced the performance, which is not uncommon for releases of live material, but this remains unconfirmed.

    The song was produced by Cliff himself, which was typical of his concert performed material. The Wired For Sound album credits indirectly imply that Alan Tarney produced it, however, Alan had nothing to do with the song (although he may have possibly done some mixing to bring it to the same sound as the album). The Daddy's Home single credits Cliff as producer. Backing vocalist Tony Rivers provided the backing vocal arrangement.

    At the time of the Cliff TV special, it was decided to license this song as well as Shakin' All Over and Stood Up from the concert for commercial release. So clearly there was some forethought into the songs. It's curious that Daddy's Home ended up on the Wired For Sound album, which was otherwise all Alan Tarney produced studio recordings. The live performance of Shakin' All Over was used as the B-side of the Daddy's Home single and Stood Up remains unreleased.

    Release and Charts: The single was the second release from the Wired For Sound album and was released as a single in the UK on November 6, 1981. Again, a live performance of Shakin' All Over from the same concert was on the single's B-side. The song entered the Top 75 UK singles chart on November 21 and reached a peak of #2 for four consecutive weeks from December 12, 1981 to January 2, 1982. It showed remarkable stamina to hold the #2 position for four weeks; however, it was held off from the coveted #1 spot by Don't You Want Me by The Human League. The fourth week, January 2, 1982, a chart was not published as it was the week following Christmas. If a chart was published, it's possible that the song may have held its position or even reached the #1 spot. However, the song fell to #6 the following week, so perhaps not. The song was a BPI gold disc, selling half a million copies in the UK.

    Finding the Song: Canadian fan Jan Eastaugh describes encountering Cliff in March 1981 which appears to have directly led to Cliff choosing to perform this song.

    Jan meets Cliff
    Jan Eastaugh meets Cliff on the day he acquires the Daddy's Home single in Canada
    Cliff did a concert in Ottawa, Canada on March 23 1981, as part of his very lengthy North American Tour.

    A friend and I found out from another friend, Dave, who owns a record shop called Legend Records (specialising in all things rock and roll) and told us which hotel most visiting bands used, so we took our chances and went there around midday on the day of the concert. A few minutes after we settled ourselves in the lobby, who steps out of the lift, but Cliff!!! We were very excited, got our pics done with him and some items autographed (we had come prepared). Then he was gone, so we went into the hotel cafe for a coffee and talk about our thrilling encounter, and who was sitting there, all by himself?? Cliff!!! We cautiously approached him, told him that were both long term fans (since the early 60's) and asked if we could sit with him for a few minutes, we promised not to draw attention to him (he seemed concerned about this when we saw him earlier). He said sure. :-)

    We asked him a lot of questions, about what he was going to sing, when he was going back to UK, stuff like that. One of things he asked us was if there was a record shop nearby. He said he was looking for some old stuff for his jukebox at home. I told him about “Legend Records”, which happened to be in the underground mall, under the hotel we were sitting in!! Probably a 5 minute walk. Did I mention that Dave is a huge Cliff and Shads fan himself?

    Later that day, my friend and I went to see Dave in his shop, excited to tell him that we had met Cliff, and also to find out if Cliff had gone to the shop. Dave said yes, and that he asked for Daddy's Home by Shep and the Limelites, saying he was having trouble finding it. (Remember, this was several years before the Internet) . Dave had a copy, gave it to Cliff, and refused payment, as he was very honoured to meet him and be able to help him out.

    It was only a couple of months later that Cliff included the song in his concert at the Hammersmith Odeon, the rest is history. :-)

    I was very thrilled to meet Cliff at Hove on his Still Reelin’ and a-Rockin’ tour on June 15 2013, and I recounted the Daddy's Home story. He seemed to remember (not me, but getting the record), but didn’t give me quite the reaction I had anticipated. But first he said, “I didn't tour North America in 1991”, and I said, “No, it was 1981”, and he said, “Oh, that's a very long time ago!!!” Bless him. :-)

    Cliff accepts gifts while singing Daddy's HomeThe "Thank You" Bit: In the middle of the song's bridge, between the lines "But I made a promise that you treasure" and "And I made it back home to you" Cliff says "thank you" to someone. During the live performance, someone had approached the stage and gave Cliff a bottle of pink champagne, flowers and possibly a card to two. He accepted them just at that moment and said "thank you" to them. This can clearly be seen in the Cliff TV broadcast. One wonders if Cliff had considered this impact at the time. It's also curious that this was not edited out, as post production of live recordings was common at the time and it should have been easy enough to remove this bit.

