And so, after forty and a half years, Britain’s most decorated chart artist bows out from chart-topping duty, with his sixty-fourth Top 10 hit, and fourteenth number one.
The Millennium Prayer, by Cliff Richard (his 14th and final #1)
3 weeks, from 28th November – 19th December 1999
In some ways it’s tragic that Cliff ends in this way, as he has been responsible for some great hits, and was arguably the nation’s first real homegrown rock star. But in other ways, it’s entirely fitting and predictable for Cliff, an artist who had long since given up caring about such concepts as relevance, and quality control, to leave us with ‘The Millennium Prayer’.
It’s a simple enough idea: the Lord’s Prayer set to the tune of ‘Auld Lang Syne’. A prayer for the new millennium, twinned with a world-famous new year’s melody. ‘Auld Lang Syne’ is a lovely tune, heartwarming and yet melancholy, and so on one level there is something bearable about this record. The production is fairly minimal, though very dated by 1999’s standards, with a marching drumbeat and a trumpet solo in the middle. There is, naturally, a gospel choir brought in towards the end.
What makes it less bearable are Cliff’s ad-libs, decorated with assorted vocal gymnastics that are, I suppose, impressive for a man approaching sixty. What makes this near-nauseating is the video, a live performance in which Cliff goes into full Messiah-mode, prancing around, arms stretched, surrounded by a children’s choir.
I’m a fairly irreligious person, and I’m being careful not to let my opinions on organised religion cloud my judgement of this song’s merits. But I’m hopeful that even the most committed Christians, who may agree with the song’s sentiments (and lovely sentiments they are, too), can recognise that this record is garbage. It makes Cliff’s two previous festive chart-toppers, ‘Mistletoe and Wine’ and ‘Saviour’s Day’, sound like masterpieces of subtlety and restraint.
In fact, can I just take a moment to rant against the concept of Christian rock in general? Christianity has centuries’ worth of hymns, psalms, carols… Plus, the entire gospel canon. Gospel music, sung by a choir, can be wonderfully moving, even for a heathen like me. But there’s something fundamentally wrong with Christian contemporary rock music, such a disconnect between the rock ‘n’ roll beat, the guitars, the long hair – the entire raison d’etre of rock and roll – and the churchy message. I have a sneaking suspicion that God, whoever they may be, really, really hates Christian rock. (Although having said all that, ‘The Millennium Prayer’ is almost entirely saved in my estimations by the fact that Jesus himself received a writing credit!)
My mum was one of the hundreds of thousands who bought ‘The Millennium Prayer’, making it both the year’s third highest seller, and the third biggest hit of Cliff’s entire career. I remember it sitting in our CD tower at home for years, but I never remember her playing it. I suspect this was the case for most of the copies sold. Christians around the country mobilised en masse to buy the record, probably multiple times, especially after it had been refused airplay by most (sensibly-minded) radio stations. Nowadays it’s a festive tradition for the charts to be stuffed with protest songs around Christmas: songs bought, downloaded, or streamed as a statement, not because anyone particularly likes the music. Was ‘The Millennium Prayer’ the first modern protest number one?
I billed this as Cliff’s farewell, and while he has no further number ones to come (he currently sits in joint-third position in the ‘most number ones’ table, behind only Elvis and The Beatles), he is still very much active and recording well into his eighties. The 2000s brought him four more Top 10s, while his most recent album, ‘Cliff with Strings’, made #5 just over a year ago. Despite his many musical mis-steps, the man is a living legend. (While anyone who claims that ‘We Don’t Talk Anymore’ isn’t his best number one is just plain wrong.)
Of course, Cliff was aiming for his third Christmas #1, and presumably the final #1 of the century, with this modern day hymn. He didn’t quite make it though, as he was held off by a record that we may discover to be every bit as irredeemable as ‘The Millennium Prayer’…
The UK Number Ones Blog 
As a confirmed God-botherer, I don’t think you are losing your objectivity here. The song is complete pants. I say this as someone who loves Mistletoe and Wine and quite likes Saviour’s Day. This is just a bad idea from beginning to end, a shotgun marriage without redemption. And I agree with you about Christian Rock, with some exceptions such as “After Forever” by Black Sabbath (yes, Black Sabbath).
