Tony Christie

Tony Christie

There are some deceived souls who think that Tony Christie appeared out of nowhere on TV in 2005 asking for directions to Amarillo. The truth is completely different, those who know better and can place the wonderfully beautiful voice and the experience he brings into it will say that he has made a very large selection of hits for 50 years. Tens of millions of records have been sold.

His career started in an accounting firm in Yorkshire, in the evenings and weekends he could be found as a singer in the many “working mens clubs” in the north of England. This went well until his boss told him, either you work for me or you are just trying to be Adam Faith’s successor.

The choice was easy, but not as the next Adam Faith, had felt more for the Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald styles. Like them, he is not a songwriter, but an excellent singer of this genre. After the rounds of WMC, which turned out to be a good learning experience, he was asked to sing with a band, the band became Tony Christie and the Trackers. In 1966 they made their first records for the CBS label. She didn’t make it to a Hit parade, even with Jimmy Page, who later formed Led Zeppelin, on guitar.

In 1967 Tony released his first single with MGM, again not a hit but the song “Turn Around” did lay the foundation for his characteristic sound.

The first hit is from 1971, when “Las Vegas” reached the Top 30 in England. The song was written for Tom Jones, his manager thought it was not suitable for Tom. The successor of the same writers (Mitch Murray and Peter Callander) “I did what I did for Maria” became No. 1 on the New Musical Express chart. Later that year Tony released the song “Is this the way to Amarillo” (written by Neil Sedaka). This song became a big hit around the world. Not only then but also in 2005, after Peter Kay aired it on the Comic Relief TV Show. It stayed in the No. 1 position for 7 weeks.

Until 2015, Tony regularly released records, all of which were successful in one way or another. His discography is clear.
His new album, which will probably be released in 2018, is full of songs by young talented writers mixed with his core songwriters. The music will be catchy and certainly surprising.