That’s a bummer, and almost as ironic as George Michael having died on Christmas, both having had massive Christmas hits. But I’ve always liked Chris Rea for more than just “Driving Home For Christmas”, though it’s one of my favorite songs for the holidays, refreshingly cliche-free and down-to-earth.
The first ever song of his I ever heard on the radio was “Josephine”, that must’ve been around the mid-eighties, and I liked his music from the start. I followed his career by keeping listening to him on the radio, though for some reason I never bought one of his records, although I never heard a bad song of his. He was not quite in Mark Knopfler’s league as a guitar player (but who is?), but as a songwriter and singer, he was his peer, and he made music very similar to him. So RIP Chris, you done good.
I knew he was not very well known in the States, but he was big and well-liked in Germany (and I think in other parts of continental Europe, too), even long before he had chart success in the UK. Many of his songs are still staples of German radio stations (at least the ones old farts like me listen to). Having sold 30 million records is not too bad without ever cracking the American market.
A nice little factoid I read in one of the obituaries: two of his greatest and most famous songs, “Josephine” and “Julia”, were written for his two daughters of theses names.
yes, I also have the feeling he was more famous on the continent, esp. german speaking countries than in the UK and RotW.
I always liked him for his honest - relaxed but not cliché - no-bullshit approach to quality pop/softer rock. IIRC, he was regarded as one of the better slide-guitar players, and there was a brush with David Coverdale in their musical past (IIRC: he entered a band when DC left the band or so…)
Part of my personal 1980ies soundtrack in a pocket with Christopher Cross, JJ Cale, Joan Armatrading, America,…
One particularities seems to be that he re-recorded his most well know songs many times … but always in great taste.
I’m generally open to all kinds of music, but I’m rather leaning to alternative, noisy music, punk rock, noise rock, hard rock and heavy metal. But I know a good pop song when I hear it, and every Chris Rea song I’ve ever heard was exceptionally well written, arranged and recorded, and just a joy to listen to. So I don’t care if it’s considered mainstream or AOR, as you said it’s honest and no-bullshit, and never sounds like produced to only make it a commercial success.
During my days as a Top 40 radio DJ in the 1970s I recall playing a rather pleasant soft-rock tune by him, 1978’s “Fool (If You Think It’s Over)”. It peaked at #12 and I don’t recall a follow-up or ever hearing anything of his again. Loved the title of the album it came from though: Whatever Happened to Benny Santini?
yep, that’s him in the US … in europe he had a good handful of hitsongs over what seems a 10 year stretch - all pretty much along the same lines of “fool” … JJ Cale’ish
He was a family man and forewent a career in the US by not touring there to not be away from his family. And then he got very sick pretty early (33 years old?) …
It looks like it peaked at #107 on the general Billboard chart, but made it to #11 on their Mainstream Rock chart.
He had five other singles which did make the top 100 in the U.S., from 1978 to 1989, but “Fool” was the only one which cracked the top 40. Learning, in this thread, that he didn’t really ever tour in the U.S. likely explains a fair amount of that, as that was the era in which touring to support your albums and singles was deemed to be extremely important.
