"Bachelor Boy" was a double 'A' side with "The Next Time

The Next Time

"The Next Time" was the first of three number one hit singles from the Cliff Richard musical Summer Holiday. Both sides were marketed as songs with chart potential, and the release is viewed retrospectively as a double A-side single...

" the first of three number one hit singles from the Cliff Richard

Cliff Richard

Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....

 musical

Musical film

The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...

 Summer Holiday. It was followed at number one by the film's title track Summer Holiday

Summer Holiday (song)

"Summer Holiday" is a song recorded by Cliff Richard and The Shadows, written by rhythm guitarist Bruce Welch and drummer Brian Bennett. It went to number one in the UK. It is taken from the film of the same name and is one of Richard's best known titles...

 and by The Shadows

The Shadows

The Shadows are a British pop group with a total of 69 UK hit-charted singles: 35 as 'The Shadows' and 34 as 'Cliff Richard and the Shadows', from the 1950s to the 2000s. Cliff Richard in casual conversation with the British rock press frequently refers to the Shadows by their nickname: 'The Shads'...

 and their "Foot Tapper

Foot Tapper

"Foot Tapper" is an instrumental by the British guitar group, The Shadows. It went to number one in the UK and was the Shadows' last UK number-one hit...

" well known nowadays as the theme tune for the BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...

 programme Sounds of the 60s

Sounds of the 60s

Sounds of the 60s is a long-running Saturday morning programme on BBC Radio 2 that features recordings of popular music made in the 1960s. It was first broadcast on 12 February 1983 and introduced by Keith Fordyce who had been the first presenter of the TV show Ready Steady Go! in 1963...

.

The song was also included on the January 1963 album "Summer Holiday

Summer Holiday (album)

Summer Holiday is an album by Cliff Richard and The Shadows. It is the soundtrack to the film of the same name. The album itself topped the UK Albums Chart and three tracks from the album were equally successful topping the UK Singles Charts as number one singles.-Track listing:Side one#"Seven Days...

"

The film was the most successful box-office attraction of the year.

The song is about some advice a father passes to his son, to "remain a bachelor boy until (his) dying day". Richard later commented when he wrote this song he "never expected it to be prolific". While Richard has never married, the song itself does not rule out marriage, with the final verse stating "I'll get married, have a wife and a child... but until then I'll be a bachelor boy...".

• UK Sales: 976,000
• US Sales: 120,000
• HOL Sales: 80,000
• FRA Sales: 30,000

External links

• In-depth Song Analysis at the Cliff Richard Song Database (cliffrichardsongs.com)