In a surprising development of the singer’s ongoing battle to retain copyright on some of his earliest hits, Cliff Richard has demanded copyright of some of Winston Churchill’s most famous wartime speeches. While his own recordings, some made as early as 1922, will soon enter the public domain, Cliff has demanded additional rights to twenty seven of Churchill’s most famous lines which he claims to have authored on behalf of the busy Prime Minister.

‘Winston said he liked the sentiment of a song I’d got to number one in the Christmas charts of 1939,’ explained Cliff. ‘He thought the lyrics were just the tonic the country needed.’ A far away look came in Cliff’s rheumy eyes as he sang the opening verse of his hit song, ‘Stuugart Holiday’, to a packed news conference.

We’re all goin’ on a Stuttgart holiday.
Lots more fightin’ for a week or two.
Guns and slaughter on our Stuttgart holiday.
Plenty more worries for me or you,
For a weimarch or two.

‘I was fresh out of summer season in Blackpool when he called me. Winston knew I had a way with words and he wanted to add a bit of youthful zing to his speeches. I remember feeling flattered that Winston thought I was youthful given I’d just turned forty eight, but I did have this song I used to do in those days, which included the lines “we’ll jive with them on the beeches”. I just changed the words around and everybody knows the rest’.

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