Pop-singer, born in Lucknow, NC India. He moved to England at the age of eight, began his professional career playing with the Dick Teague Group, and formed his own band in 1958. Originally called The Drifters, the group changed its name to The Shadows to avoid confusion with a US vocal group of the same name. Following the success of ‘Living Doll’ (1959), The Shadows were hailed as Britain's answer to American rock. He made a series of family musical films during the 1960s, including The Young Ones (1961) and Summer Holiday (1962), and played the leading role in the musicals Time (1986) and Heathcliff (1996). Following his conversion to Christianity, his clean-cut image damaged his reputation with rock fans, but he has nevertheless become a British entertainment institution. His many albums include 21 Today (1961), Rock and Roll Juvenile (1979), Love Songs (1981), Silver, released in 1983 to celebrate 25 years as a recording artist, Mistletoe and Wine which topped the charts for four weeks at Christmas in 1988, Cliff at Christmas (2003), and Somethin's Goin' On (2004). He was number one again with his single Millennium Prayer in December 1999. He became the UK's top selling singles artist in 2004 with 21 million records, overtaking The Beatles, and was elected to the newly established UK Music Hall of Fame later that year. He also became the only singer to have hit singles in six consecutive decades. He was knighted in 1995.