Tony Christie

Tony Christie biography

Tony Christie (born Anthony Fitzgerald, 25 April 1943) is an English musician, singer and actor. He is best known for his track, "Is This The Way To Amarillo", a double UK chart success.

Career

Tony Christie has sold over 10 million albums Worldwide. He had two Top Twenty hits in the UK Singles Chart in 1971 with "I Did What I Did For Maria", which reached #2 and "Is This the Way to Amarillo", which peaked at #18. He also had a minor hit with "Avenues And Alleyways" which reached #37, the theme to the television series The Protectors. "Is This the Way to Amarillo" sold over one million copies by September 1972, and was awarded a gold disc. His early songs were dramatic big-voiced numbers, many of which were written by Mitch Murray and Peter Callander.

He recorded albums regularly throughout the 1970s and made infrequent appearances on the charts. His album With Loving Feeling sold well boosted by the hit single "Is This The Way to Amarillo". He recorded an album in the United States in 1973 with the record producer Snuff Garrett, which did little to stop his commercial slide. A live album followed which sold relatively better. But by the mid 1970s recorded work became rarer and stage work took preference.

In June 1972 he was invited on the music festival, The Golden Orpheus, then in socialist Bulgaria. The concert was recorded and published on vinyl by the government musical company Balkanton. He played the role of Magaldi on the original 1976 album recording of the musical Evita, and sought to represent the UK in the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest, with the song "The Queen of the Mardi Gras" but came third in the national contest to select an entrant, behind eventual contest winners Brotherhood of Man.

Although his popularity waned in his native England through most of the 1980s and 1990s, he maintained a successful singing career in continental Europe during this period. This was especially so in Germany, with four albums recorded with German producer Jack White, especially their first album collaboration Welcome To My Music, reaching #7 in the German charts and going platinum. From 1991 to 2002, Christie recorded nine albums especially for the German market.

In 1999, he was the vocalist on the Jarvis Cocker penned UK Top Ten hit, "Walk Like a Panther", as recorded by the Sheffield band, All Seeing I. His influence on a new generation of singers was further demonstrated when indie pop band Rinaldi Sings released a cover version of "Avenues & Alleyways" in March 2004.

In 2002, "Is This the Way to Amarillo" was used in the TV comedy series Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, leading to a resurgence in his popularity. The song was re-released on 14 March 2005 to raise money for the Comic Relief charity, and reached #1 in the UK Singles Chart (outselling all the first release's chart run put together). This led to the biggest sales for a #1 single for the whole year, with seven weeks at the chart pinnacle. It also became the longest running chart-topper since Cher's "Believe", almost seven years earlier. The single was credited as "featuring Peter Kay", though Kay only appeared in the video; the audio track was the original 1971 issue. His album, The Definitive Collection also climbed to the #1 spot the following week in the UK Albums Chart, breaking records when it also came in at #1 on the downloads chart.

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