Aside from talking about his lack of big fanbase in the country, the 'Devil Woman' singer spills why Elton John picked 'Silvia Disc' as the latter's nickname for him.
- March 15, 2021
AceShowbiz - Sir Cliff Richard is "glad" he never found huge success in America because he can enjoy anonymity there when he visits.
The 80-year-old singer admitted it used to "bother" him that he never had a big fanbase in the U.S. but these days, he's thankful for that because it means he can go unrecognized when he's out there.
He said, "I never broke America - when I was young that used to bother me but now I'm glad that I never did because I can walk around there in peace and quiet."
"My U.S. label weren't bothered about releasing 'I'm Nearly Famous' (in 1975), so Elton put it out in the U.S. on his Rocket label and 'Devil Woman', the single taken from it, went top 10 there."
Elton John's decision to release the album for Cliff and "The Young Ones" hitmaker's desire to see it do well saw the Christian crooner landed with a new nickname.
He explained, "Elton likes calling his male friends by female names - he always calls Rod Stewart 'Phyllis' and he called me 'Silvia Disc' because he said I was always ringing his management office to ask if my record had gone silver yet. Is that true? I couldn't possibly comment."
In a separate interview, Cliff opened up about his decision to never marry. "People marrying and singing now doesn't have anywhere near the effect it would have had when I started in the 1950s," he told BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. "It was just the way it was. People would say, 'The girls are all squealing at you, you have to be just available.' "
