Now You See Me, Now You Don't (album)

Background

Richard first went public about his Christian faith in June 1966. The following year he released Good News, his first album of traditional gospel songs. It mixed rock-tinged American gospel with traditional hymn performances. Richard followed it up with further gospel and Christian albums intermingled between releases of his mainstream pop albums, About that Man (primarily spoken-word, 1970), His Land (a film soundtrack, 1970), Help it Along (a live album, 1974) and Small Corners (his second studio gospel album, 1978).

Richard had also begun intermingling gospel tracks into some of his mainstream pop albums, starting with "Such is the Mystery" on his 1976 album I'm Nearly Famous, and continuing on 1977's Every Face Tells a Story. From then on, more gospel songs that he considered to be musically high-calibre became available to him; he included three gospel songs on his 1981 album Wired for Sound. For his 1982 follow-up album (which became Now You See Me, Now You Don't), Richard planned a fully-fledged gospel album. He chose to produce it together with Craig Pruess. A quote from Pruess identifies two particular goals Richard had in mind for the album: "He wanted this album to be more heavyweight and wanted to break away from the pop sound. He approached it to prove a point. He didn't want his gospel albums to be regarded as inferior to his other albums. He felt they could be as good as anything else he did. He wanted to fuse his beliefs and his enthusiasm with his professional life."

The resultant album is not made up entirely of overtly gospel songs though, and has been described as a "gospel album in disguise" in the liner notes of the 2002 digitally remastered CD re-release. In reflection on the album, Richard himself said "I knew people would say the album is neither one thing nor the other. But it was very satisfying for me not to have to divide my musical tastes in two and produce an album simply offering music that I enjoyed."

The track "Thief in the Night" was originally recorded by Christian trio Nutshell on their 1979 album Believe It or Not. Richard also went on to record an orchestral version of the song with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for his 1983 live album Dressed for the Occasion and later included it on his 1985 CCM compilation album Walking in the Light.

Critical reception

Billboard magazine in 1982 gave a positive albeit brief review of the album, saying "Richard has made some of the best pop singles of recent years, and several cuts here are worthy to join that list." The album was described as "Richard's latest continues the pattern of his recent LPs, concentrating on sleek, buoyant pop tracks that bristle with excitement. There are also a few ballads for balance, including two traditional pieces - 'The Water is Wide' and 'Little Town,' where a new melody was put to the Christmas favourite 'Oh Little Town of Bethlehem'."

Track listing

Side One

1. "The Only Way Out" (Ray Martinez) - 3:20
2. "First Date" (Aleksander John, Nicholas Battle) - 3:33
3. "Thief in the Night" (Paul Field) - 3:50
4. "Where Do We Go from Here" (Chris Eaton) - 2:53
5. "Son of Thunder" (Mart Jenner, John Perry) - 3:58
6. "Little Town" (Traditional; words and music by Chris Eaton) - 4:03

Side Two

1. "It Has to Be You, It Has to Be Me" (David Cooke, Paul Field) - 4:17
2. "The Water Is Wide" (Traditional; arranged by Cliff Richard and Craig Pruess) - 3:50
3. "Now You See Me, Now You Don't" (Aleksander John, Stephen Turner) - 3:00
4. "Be in My Heart" (John Perry) - 4:38
5. "Discovering" (Chris Eaton) - 4:50

Bonus tracks (2002 re-issue):

1. "Under the Influence" (Garth Hewitt) 2:49 (from the B-side of "The Only Way Out" single, 1982)
2. "Love and a Helping Hand" (Cliff Richard) 3:06 (from the B-side of "Little Town" single, 1982)
3. "You, Me and Jesus" (Cliff Richard) 2:17 (from the B-side of "Little Town" single, 1982)

Personnel

Orchestra on "Little Town"

Production