    Whatever the reason for the "thank you" being included, it ended up causing some headaches later when the song was released as a single. When Cliff was promoting the single, he appeared on many TV shows and mimed the song for the cameras. How was he to explain the "thank you" in the middle of the song as he was miming it? To get around this, an audience member was usually planted with a flower to present to Cliff. He would then surreptitiously move to this person in the audience, accept the flower, and mime "thank you" to cover for it. For the music video, he accepted a fashion doll from a child to cover the "thank you" line. This doll ended up being a key part of the story told in the video too.

    UK issue of Shep & The Limelites singleA Thousand Miles Away: The history of the song easily explains Cliff's final line of "I'm not a thousand miles away" at the end of the song. The song is actually a sequel song, following the 1957 hit song by The Heartbeats called A Thousand Miles Away. James Sheppard and William H. Miller had written and recorded A Thousand Miles Away about Sheppard's real-life girlfriend moving away. He'd had a hit with this song in 1957, reaching #52 in the USA charts (and not charting in the UK at all as it may not have been released there). The theme of this song was about a girl being missed as she was "a thousand miles away" and it was written by James Sheppard for his girlfriend who had moved far away. Four years later, James Sheppard had changed groups and was not in The Heartbeats, but had formed a new group, Shep & The Limelites. For this group, he wrote and recorded Daddy's Home and had another hit in 1961, reaching #2 on the USA charts. The song was released in the UK, but was not a hit at all. Daddy's Home was his way of saying that he had returned after being gone so long and, of course, the "thousand miles" reference was to the first song.

    There are other lines in Daddy's Home can be explained by A Thousand Miles Away. In the second verse of A Thousand Miles Away, there is a line of "Daddy's coming home soon" which is a direct reference to the song's chorus and title. Also in A Thousand Miles Away, are the lines "it may be on a Sunday morning, it may be on a Tuesday afteroon" which match similar lyrics in Daddy's Home's bridge: "it wasn't on a Sunday, it wasn't on a Tuesday afternoon".

    It's also interesting to note that Cliff has never known to have sung or recorded A Thousand Miles Away.

    The affectionate term "Daddy" is typically an affectionate term for a child to use for his or her father. But in the context of the song Daddy's Home, it's actually a term of endearment between lovers-- a use that is not nearly as common. Indeed, as Daddy's Home was a follow-up song to A Thousand Miles Away, it's clear that he was singing to his girlfriend, stating that he was back from a long absence.

    Compared to the original 1961 Shep & The Limelites version, Cliff made very little changes to the song. The basic structure is the same, although Cliff does not sing along with some of the backing vocal parts as on the original (such as the "Monday and Tuesday went by" line). Cliff's version is also slightly faster than the original. The original 1961 version can be heard HERE.

    All I Have To Do Is Dream: At the same May 1, 1981 concert at the Hammersmith Odeon where Daddy's Home was recorded was also performed All I Have To Do Is Dream and When Will I Be Loved as duets with Phil Everly. There are no known records of these songs being licensed for release at the same time that Daddy's Home was in 1981; however, these songs did eventually get licensed and released on a single at the end of 1994, with All I Have To Do Is Dream as one half of a double A-side (and the original Miss You Nights as the other half). It's a curious release for a single, in part because it was from a performance from 13 years prior (as well as a reissue of a 1976 song). The single came out at a time when Cliff was busy preparing for Heathcliff, but it is assumed that this song was chosen in part because of the success of Daddy's Home from the same concert and they were hoping to follow its success. It proved to be a modest hit, premiering and peaking at #14 for two weeks before falling off the charts a month later.

