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Move It

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Recorded in the studio above the HMV Record Shop, Oxford Street, London

Backing by "THE DRIFTERS" - actually a combination which included two local session musicians
Harry Rodger Webb (Cliff Richard) (VOCALS), Ian Samwell (RHYTHM GUITAR), Terry Smart (DRUMS),
Ernie Shear (LEAD GUITAR) and Frank Clarke (DOUBLE BASS)

Move It was written by Ian Samwell whilst sitting upstairs in the back seat of a bus, on his way to Cliff's parents house, and it was the first song that Ian had ever written.  Cliff Richard later persuaded Norrie Paramor to let Ian play with the session musicians who would be backing him on the recording of Schoolboy Crush to which the B-side was Ian's composition, the epoch-inducing song - Move It, and it seemed appropriate that Ian was able to play on those actual recordings.  On Sunday evening, July 24th 1958, vocalist Cliff Richard was instrumentally accompanied by Terry Smart, Ian Samwell, Ernie Shear and Frank Clarke (ostensibly "The Drifters").  According to Ian Samwell, "Lead Guitarist Ernie Shear and bassist Frank Clarke were older men who by their looks would not have been imagined as rock'n'roll musicians.  Clarke - who played a double bass - was a very experienced session musician: physically tall, good looking, well dressed and a muscular looking fellow.  Guitarist Ernie Shear was a short, stocky, dark and wavy-haired Scotsman, a horn-rimmed spectacle wearer who by 1958 had moved to London at just fifteen years of age, and eventually found work in the Oscar Rabin Band.  Samwell continues .....  "On Move It Ernie Shear played a blond Hofner President arch-top guitar with a DeArmond Rhythm Chief Model 1000 pick-up mounted near the bridge through a Fender Deluxe amplifier.   In the studio's recording control room there were two engineers, Malcolm Addey and Peter Brown.  Both were formally dressed but Norrie Paramor was in a Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts having recently returned from his summer holidays in Tangier.  Previously he had only been seen sitting behind his desk appearing and acting every inch the businessman as he peered over his rimless glasses.  I believe his title at the time was Recording Manager rather than Producer".

Immediately at the onset of the 7:00pm recording session, and because no demonstration recording had been made - neither had the song been annotated as sheet music, The Drifters performed it for Clarke and Shear.  Probably The Drifters had not appreciated quite how, or even if, their recording session would be augmented by other musicians.  As it was, Samwell, being as professional as he could be, simply presented Shear with the song's lyrics which the session man duly placed on his music stand and after the introduction and initial practices of the song, Paramor very quickly decided that Shear's guitar playing, his instrument and equipment, were better than Samwell's and that it would be necessary that he perform the song's somewhat unusual and technically demanding quaver rest introduction - which Shear had readily mastered.  It was further decided that Shear would play the first two bars of rhythm and following those, Samwell would join in, thus allowing Shear to perform guitar "embellishments".   Thereafter Move It was recorded in just two takes and although there was a single false start, the session was rapidly completed - taking little more than twenty minutes to complete.

Through the years, keen rock'n'roll enthusiasts - not necessarily musicians - have suggested that the guitar of Ernie Shear is the most compelling component of Move It and that Ernie Shear who had been asked to perform his guitar parts in an inventive and intuitive rock'n'roll manner did just that and something more.  His guitar part improvisations, which were uniquely exciting to many rock 'n' roll record buyers, made the otherwise unremakable Move It a British rock'n'roll classic!"

Ian Samwell remembered:  "There were no photographers on hand that time, (being a Sunday evening after 7:00pm) but from left to right such a picture would have shown Ian Samwell, Ernie Shear, Frank Clarke and Terry Smart.  Cliff stood just a little in front facing the control room.  Because he had had some difficulty singing without playing, Paramore had allowed him to hold on to his guitar.  After the session I remember feeling strangely deflated.  There was nothing to do but go home - same thing for the others ......"  There are a number of stories about why the A-side was replaced by the intended B-side.  One is that Norrie Paramor's young daughter raved about the B-side, and another was that influential TV producer, Jack Good, who used the act for his TV Show Oh Boy!, wanted the only song on his show to be Move Itwhich fired his enthusiasm.  Its reception on the show led to its elevation to the A-side, and in September 1958 it became a top five hit.