Cliff Richard is hoping his version of wartime anthem We’ll Meet Again with Dame Vera Lynn will finally get a release following the beloved singer’s death this week.
Dame Vera, who became known as the Forces’ Sweetheart after recording the song in the 1930s, died on Thursday aged 103, and while paying tribute to the icon on the radio on Friday, Richard revealed he had the pleasure of recording the track with Lynn.
“I did record We’ll Meet Again with her but it’s still in the banks, the troughs, somewhere hidden away. We didn’t get to use it yet,” Sir Cliff said, adding that Dame Vera was “a wonderful, wonderful person and a great individual to look up to”.
“I don’t know whether I can speak for everybody in Britain but I think most countries need something, something that they can look towards and aim at, and certainly she’s one of those icons that you can look and aim at,” the 79-year-old continued. “Sometimes I feel that we throw around things like the word ‘legend’ and icon almost too freely. Every now and then, with the passing of Vera Lynn, you’re suddenly reminded, ‘Oh my goodness, you know. I was one of the lucky ones’.”
And while he wasn’t close to Dame Vera, he could see the special relationship she had with war veterans, and their families, who idolised her.
“As a pop singer, you get used to being reached out at, but they weren’t reaching out for a pop singer, they were reaching for someone that they truly seemed to love,” Cliff added.
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