Tony Christie Artist Biography

Tony Christie was born, Anthony Fitzgerald on the 25th of April 1943 in Conisborough, South Yorkshire. His musical career started by fronting various bands around the club circuits. The success of the groups led to him being talent spotted performing in a club in Wales. In 1966 he recorded his first single " Life's too good to waste " and in 1968 "Turn around" a Les Read composition, followed by " My Prayer " Which had been a show stopping part of his show.

In 1969 Tony Christie signed an exclusive deal with MCA records but it wasn't until he was teamed with the hit song writing team of Mitch Murray and Peter Callander that he managed to break into the World recording market

1971 brought him his first international hits with the songs " Las Vegas ", " I did what I did for Maria ", "Don't go down to Reno" and " Is this the way to Amarillo ". These songs kept Tony in the British charts for no less than 41 weeks out of 52; this fact alone established him as one of the World's major recording stars.

"Is this the way to Amarillo", written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield was a hit in almost every country in the world, achieving sales in excess of 4 million records and topping the Spanish charts for almost 6 months.

Further hits followed with "Avenues and Alleyways" from the T.V. series " The Protectors" and more recently the film "Love Honour and Obey". Collaboration with songwriter Geoff Stevens brought another chart hit with the song " Drive Safely Darling ".

In 1976 Tony was approached by the now renowned writing team of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, to sing the part of Migaldi in their original concept album of " Evita". This was a project that he greatly enjoyed doing, but was unable to be part of the west end production owing to the very heavy work schedule to which he was committed for the next two years.

In 1979 he started collaboration with writer/producer Graham Sacher, which produced a massive continental, hit called " Sweet September ", triggering a reappearance of TV and concert appearances which kept him busy throughout the 80's.

1990 brought him together with producer Jack White who had been responsible for the huge success of Baywatch star David Hasselhoff, and Engelbert Humperdink. The result was a hit single " Kiss in the night " and an Album which went Platinum in a matter of weeks.

Successful tours and T.V appearances continued throughout the 90s and in 1999 he was once again in the top ten of the British charts with the song " Walk Like a Panther " written for him by Pulp front man Jarvis Cocker. Tony appeared, performing this, on Top Of The Pops for the first time in 25 years.

It was the use of "Is this the way to Amarillo" in Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, which brought Tony to a new audience of young fans and bringing him "Cult status". Tony was then asked to record the theme tune to Peter's new spin off series Max & Paddy.

A huge 30-date tour of the UK started on the 2nd March 2005, following the release of a “Best Of " album which has reached number one in the UK charts while the single Is this the Way to Amarillo, recorded with Peter Kaye for this year's Comic Relief is also at number one in the album charts.

Current Single:
Is this the way to Amarillo featuring Peter Kaye

Currently number one in UK singles charts.

Current album:
The Definitive Collection

Currently number one in the UK album charts