    Structure and Lyrics

    Below is the structure of the fullest, most complete version of the originally released song as available on the standard issues of the Wired For Sound album.

    -Keyboard Intro
       Keyboard intro
    -Verse 1
       You're my love; you're my angel (rat-a-tat); you're the girl of my dreams
       And I'd like to thank you (rat-a-tat), for waiting patiently
    -Chorus 1
       Daddy's home
       Daddy's home to stay
    -Verse 2
       How I've waited for this moment (rat-a-tat), to be by your side
       Your best friend wrote and told me (rat-a-tat), you had teardrops in your eyes
    -Chorus 2
       Daddy's home
       Daddy's home to stay
    -Bridge
       It wasn't on a Sunday (Monday and Tuesday went by)
       It wasn't on a Tuesday afternoon (All I could do was cry)
       But I made a promise that you treasure
         *thank you*
       And I made it back home to you
    -Verse 3
       (How I've waited for this moment) to be by your side
       Your best friend wrote and told me (rat-a-tat), you had teardrops in your eyes
    -Chorus 3
       Daddy's home
       Daddy's home to stay
    -Closing
       Daddy's home to (stay)
       I'm not a thousand miles away

      * The backing vocalists only sing these lines.

    Variations

    There are no known non-live variations of the original Daddy's Home single/album recording.

    Music Chart

    These are the known statistics for the various countries' music charts. If you can fill in the missing information or know of charting information in other countries, please let me know at the email address listed at the bottom of this page.

    Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15
    UK Official Top 75 Chart Entry Date: November 21, 1981
    37
    15
    6
    2
    (December 12, 1981)
    2
    (December 19, 1981)
    2
    (December 26, 1981)
    2
    (January 2, 1982)
    6
    12
    24
    28
    72
    USA Billboard Hot 100 Chart Entry Date: January 16, 1982
    80
    70
    53
    36
    32
    30
    27
    25
    24
    23
    (March 20, 1982)
    34
    42
    100
    USA Cash Box Top 100 Chart Entry Date: January 16, 1982
    72
    55
    43
    38
    33
    30
    27
    25
    23
    22
    (March 20, 1982)
    38
    42
    47
    86
    92
    Australia Top 20 Chart Entry Date: March 20, 1982
    Unknown
    11
    9
    8
    (April 10, 1982)
    10
    14
    Unknown
    20
    Belgium Top 40 Chart Entry Date: December 28, 1981
    36
    Peak at #8 during a run of 9 total weeks on the chart
    29
    Canada RPM Top 50 Chart Entry Date: February 27, 1982
    43
    42
    41
    (March 13, 1982)
    42
    45
    50
    Germany Top 75 Chart Entry Date: January 2, 1982
    73
    (January 2, 1982)
    Holland Top 50 Chart Entry Date: December 28, 1981
    14
    (December 28, 1981)
    24
    15
    16
    27
    29
    Ireland Top 30 Chart Entry Date: November 27, 1981
    25
    8
    3
    (December 12, 1981)
    4
    4
    Chart not published
    3
    (January 9, 1982)
    4
    12
    New Zealand Top 50 Chart Entry Date: March 6, 1982
    30
    14
    13
    7
    4
    (April 3, 1982)
    4
    (April 10, 1982)
    5
    9
    10
    16
    23
    37
    43

    Releases

    Here are all the known UK releases of the song:

    Daddy's Home (Standard Release)

    Daddy's Home (Royal Albert Hall, London - November 23 1982)

    Daddy's Home (Sydney, Australia - November 1984)

    Daddy's Home (Ohne Filter Extra - October 14 1987)

    Daddy's Home (Odense, Denmark - May 1988)

    Daddy's Home (Wembley Stadium, London - June 16 & 17 1989)

    Daddy's Home (From A Distance - The Tour 1991 - December 1, 1991)

    Daddy's Home (Access All Areas Tour 1992)

    Daddy's Home (Sheffield Arena - December 15 1994)

