Tony Christie

British vocalist Tony Christie showed that conventional pop retained strong market appeal long after psychedelia had peaked, logging a string of easy-listening successes across the 1970s. Anthony Fitzgerald entered the world on April 25, 1943, in South Yorkshire, England; at eighteen he became a member of the regional outfit the Counterbeats and soon afterward fronted his own unit, Tony Christie & the Trackers.

Venturing out as a solo act, he issued his first single, “Life’s Too Good to Waste,” in 1966 and followed it a year later with “Turn Around.” The 1969 move to MCA brought collaboration with the writing and production team of Mitch Murray and Peter Callender. Although their opening effort, “God Is on My Side,” failed to register, the 1971 album Las Vegas established Christie, spotlighting the Neil Sedaka/Howard Greenfield composition “Is This the Way to Amarillo?”—a chart-topper in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Spain—alongside “I Did What I Did for Maria” and “Don't Go Down to Reno.”

He stayed on European playlists for most of the decade with further releases such as “Avenues and Alleyways,” the theme for the series The Protectors, and “The Queen of Mardi Gras,” ultimately moving more than ten million records during the period. Christie also presented his own BBC variety program and portrayed Magaldi on the 1976 studio recording of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita.

Teaming with producer Graham Sacher in 1979 produced the major single “Sweet September,” yet momentum faded in the following decade; he nevertheless sustained a busy worldwide touring calendar and remained a familiar television presence. Work with Jack White, the hitmaker previously behind Engelbert Humperdinck and Baywatch heartthrob David Hasselhoff, delivered the substantial 1990 comeback “Kiss in the Night.”

After further years on the cabaret circuit, the 1999 track “Walk Like a Panther,” penned by Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, restored both visibility and credibility; the release marked Christie’s first Top of the Pops appearance in twenty-five years. His updated standing gained additional confirmation when the comedy series Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights adopted “Is This the Way to Amarillo?” as its theme song.

Reissued in spring 2005 to benefit Comic Relief, the single held the UK number-one spot for seven weeks. Christie next supplied the theme for Kay’s spin-off Max and Paddy, then closed the year with a playful big-band reading of Slade’s “Merry Xmas Everybody,” which stopped short of the British Top 40.

A stream of anthologies and standalone singles followed before the 2008 full-length Made in Sheffield, helmed by longtime admirers Richard Hawley and Colin Elliot. The 2011 release Now’s the Time, Christie’s nineteenth studio album, saw the singer examine his Northern soul heritage with producer Richard Barrett.