Tony Christie has sold more than 10 million albums worldwide and many of his chart-topping hits are widely recognised. With hit numbers Is This The Way To Amarillo?, I Did What I Did For Maria, as well as Avenues And Alleyways, and Drive Safely Darling, featured in the film Love, Honour and Obey, Tony Christie has made a significant contribution to popular music across several decades.
Is This The Way To Amarillo? was released at the beginning of the 1970s and sold more than one million copies by September 1972. The hit was so popular that it went on to sell in excess of 4 million records and, in 2005, reached number one in the UK Singles Chart (outselling the first release's entire chart run). This led to the biggest sales for a number one single for the whole year, with seven weeks at the top of the charts. It also became the longest running chart-topper since Cher's Believe, almost seven year earlier.
Tony Christie's long and illustrious musical career includes playing the role of Magaldi on the original 1976 album recording of the musical Evita and he represented the UK in the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest in which he came third. Most recently, Christie returned to the theatre where he appeared in a pantomime at The Theatre Royal, Windsor as the King.
Through most of the 1980s and 1990s, he maintained a successful singing career in continental Europe. This was especially so in Germany, with four albums recorded with German producer Jack White, then from 1991 to 2002, Christie recorded nine albums especially for the German market.
In 1999, Tony Christie was the vocalist on the Jarvis Cocker-penned UK Top-10 hit, Walk Like A Panther, recorded by the Sheffield band, All Seeing I. His influence on a new generation of singers was further demonstrated when indie pop band Rinaldi Sings released a cover version of Avenues And Alleyways" in March 2004.
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