    Daddy's Home (Live In South Africa - The Platinum Hit List Tour - April 17, 1995)

    Daddy's Home (Royal Albert Hall - September 1998)

    Daddy's Home (Hyde Park - July 1999)

    Daddy's Home (Wembley Arena - November 14 2008)

    Daddy's Home (Bridgewater Hall, Manchester - October 12, 2018)

    Tours

    As a huge hit for Cliff, Daddy's Home has been performed at most all shows following it's release up until the end of the 1990s when it was dropped. Details are a little uncertain in some cases due to incomplete information. All known arrangements of the song remain relatively the same as the original live recording (except for the "thank you" bit), which in turn remains faithful the Shep and The Limelites version.

    Dressed For The Occasion Remaster CDWithin a year following it's release, Cliff was performing the song on November 23, 1982 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall. This was recorded, but not released on the original 1983 Dressed For The Occasion album; rather, it appeared as a bonus track on the 2004 remaster of the album. It's the same basic arrangement as the version that appeared on the Wired For Sound album, but it features a string backing track and is missing the saxophone altogether. It also featured in his live set from the following tours, including a show recorded for the Rock In Australia videotape (released in the UK on VHS videotape (PMI MVN 99 1130 2)) recorded in Sydney, Australia in November of 1984. Unfortunately, Daddy's Home was edited out of the concert on the videotape and remains unreleased. It seems unusual that such a successful song for Cliff was deemed not to be released on two live shows released just a few years after it was a hit.

    It also featured on the 1987 and 1988 tour in support of the Always Guaranteed album. It was recorded in Fyens Forum, Odense, Denmark on May 22, 1988, with portions of this concert released on the Live & Guaranteed 1988! VHS videotape in 1989 (and again reissued in 1995), but the performance of Daddy's Home from this concert was also not released and it's not available anywhere. It's uncertain if it survives or was destroyed.

    From A Distance ***** The Event CDDaddy's Home also featured in Cliff's historic The Event concerts at Wembley Stadium on June 16 and 17, 1989; this version is the exact same arrangement as the original single version. This performance was released on the From A Distance ***** The Event VHS videotape (PMI MVB9912473) in late 1990, but was left off of the CD counterpart released at the same time. It was included on the CD for the remaster/rerelease in 2005. This release was a combination of a recording of two nights of performances, taking the best takes of both performances for a single release; it remains unknown which night the actual performance of Daddy's Home heard on the album was actually taken.

    Access All Areas: The Tour 1992 & The Hit List Live VHS tapesFrom Cliff's 1992 Access All Areas tour the song was also part of the regular setlist. A recording from Wembley Arena recorded in November 1992 was released on a VHS videotape called Access All Areas: The Tour 1992 (PMI MVB 4911123) on April 5, 1993. It also featured on The Hit List tour, being released on a VHS videotape on April 16, 1995 called The Hit List Live (PMI MVD 4914673) from a Sheffield Arena concert on December 15, 1994. For these performances the arrangement was again basically the same as the original version.

    The 40th Anniversary Concert & Live In The ParkStarting in 1998, the arrangement changed slightly. Again, it was played on the The 40th Anniversary tour in 1998, with the performance on September 1998 at the Royal Albert Hall released on a VHS videotape called The 40th Anniversary Concert (VCI VC4147) on November 2, 1998. And a July 1999 performance from another tour recorded at Hyde Park in July 1999 was released on another VHS videotape called Live In The Park (VCI VC4149) on November 8, 1999. For these performances, some gentle electric guitar and additional saxophone was added to the mix, as well as the backing vocalists adding addition "ooh" harmonies behind the verses. The latter two concerts (The 40th Anniversary Concert and Live In The Park) have been reissued on DVD several times over the years; however the prior releases have not been issued again since their original VHS releases.

    Following this, the song was dropped from the setlist. Other doo-wop songs were played, including Since I Don't Have You and Save The Last Dance For Me. It's curious that a huge #2 hit song for Cliff was dropped, but perhaps it wasn't getting the reaction at live shows that Cliff had expected so he substituted other songs. It's a really short song and many of his doo-wop performances on tour were medleys of others song. Daddy's Home may have fit nicely into one of these medleys, perhaps performed with A Thousand Miles Away as well.

