A Rea View

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Rea in the 1980s

 

If you were with me for my Advent Countdown you may remember that one of the songs I played was Driving Home For Christmas, by Chris Rea. I said at the time that this was neither a favourite Christmas song or a favourite Chris Rea song, but I was playing it as a small tribute to him, as he had passed away the previous day. I thought at the time that someone whose music I had enjoyed so much for so long deserved a bigger and better tribute from me, and now that all of the seasonal stuff is a distant memory it feels right to do that.

If you weren’t familiar with him, Chris was an English rock and blues singer-songwriter, guitarist and record producer. He was known for his distinctive gravelly voice, slide guitar playing and music style blending soft rock with blues. In a career that began in the late Seventies he gave us twenty five studio albums, just about all of which are in my Apple Music library, and many of which I bought in the pre-streaming days. Trying to distil those into one post is an almost impossible task, but I’m going to play seven of his songs, marking his biggest successes and my all time favourite of his. Apologies in advance if I am omitting one that you like but I have to draw a line somewhere!

He released a solitary single in 1974, but we had to wait until 1978 for his debut album and his first ‘real’ single taken from it. This is that song:

Fool (If You Think It’s Over) was released as a single in March 1978, and peaked at #30 in the UK and #12 in the US. I rather liked it and took a punt on the album as a result, and that was a good decision: a lifetime of loving his music had begun! In the interests of space I’m not playing you the title track – Whatever Happened To Benny Santini – much though I want to, but I can recommend it and the rest of the album if you want to follow it up. Or even better, here’s a link to it. The album didn’t make the UK charts but got to #49 in the US, going Gold in the process. It seems we were little slower on the uptake, but we more than made up for that later. His subsequent records didn’t do anything like as well in the US, largely as a result of his unwillingness to tour there to promote them, at a time when he was taking off in Europe and further afield, including Australia and Japan.

I’m not playing these in any kind of chronological order, so here’s another I’ve always liked:

Winning was the closing track on Chris’ sixth album, Wired To The Moon, which was released in April 1984 and peaked at #35 in the UK – at that point, it was his best performing album, but he was on an upward trend. It didn’t make the US charts, but hit the top twenty in several European countries. I’ve always loved this song, which was to my mind a great way to close an album. It wasn’t released as a single, or even a B-side, hence the audio-only clip, but I think the song stands on its own merits anyway. The sound mix doesn’t really do justice to his vocals, but it’s the same on every video, even the official one!

That upward trend continued with his ninth album, Dancing With Strangers, which was released in September 1987 and peaked at #2 in the UK, going Platinum for 300,000 sales, topped the charts in New Zealand, made #7 in Australia and hit the top ten in several European countries. This was the lead single from it:

Let’s Dance was released in May 1987, ahead of the album, and peaked at #12 in the UK. It also made the top twenty elsewhere, and even achieved a #81 placing in the US. That appearance from Top Of The Pops is one I still remember – he was a reluctant pop star, but few others played a slide guitar on the show!

His next record, The Road To Hell, was released in October 1989 and became his first of two successive UK #1 albums. It did well across Europe and even made #107 in the US – his first album in their charts since his debut. It was a phenomenal success here in the UK, selling more than 1.8m copies and going 6x Platinum in the process. Its title track was a two part affair, the second half of which had been taken as the first single from it earlier that month. You may remember it:

The Road To Hell Part 2 was at that time his highest placing UK single, peaking at #10 (since equalled by Driving Home For Christmas).

His follow up album, Auberge, was released in February 1991 and, as I said, was also a UK #1. It topped the German charts too, made the top ten across Europe, and even managed #176 in the US. It went 2x Platinum here for 600,000 sales – still pretty respectable! Again, the title track had been released as a single a few weeks before the album, and here it is:

The album version of Auberge runs to more than seven minutes but they trimmed it to 4′ 41″ for the single, as you saw. That is still quite long for a single but it fared well, peaking at #16 here. This was very much his peak period, though he has sold loads of records with subsequent releases. In later years he was hampered by health problems: he survived pancreatic cancer in 2001, though several operations took away parts of his innards, and then suffered a stroke in 2016. He recovered well enough from that to make more records and tour again – I think he would have missed it too much to give up and retire! But for me that just makes him all the more remarkable, and like many fans I will miss him.

