"Peter Pan of Pop" Cliff Richard turns 60

Richard, whose Top Ten hits date back to the 1950s, has no qualms about fighting the ageing process.

"I’ve tried this stuff called Botox which they inject. I had some injected into my forehead to see if I could rid myself of lines. Apparently it relaxes the muscle," he told OK! magazine.

In a world of passing fads and constant burnout, he is British pop’s most celebrated survivor — even if the pressure can get to him at times.

"Because of the Peter Pan of Pop title, I have had to live up to something that nobody actually can," he said before jetting off for a week-long Mediterranean cruise with other evergreen pop icons like Olivia Newton-John.

Cliff, knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his charity work, has notched up a staggering 127 hit singles in Britain with 14 number ones. He is the only British pop star to have had number one hits in every decade since the 1950s.

His first hit was Move It in 1958.

Born in India, brought up in England, spotted singing in pubs with a skiffle group, the young Harry Webb, as he was then, dreamed of being Britain’s answer to Elvis Presley.

That dream came true at home and abroad with millions of records sold worldwide but he was never able to conquer the US Charts like The Beatles or Rolling Stones.

A string of gold discs followed for hits like Bachelor Boy, Congratulations and Devil Woman — and all this with a squeaky clean image a million miles away from the sex, drugs and rock `n’ roll lifestyle of his rivals.

Tabloid reporters on the hunt for scandal came up with one screaming headline: Richard once held hands with actress Una Stubbs during the filming of Wonderful Life in 1964.

Britain’s best known "Bachelor Boy" had a much publicised romance with tennis star Sue Barker, but wedding bells have never sounded.

In his autobiography, he confronted oft-posed questions about his sexuality: "If every middle-aged man who is single is automatically gay, where does that leave the Pope?"

Rumours abounded that he wore a colostomy bag; sufferers wrote to him full of admiration for leading such an active life.

In his autobiography Single Minded, the singer asked with obvious exasperation: "How do you convince someone that you don’t wear a colostomy bag?"

And Mr Squeaky Clean was decidedly feisty when he topped the charts last December for the 14th time in his career with Millennium Prayer, a song that set The Lord’s Prayer to the music of Auld Lang Syne.

It was a hit despite being boycotted by radio stations and lambasted by fellow stars like George Michael and Sporty Spice from the Spice Girls.

Having the last laugh, he said, "Well here I am at 60 and I’m Number One. So stuff them all."

Reuters