    Time Machine Tour - 50th Anniversary DVDThe song returned to the setlist for the Time Machine Tour, which got a December 1, 2008 release on the Time Machine Tour - 50th Anniversary DVD from a Wembley Arena performance on November 14, 2008. The arrangement is the newer arrangement from the end of the 1990s, with additional backing vocals and saxophone; but rather than additional guitar, additional keyboard is added in its place. Following this, the song was again dropped from his live set and has not featured since.

    More detail information on Cliff's performance of Daddy's Home on tour and various live performances may be determined at a future date.

    Pictures

    UK 7-inch single (EMI EMI 2458) Wired For Sound LP USA 7-inch stock single (EMI-America * A-8103) USA 7-inch stock single (EMI-America * P-A-8103) Australia 7-inch single (EMI * EMI-641)
    UK vinyl single * EMI * EMI 5251 UK Wired For Sound album * EMI * EMC 3377 USA stock vinyl single * EMI-America * A-8103 USA promo vinyl single * EMI-America * P-A-8103 Australia vinyl single * EMI * EMI-641
    Germany 7-inch single (EMI * 1C 006-07 579)
    Germany vinyl single * EMI * 1C 006-07 579

    Cover Versions

    This song is a cover of the Shep & The Limelites 1961 hit. So any cover versions are not of Cliff's but of Shep & The Limelites'.

    Use in Movies and TV programs

    Sheet Music

           
    Sheet music as published in the UK.

           
    Sheet music as published in the USA.

    Promotional Videos and TV Performances

    Daddy's Home Music VideoThere was a promotional video produced for Daddy's Home that was rather elaborately produced for a video of its day. It features Cliff in a 1950s era leather jacket (with an added 1980s era sleeveless feature) walking about a billiard club as several young men and women in jeans and white t-shirts play billiards, then eventually mime the backing vocal lines for Cliff. Eventually a young woman and a small girl holding a doll arrive at the club's door, there to greet Cliff who is playing the role of "Daddy" in the song whom there are there to see. The little girl runs to Cliff and he picks her up and carries her to sit on a table.

    The problematic "thank you" part in the song's bridge is actually used to good effect in the video and is used to create the story for the video. As the girl is sitting at the table, she hands Cliff the doll and he tells her "thank you" for it. He then turns to greet the woman. He slips the doll into his jacket pocket and moves to hug the woman. Following this, he picks the little girl up and puts her on the floor, where she runs to her waiting mother at the door to the club. As the song ends, the camera focuses on Cliff singing the final lines, then pulls back to reveal that Cliff is standing in an empty and obviously long abandoned club, as if all the previous scenes were only in his head. He then pulls the doll out of his pocket, looking at it with dismay. The music video can be seen HERE.

    The use of the term "Daddy" is taken out of context for the video, although it's probably understandable. In the video, "Daddy" is taken in a much more traditional sense with Cliff as the father to the little girl and he is singing to her that Daddy is home.

    The German issued Daddy's Home single cover features an image of Cliff taken during the making of this video. However, in the image, Cliff is also wearing a Sony Walkman which is an obvious nod to the Wired For Sound song and album.

    This music video was release on VHS videotape in the UK on three occasions. These include the The Video Connection videotape in 1983 (Picture Music MVP 99 1040 2), the Private Collection videotape in 1988 (PMI MVPCR1), and a reissue of The Video Connection videotape in 1992 (2 Entertain Video MC2081). It has never been released on DVD.

    Televised performances of the song will be documented at length at a future date.

    Fan Comments

    Enter comments only about this song. (Inappropriate comments will be removed.)



    You may remember that Cliff and his three backing vocalist did a little dance routine to this song, when they sung it live on stage. This is what Tony Rivers says on how the routine came about.

