SIR CLIFF RICHARD has confessed to an embarrassingly strong obsession with ELVIS PRESLEY - which led him to pray the rock 'n' roll pin-up would take over his soul.

The veteran crooner admits his passion for the King, who died in 1977 aged 42, ran so deep he would dream of embodying the star. He says, "I didn't just want to be like Elvis - I wanted to be him.

"I'd like to have woken up and found that really he was me. That's the kind of fervour I felt about the power of his music."

Posted:  21st. December 2007