Christopher Anton Rea is a British singer, guitarist, songwriter, composer and producer. He is a big fan of cars, car races, cooking, painting and music. During his four decade long career, he had released 22 studio albums that have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. With his mother band, Chris toured all around the globe, and he even visited my home country Serbia. His guitar playing virtuosity, deep masculine voice and great songs have made him famous, even though he always rejected mainstream by playing his unique blues.
Chris Rea left school when he was 18 to spend time helping out his parents in their mobile ice-cream truck and saving money for his first guitar. At that time, he was majorly inspired by artists such as Joe Walsh and Ry Cooder. As he was playing in many local bands, his guitarist skills started getting severely good. When he joined a professional band Magdalene (replacing David Coverdale who went on to play with Deep Purple), he started developing his lyrical and composing skills. In 1974, he releases his first ever single titled So Much Love under Magnet Records and does not receive any attention. Two years later, he abandoned Magdalene and took on his solo journey with producer Gus Dudgeon (notable for his works with Elton John, among others).
In 1978, he releases his debut single Fool (If You Think It's Over), a dedication to his sister that promoted debut album Whatever happened to Benny Santini which hosted appearances from Pete Wingfield and Rod Argent. A new wave track Fool went on to become a top 20 single in United States, which was huge success considering that USA were not that into new wave at the moment. Later on, it becomes a top 30 UK single, and his debut album reaches gold status in United States. Meaning, the game was on. Chris even earned himself a Grammy nomination but failed to win it.
Following year he releases his sophomore record titled Deltics that lacks any substantial commercial success. His self-produced third effort Tennis experienced the same absence of official charts success, but I really like tracks Tennis and Dancing Girls. The next two years Chris spent touring and composing new material. My favorite Chris Rea album is definitely Water Sign, his fifth effort that he co-produced with Dave Richards. It is the first album on which he included synths and I really enjoy them in combination with his vocal. I read it somewhere that Water Sign was a huge hit in Western Germany, while it failed to reach charts in UK. Intriguing trivia, isn't it? As you may have guessed, my favorite Chris Rea song is Road To Hell, his trademark track that made everyone in the world know his name.
As I always do in Sunday Spotlights - short biography, career beginnings, first few albums, my favorites and then recommendation on where to start - there is an initial point I would like to recommend to you when it comes to where should you begin deconstructing the life and work of Chris Rea. It is definitely his 2009 best of album called Still So Far To Go. Take it from there, and then If you enjoy it, write me here and I will give you more tips on which album to stream next. Happy Sunday, everybody!