    "John, Stu and me were rehearsing vocals at my house in Upminster, as we always did before a tour, that was coming up. I thought why don,t we come up with something simple 'move - wise'that were could have a bit of fun with (after all it was a Doo wop classic).
    Between us and a couple of suggestions from my wife, we came up with what you see."



    Tell the world what you think of Daddy's Home.

    Quotations

    Daddy's Home (Standard Release)
    About midway through Daddy's Home, Cliff can be heard saying "thank you". He was accepting gifts (champagne, flowers and cards) from a female audience member and thanking her for the gift.

    Daddy's Home was written in 1961 by James Sheppard as a sequel to his song A Thousand Miles Away with which he had a hit in 1956 with his band at the time, The Heartbeats. James' girlfriend had moved from New York to Texas which inspired James to write this song, which goes something like "You're a thousand miles away, oh but I need your love to remember you by, oh my darling, dry your eyes, Daddy's coming home soon". In the middle of the song he sings "It may be on a Sunday morning. It may be on a Tuesday afternoon. But no matter what the day is....". The song was a hit for The Heartbeats in 1956. Three years later James put another group together called Shep & the Limelites and then wrote the sequel called Daddy's Home, which, of course, ends with the words "I'm not a thousand miles away". The melody of Daddy's Home is pretty much exactly like the tune of A Thousand Miles Away, with which Shep & the Limelites had a top ten hit in 1961.

    "...announce the song [Daddy's Home]. You know, there's not applause at the beginning. It's just one of those things, I don't know how audiences sometimes don't. You know, you don't applaud at the beginning [but] you applaud at the end of the song. And so it starts just like a normal record. Before it ends, actually, you hear the audience scream because when we were doing it, I used dancers and at the end of the song, right at the very end, just before it ended, a girl came and I put my arm around her shoulder and we walked away and the crowd went 'Aaaah!' So you hear a little noise, and then we finished the song and then the applause. But yeah, it was live. It was the Hammersmith Odeon. I did a rock 'n' roll concert and... You see, audiences sometimes don't applaud if they don't recognize a song. And, of course, Daddy's Home was brand new to the British public. Although it was an old, old song. It was a hit in America. It was never a hit in England so they didn't know the song. In fact, we had terrible problems, um... We didn't redo it or anything on the instrumental side. But, if you listen to the electric piano, it duller, it's more dull than I like. I like a lot of top. But when the lights came in for this show, there was this kind of [imitates crackling sound] crackle-y noise on the piano track. So the engineer did a brilliant job. He had to use all sorts of technical ability to get rid of that noise. But it also takes a little bit of the sound away. So we were able to erase the bad noise, but if you listen with headphones really loud, there's a point, just after the introduction, that you hear this little noise. It's still there. We couldn't get rid of it completely. So we had to doctor it a little bit. It's all a problem. When you do live concerts... You know, the studio is so perfect. When you're live on stage, you have all these noise coming from the lights on stage, you have people [coughs] coughing, and there are all sorts of problems."
    Cliff Richard (October 1982 - Poster [Dutch radio program on TROS])

    "Most of my videos, I don't like. I've never really enjoyed my videos very much. I liked Wired For Sound, Daddy's Home, and the duet I sang with Sarah Brighman, that was a nice video. And My Pretty One is fabulous. That's my favorite video."
    Cliff Richard (circa 1987 - unknown interview from the Baktabak interview disc (BAK 2063))

    "Here I am, having spent more time in the UK charts than any other artist (The Beatles included)-- with the sole exception of Elvis-- yet the average American will never have heard of me. He or she will probably recognise a song title-- Devil Woman, We Don't Talk Anymore, Dreamin', Daddy's Home and others were all decent-sized Top Thirty hits over the years. But as for Cliff Richard, the name won't mean a light."
    Cliff Richard (1988 - Single-Minded)

