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Christopher Cross

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For other people named Chris Cross, see Chris Cross (disambiguation).
Christopher Cross

Christopher Cross (born Christopher Charles Geppert on May 3, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter from San Antonio, Texas. His debut album earned him five Grammy Awards in one year, a rare feat, and he also received an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award.

Career

He is best known for his Top Ten hit songs, "Sailing", "Ride Like the Wind", and "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)", the last of which he performed for the film Arthur starring Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli. "Sailing" earned three awards at the 1981 Grammy Awards Ceremony, while "Arthur's Theme" won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1981 (with co-composers Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager and Peter Allen).

Cross first played with a San Antonio-based cover band named Flash before signing a solo contract with Warner Bros.[1] Cross released his self-titled debut album, Christopher Cross, in 1979, which garnered him five Grammy Awards. He is the only solo artist personally to win all of the "Big Four" Grammy Awards (Best Record, Song, Album, and New Artist) in the same year. Hits from this album included "Sailing", "Ride Like the Wind" (featuring backing vocals by Michael McDonald) and "Never Be the Same".

His second album, Another Page, which came out in 1983, included the hit songs "Think of Laura", "No Time For Talk", and "All Right." "All Right" was used by CBS Sports for its highlights montage following the 1983 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. Although Another Page sold respectably, it did not nearly live up to the high expectations set by his debut album.

Cross released his third album Every Turn of the World in 1985. However, the album failed to produce any top 40 hits, and did not sell well. He went on to make three more albums in the '90s and although some of his releases have gained critical response, he has failed to catch the mass audience he once enjoyed. After his decline in fame in the mid 1980s, Cross has toured and opened for various acts since the '90s and released his second Greatest Hits package in 2002.[2]

Cross completed a new Christmas album, A Christopher Cross Christmas, released in 2007. Cross finished recording a new acoustic album of his hits titled The Cafe Carlyle Sessions.[3][4] He is also working on a new studio album Dr. Faith that is set to be released on September 21, 2010.

Discography

  • "Talkin' About Her"/"It's All With You" (single) - Starburst ARC (1976)

Albums

Soundtracks

  • Motion picture soundtrack Arthur ("Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)") (1981)
  • TV series soundtrack General Hospital ("Think of Laura") (1983)
  • Official Music of the XXIIIrd Olympiad (swimming theme "A Chance For Heaven") (1984)
  • Motion picture soundtrack Nothing In Common ("Loving Strangers (David's Theme)") (1986)
  • TV series soundtrack 30 Rock ("Lemon's Theme") (2010)

Singles

Year Title Label and number U.S. U.S. AC Album
1980 "Ride Like the Wind"/ "Minstrel Gigolo" Warner 49184 2 — Christopher Cross
"Sailing"/ "Poor Shirley" Warner 49507 1 —
"Never Be the Same"/ "The Light Is On" Warner 49580 15 1
"Say You'll Be Mine"/ "Spinning" Warner 49705 20 —
"Mary Ann" Warner (Japan only) — — —
1981 "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)"/ "Minstrel Gigolo" Warner 49787 1 1 Arthur (soundtrack)
1983 "All Right"/ "Long World" Warner 29843 12 3 Another Page
"No Time for Talk"/ "Words of Wisdom" Warner 29662 33 10
"Think of Laura"/ "Words of Wisdom" Warner 29658 9 1
1984 "A Chance for Heaven" (swimming theme from 1984 Summer Olympics) Columbia 38-04492 76 16 Official Music of the XXIIIrd Olympiad
1985 "Charm the Snake"/ "Open Your Heart" Warner 28864 68 — Every Turn of the World
"Every Turn of the World"/ "Open Your Heart" Warner 28804 — —
1986 "Love Is Love (In Any Language)"/ "Love Found A Home" Warner 28761 —
"Loving Strangers"/"Cruzados" by Seven Summers Arista 9530 - 27 from Nothing In Common film soundtrack
1988 "Swept Away"/ "Alibi" Reprise 27673 — — Back of My Mind
"I Will (Take You Forever)"/ "Just One Look" Reprise 27795 — —

Other appearances

  • Electromagnets with Eric Johnson (1974) - vocal guest appearance on "Motion"
  • Eric Johnson - Venus Isle (1996) - background vocals on "Lonely In The Night"
  • Christopher Cross: An Evening with Christopher Cross (1998)
  • Michael McDonald - A Gathering of Friends (2001) - guest appearance on "Ride Like the Wind"
  • Soundstage: America Live in Chicago (2008) - guest appearance on "Lonely People" and "A Horse with No Name"
  • Alessi Brother’s, “Forever”. (Background vocals) 1982
  • Brian Wilson (self titled) (1988) - background vocals on "Night Time"
  • Brian Wilson - Imagination (1998) (special edition "Words and Music" bonus disc) - vocals on "In My Room" (live)
  • Peter White - Confidential (2004) - lead vocal on "She's In Love"

Awards

Madison Cross

Christopher Cross's daughter Madison is also interested in singing, beginning from when she sang a duet with her father at school as a little girl. From there, she began traveling with him, and sometimes performing at his shows. At the age of nine, Madison began an acting career in musical theater. In 2005, Cross recorded her first single, He Was Just Like Me, dedicated to Mattie Stepanek, a young poet who died in 2004 due to muscular dystrophy. The single was put into rotation on Radio Disney.

Performances

  • Cross filled in for guitarist Richie Blackmore of Deep Purple (who had fallen ill) by performing with the band in San Antonio, Texas in 1970.[5]
  • Cross contributed backing vocals (along with The Beach Boys' Carl Wilson) to David Lee Roth's 1985 hit "California Girls".
  • Cross performed the song "Sailing" alongside the pop band 'N Sync at the Fifth Annual Blockbuster Entertainment Awards in 1999.
  • Cross also performed lead vocals on "So Far Away", a song from Alan Parsons' album On Air. When Parsons was touring in support of that album, Cross would sometimes join the band onstage to sing the song if he was available.
  • Cross spent much of his youth living in a home on Newbury Terrace in Terrell Hills, just outside San Antonio, Texas. That home had earlier belonged to the Cummins family and another notable San Antonian, the historian and author Light Townsend Cummins, grew up in that same house a decade earlier. It has since been demolished.
  • A small snippet of Cross's early hit "Sailing" was played in the DreamWorks film "Flushed Away".
  • Cross performed his hit song "Ride Like the Wind" on the NBC show Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Monday, October 5, 2009, in a "Yacht Rock" themed episode. He was joined by Michael McDonald, whom he has worked with in the past. As the credits were rolling, Cross, McDonald and The Roots, the Fallon house band, broke into "Sailing", which he also performed in an online-only performance on NBC.com
  • Toured as part of the 2002 " A Walk Down Abbey Road" tour with Alan Parsons,Mark Farner,Jack Bruce,Eric Carmen and Todd Rundgren.
  • Toured as part of the 2003 " A Walk Down Abbey Road" tour with Alan Parsons,Todd Rundgren,Joey Molland and Denny Laine.

References

  1. ^ Christopher Cross & Flash
  2. ^ Gary James' Interview With Christopher Cross
  3. ^ Interview With Christopher Cross - Oct 2008
  4. ^ Inside Musicast With Christopher Cross - May 2009
  5. ^ Deep Purple - San Antonio, Texas - August 28, 1970

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