The Summer Holiday singer was due to celebrate his 80th birthday in October with a worldwide tour before it was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. During his six decades in music, he brushed shoulders with countless celebrities but never befriended Sir Tom Jones. The Welsh crooner, who returns to ITV on The Voice tonight, and Sir Cliff were said to have made amends for lost time in his new book The Dreamer.

Sir Cliff had retreated to his holiday home in Barbados when he met Sir Tom at the beginning of the year – before restrictions on movement and interaction came into effect.

At an outdoor barbecue, he found himself placed next to the Not Unusual singer and soon realised they had never become fully-acquainted.

Sir Cliff described their lack of interaction as “a funny thing” considering they had both been “public fixtures in music and show business forever”.

He wrote: “People probably assume we know each other well. But that’s not the case.”

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Despite this, the duo were both in the charts at the same time and had attended multiple royal functions for The Queen’s jubilee celebrations.

By sheer chance, the knighted stars were put beside one another at the outdoor event and “chatted for the entire afternoon”.

Sir Cliff commented: “He was great company – and, of course, unlike me, he had actually met Elvis!”

The star admitted he was sad about never getting to meet ‘The King’ and explained that whenever he called the US singer was away in another state.

Sir Tom asked the Summer Holiday singer for advice about whether he “ought to go” to a party, hosted by “someone called Regine”.

Sir Cliff, a long-term resident of the area, explained that she owned the car-hire company and said he would pick him up from his hotel.

He continued: “So the two of us ended up hanging out all day. I left the party at 11, but I heard that Tom was there enjoying himself until two in the morning.”

Sir Cliff was grateful that they had finally befriended one another.

He said: “It had only taken us sixty year sot get around to getting to know each other, but we had a blast.”