    "I was just interested in sort of finding old material at that stage [the early 1980s]. I've got a jukebox at home and the main problems of jukeboxes is [that] they play in mono. And therefore the old traditional 50s type stuff sounds best on it. Because the way that the basses were recorded in those days seem to be a more laid back, softer sound and therefore I wanted to fill it with that kind of stuff. So when they [the fan I met] told me where to go, I went there. In fact, funnily enough, I've just been speaking to someone, I did an interview with someone who said he sold me that record. I found Daddy's Home, Shep & The Limelights, and it's now, at this very moment in time, on my jukebox at home and it's played every time I play the jukebox. [...] In the original form... Daddy's Home wasn't [a UK success]."
    Cliff Richard (early 1991 - CBC radio interview by Richard Patterson)

    "And following [Wired For Sound], we'll hear the only live song on the [Wired For Sound] LP, a terrific version of the 1961 hit for Shep and the Limelights, Daddy's Home."
    Mike Read (March 15, 1992 - Wired For Sound: The Cliff Richard Story BBC Radio 2 programme)

    "For 1981 plans had been made to shoot a four-part documentary television series. The project was given the working and final title of Cliff. For inclusion, the BBC simultaneously filmed and taped concerts at the Manchester Apollo and the Hammersmith Odeon. Cliff had some new songs in his repertoire, and of these Daddy's Home, Shakin' All Over and Stood Up were licensed for record release, but only the first two titles were issued. The live single Daddy's Home became the biggest hit of the year [1981] reaching the No.2 spot, and was a cover of an original by Shep and the Limelights, featuring in Cliff's jukebox at his home. October 20, 1981: The video for Daddy's Home is shot at Ewarts Studio in Wandsworth. Cliff's brief is to look unshaven and wear tight jeans, a white T-shirt and black leather jacket. November 28, 1981: Cliff's 82nd single, Daddy's Home, is a song which has long been one of his favourites-- the original by Shep and the Limelites featuring on Cliff's Bell-Ami jukebox at his home. The 'B' side is the old Johnny Kidd song Shakin' All Over. Daddy's Home becomes Cliff's 9th single to come to rest at the number 2 spot in the charts."
    Mike Read, Nigel Goodall & Peter Lewry (1995 - The Complete Chronicle)

    "Bear in mind, too, how while on tour in America the British boy picked up on the 1961 release Daddy's Home by Shep and the Limelites, parallelling the US Number 2 peak of the original with his UK Number 2 in 1981."
    Paul Gambaccini (1997 - liner notes for The Rock 'n' Roll Years 1958-1963 album)

    "Released in November 1981 this single entered the charts at #37 on 21 November 1981 and climbed to #2 during a run of 12 weeks. It spent 3 weeks stuck at #2 behind Don't You Want Me Baby [sic] by the Human League. In the United States it made its debut on 6 February 1982 peaking at #23 with a run of 8 weeks. The single qualified for a gold disc from the BPI."
    Peter Lewry & Nigel Goodall (July 2001 - liner notes for Wired For Sound remaster album)

    "[All I Have To Do Is Dream from the May 1, 1981 Hammersmith Odeon concert] was the third 'live' HIT single that I'd been on with Cliff The others were Daddy's Home which reached No.2 Xmas '81 (Hammersmith again) and True Love Ways which was from the Dressed For The Occasion Albert Hall concert with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. "
    Tony Rivers (circa 2007 - tonyrivers.com)

    "[Cliff] never forgot his roots: it's hard to imagine someone who wasn't around at the time producing such a beautiful interpretation of Shep and the Limelites' Daddy's Home, a doo-wop classic from the year of The Young Ones."
    Richard Williams (September 2008 - liner notes for 50th Anniversary Album album)

    "Daddy's Home came into the [US] Top 30."
    Cliff Richard (September 8, 2012 - Wired For Sound Radio)

    "I came to America eight or nine times, and each time I left, I had a record in the Top 30. Living Doll made Top 30 in the States; We Don't Talk Anymore, Devil Woman, Suddenly with Olivia [Newton-John], Dreamin' and Daddy's Home were all hits."
    Cliff Richard (2015 January 15 - Goldmine)

