Over the course of Tony Christie’s 50-year career, which includes over forty albums, seventy singles and countless live performances, he has sung thousands of songs. In 2005 he won a whole new generation of fans with the re-release of his worldwide 1971 hit, (Is This The Way to) Amarillo.
Tony passion for great songwriting and big performances is no surprise. As a young man working in the accounts office of a Yorkshire steel company, Tony’ musical heroes were Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald.
Having learned his craft in the school of hard knocks – the working men’s club circuit – Tony was offered a job as the singer with a band on the club circuit. That band became known as Tony Christie and the Trackers recording in 1966 Barbara Ruskin’s ‘Life’s Too Good To Waste’ for CBS. Tony co-wrote the song with Jimmy Page, who would later co-found Led Zeppelin, on guitar. Tony was hooked on performing and within a year recorded his first single for MGM.
Tony’s chart breakthrough came in 1971, when ‘Las Vegas’ became a UK hit. A few months later Tony was hitting the charts again with ‘I Did What I Did for Maria’ that steadily climbed the charts until it made No.2 on the UK charts and No,1 on the New Musical Express chart.
Later that same year Tony’s single ‘(Is This The Way To) Amarillo’, written by American, Neil Sedaka and was hit all over the world and hit No.1 in continental European countries. Tony continued to hit the charts throughout the 70s with tracks such as ‘Drive Safely Darling’ and sang the role of Magaldi on the original 1976 album recording of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Evita.
In the noughties, the reissue of Tony’s 1972 classic, ‘Avenues and Alleyways’, the theme to The Protectors, a TV show, hit the Top 40 for a second time. The massively successful re-release of ‘Amarillo’ which soared Tony to the top of the UK charts and to date has sole over 1.5 million copies
In 1999 Tony returned to the UK Top 10 with ‘Walk Like A Panther’ a song written for him by Jarvis Cocker to perform with, The All Seeing I and went on to record the critically acclaimed album ‘Made In Sheffield’. The album, produced by Richard Hawley, Cocker’s former bandmate in Pulp, includes, ‘All I Ever Care About Is You’, ‘Every Word She Said’ and ‘Louise’, a song originally recorded by Sheffield band, The Human League. It is one of the most beautiful albums of Tony’s career.
Following this Tony went on to record in Nashville and the cream of Nashville musicians delivering stunning tracks, and new favourites, such as ‘Early Morning Memphis’, ‘Damned’, ‘Just Like Yesterday’, ‘When All Is Said And Done’ and ‘I Surrender’.
A singer who always delivers his best, Tony is renowned as being one of the loveliest people in the business – he is the very epitome of his voice.
In 2018 Tony will be releasing an incredible new album that features songs from Amy Wadge (Thinking Out Loud – Ed Sheeran, Kylie etc), Jimmy Hogarth (Amy Winehouse, Sia, Paolo Nutini, Tina Turner etc), Paddy Byrne (Paloma Faith, Olly Murs etc), Don Mescall (Boyzone, The Corrs etc) and many more. Song after song of new ‘classics in waiting’ from some of the best Grammy Award winning writers in the business coupled with Tony’s incredible voice.
Tony now plans to tour the world performing again in countries he hasn’t performed in for many years and will release an album a year over the next five years, starting with a new album later this year that is set to see Tony return to the top of the charts.
Despite a huge and respected career, Tony Christie is only just getting started!