Maolsheachlann, Dublin
To clarify, I don’t disagree with rock acts writing songs about God, religion, or the afterlife, like ‘After Forever’, or ‘Spirit in the Sky’, or ‘If God Was One of Us’… It’s only natural that songwriters grapple with a topic that is intrinsic to our existence as humans. I’ve only got a problem with happy-clappy Christian rock, songs about how great God is, songs like this…!
I think he was going to follow it up with The Ten Commandments sung to the tune of The Hokey Cokey….
As bad as this record was ( and it is one of the worst chart toppers ever) I would rather it had hung on another week and been the first number one of the new millennium than it’s replacement as at least one of the major artists of the first half century of the charts ( love him or loath him he’s in the same league as Elton, ABBA etc in terms of chart success) , would have been at pole position as the century changed instead of that awful, awful boyband
Technically it would had to have hung on for two more weeks to have been number one for the new millennium, but I take your point. Amazing how a song this bad managed to be replaced by something even worse… A very low end to the 20th century, musically speaking.
To your point on Christian rock, to quote Hank Hill from King of the Hill, “You’re not making Christianity better; You’re just making Rock and Roll worse”.
I will always respect Cliff – side note, I was looking at photos of him from the 20th century and the dude aged very well, he was actually better looking in his 30s/early 40s than he was as his early-20s – for being the cockroach that will never die and will stick around. And he has some absolutely killer songs. Some terrible songs and a lot of meh, but enough great songs to cement his place in history. And hey, John Lennon said he was the only worthwhile British artist before The Beatles, so that’s something.
But this song sucks ass. Come on now, I like cheesy schlocky crap like, but this is too much even for me.
Haha yes that quote sums it up pretty perfectly. Cliff is a legend, no doubt about it, despite me writing negative reviews to at least two thirds of his 14 number ones…
Oh dear oh dear. I think we exchanged views about this one off the site not that long ago, and I haven’t changed my mind. Yes, what a pity that his last No. 1 was by far his least noteworthy. It’s like having to remember Chuck Berry for ‘My Ding-a-Ling’. Thankfully Cliff still had it in him to deliver an occasional cracker after that – ‘What Car’ about four years later was a masterstroke (and also quite risky, bearing in mind that a song about stealing and crashing a car and lying about it isn’t exactly squeaky-clean). But even in rock’n’roll, nothing lasts forever.
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I vaguely remembered ‘What Car’, and enjoyed a relisten! A #12 in 2005: again amazing that he was scoring respectable hits well into the 21st century. It was streaming and the death of physical singles that finally killed his singles chart career off, as his fanbase would have been fairly offline, I’d imagine.
I was almost 14 when The Millennium Prayer came out, and my mum bought it, and I thought it, and Cliff, were the lamest things ever. I’ve since grown to love a lot of his music, (but not TMP, which will forever be terrible).
Just to be a horrific pedant, the final number one of the 20th century/2nd millennium was actually “Can We Fix It” by Bob the Builder.
Ha! Very true. Bob the Builder is certainly preferable than the widely accepted final number one of the millennium…
Yes an all-time low for Cliff here. Saviours Day is pretty good, by far his best xmas record, and I’m not religious either – but I can recognise a good song and sentiment when I hear it. I loved Cliff back in the 60’s from Summer Holiday movie days, and again from 1976’s Miss You Nights/Devil Woman through the 80’s but I don’t ever need to hear this again. If I was forced to choose between this and the next one, though, I’ll go team-Cliff.
Me too, though it is very much a less-stinky-turd contest between the two songs.
The dude is like Dick Clark…he never ages. I love Auld Lang Syne…one of the best melodies ever. This isn’t my favorite by any means…but I would still take it over the boys bands lol.
The Peter Pan of Pop, as they call him. He’s still touring and recording now, well into his 80s
Thats crazy…it really is. Yes he earned that name.