I said earlier that I was flitting around his catalogue a bit with these selections, and I’m now going back to his seventh album, Shamrock Diaries, which came out in May 1985. Its lead single was pre-released in March of that year, and remains my all time favourite of his songs:

The album was another to do well across Europe. It reached #15 in the UK, going silver for 60,000 sales, and #12 in Germany where it sold 250,000 and went Gold. Stainsby Girls was a tribute to his wife, Joan, a former student of the Stainsby Secondary Modern School in Middlesbrough. I knew a few like that in my youth, too! The single reached #26 in the UK and #10 in Ireland, and for some reason it brings back a weird memory of listening to the album on my Walkman while I was gardening, and of having to keep taking off my muddy gloves to rewind the tape so I could hear it again. Odd how music does that, isn’t it?

I could keep playing Chris’ songs for ages, but I’ll close with another favourite. This one goes right back to his second album, Deltics, on which it was the closing track:

Seabird is an absolute gem of a song, and it gives me a fitting way to close this tribute. As I always say with these posts, I will miss the musician but will be comforted by the knowledge that I still have his amazing legacy of great music to enjoy.

R.I.P Chris, and thank you.

48 thoughts on “A Rea View”

  1. Pingback: The Music Tag | Take It Easy

  6. Wonderful tribute. I was not familiar with his music at all, so this was a nice introduction.

    The background on Auberge reminds of a line from a Billy Joel song:

    “If you’re gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit
    So they cut it down to 3:05”

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    • The stats suggest that he wasn’t well known over there. Glad you liked my tribute, Jim, as I’ve been a fan since he first started.

      Nice Billy Joel reference: not the first song to be trimmed for a single 😊

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  7. I always like that you include how a song did on the charts, which often explains why I haven’t heard much of Chris’s music. The only one I remember was Fool If You Think It’s Over, which I’ve always liked very much. All of the others were new to me, and I really enjoyed two in particular (Winning and The Road to Hell). His voice resembles (especially on the low notes) Springsteen’s.

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    • I like to give that as part of the background to songs and, as you say, it showed why American readers have been generally unaware of his music. I’m glad you enjoyed those two in particular.

      Interesting comparison of his voice. The one usually made here is with Mark Knopfler – they come from the same area and their spoken accents are very similar.

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  15. I enjoyed hearing these songs. I probably have heard something from him before, just can’t remember what. But these are so good, and I love hearing his voice. I especially liked the Road to Hell pt 2. 🙂

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  16. Chris Rea is a name I was very familiar with but after reading you’re lovely tribute post, I have to ask myself why. I’m shocked to discover I only knew the first song in your line up, Fool If You Think It’s Over; it’s one that had great success here and I still hear it played on the radio today. The others were unknown to me, but I totally enjoyed listening to them. I especially liked The Road To Hell; it was a very cool-sounding song which I would have liked even if it didn’t sound a lot like Dire Straits. Chris Rea is definitely someone I can listen to and enjoy tremendously. Thanks for the excellent music this morning, Clive.

    PS – I really enjoyed your little story about listening to Stainsby Girls while gardening. I could clearly picture it.

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    • I think he was far less well known over there. His unwillingness to tour there and promote his records probably didn’t help him! He has left us a fabulous back catalogue to enjoy, and I hope this has encouraged you to dig deeper.

      That gardening story is odd, but true. Funny how things stay with you.

      The Dire Straits comparison is apt, and has been made many times. If they had merged they would have had to call themselves Chris Straits, though…

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      • I was wondering if anyone had made that comparison to Dire Straits. It really was the only song that sounded similar to them, but the similarity struck me immediately. Yes, you are right about moments and events sticking with us; I have had many songs affect me that way. It’s a powerful catalyst (which happens to be the word of the day over at RDP!).

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      • They started around the same time and critics here pounced on that similarity straightaway. It’s no coincidence that Chris Rea and Mark Knopfler came from the same area, which gives that feel to their voices and accents.

        Music attaches itself to our lives, and there are many songs that evoke memories for me.

        I’ve seen yours and other posts for RDP but SLS is enough of a prompt for me 👍

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