    "Daddy's Home had reached No. 2 during Christmas of 1981 (taped at the Hammersmith Odeon concert). [...] Dreaming [sic], We Don't Talk Anymore and Wired For Sound were all Alan Tarney songs, although when the album Wired For Sound was released (produced by Alan) the record company added our live version of Daddy's Home on at the end, taken from the Hammersmith Odeon concert, which became a big hit and helped to sell the album. That was a nice boost for us, as I think that was the only song featured on the album that we actually appeared on, and it gave Cliff a number 2 hit on the charts and it gave my my ONLY Gold Record award (for the vocal arrangement) that still hangs on my wall today."
    Tony Rivers (2015 - I'm Nearly Famous (The Tales of a Likely Lad))

    "[The Fabulous Rock 'n' Roll Songbook] was followed by the equally big-selling 3-disc compilation album 75 At + 75, which stretched from early rockers like Move It and High Class Baby through Summer Holiday and Bachelor Boy to Daddy's Home and Mistletoe And Wine."
    Douglas McPherson (2018 - Vintage Rock Presents Cliff Richard 60th Anniversary Edition)

    "The follow-up single, Daddy's Home, was taken from a recording the BBC had made at the Hammersmith Odeon for a Rock Special back in May. Though destined to spend its chart time in the shadow of The Human League's Don't You Want Me, it was still the biggest #2 selling single of the year. [...] Recorded live in London's Hammersmith Odeon the previous May as part of a 'Rock Special' BBC to be shown on a later date, Daddy's Home was originally written by-- and had been a hit for-- American doo-woppers Shep and the Limelites in 1961. Its second lease of life came in 1973 when it was a hit for Jermaine Jackson with the Jackson 5 backing him (Toots and the Maytals also recorded the song in the same year). Revitalised again eight years later, a live version was added to Wired For Sound. It became the second single a couple of months later, and turned out to be the Christmas #2 of 1981, kept off the top for four weeks by The Human League's Don't You Want Me."
    Ian Wade (2018 - Vintage Rock Presents Cliff Richard 60th Anniversary Edition)

    Daddy's Home (Royal Albert Hall, London - November 23, 1982)
    As tracked on the 2004 Dressed For The Occasion remaster CD, the end of the track for this song features Cliff's announcement of the band and orchestra as well as the introduction to Little Town. The introduction to Daddy's Home, where he talks about it being a Christmas #2 hit, is attached to the end of the previous track on the album, Devil Woman.

    "Five songs in all were left off the original [Dressed For The Occasion] album. Although You Me And Jesus, Discovering and Daddy's Home were mixed and prepared for inclusion, in the end they had to be left off. But today Cliff can't remember leaving anything out, he agrees that any omission would have been due to timing restrictions. 'Daddy's Home was such a big hit but we would have to choose between that and Treasure Of Love, which was also a kind of doo-wop song, originally recorded by Clyde McPhatter of the Drifters and a top thirty hit in 1956. We would have said, if we can't fit them both in, let's put the new one on. That's usually how it works.'"
    Peter Lewry & Nigel Goodall (January 2004 - liner notes for Dressed For The Occasion remaster album)

    Daddy's Home (Sydney, Australia - November 1984)

    Daddy's Home (Ohne Filter Extra - October 14, 1987)

    Daddy's Home (Odense, Denmark - May 1988)

    Daddy's Home (Wembley Stadium, London - June 16 & 17, 1989)
    Daddy's Home (From A Distance - The Tour 1991 - December 1, 1991)

    Daddy's Home (Access All Areas Tour - 1992)

    Daddy's Home (Sheffield Arena - December 15, 1994)

    Daddy's Home (Live In South Africa - The Platinum Hit List Tour - April 17, 1995)

    Daddy's Home (Royal Albert Hall - September 1998)

    Daddy's Home (Hyde Park - July 1999)

    Daddy's Home (Wembley Arena - November 14, 2008)

    Daddy's Home (Bridgewater Hall, Manchester - October 12, 2018)

    This page is intended to be a complete record of information on the Cliff Richard song Daddy's Home. If you notice any errors or omissions, please contact me at cliffrichardsongs@gmail.com and let me know. I strive for accuracy.

    Robert Porter
    October 2022