Chris Christian rose to prominence as one-third of the pop trio Cotton, Lloyd and Christian alongside producer Michael Lloyd (The Osmonds, Barry Manilow) and Daryl Cotton (Zoot, Olivia Newton-John). Before long, Christian's songs were being recorded by the likes of Elvis Presley ("Love Song of the Year"), Dionne Warwick ("When the World Runs Out of Love"), and Carpenters ("(Want You) Back in My Life Again"). Christian also produced and wrote songs for artists including B.J. Thomas, Marilyn McCoo, America's Dan Peek, and the artist whom he discovered and signed when she was just 16 years old, Amy Grant. With those latter artists and many others, Christian helped dominate the field of contemporary Christian music in the 1970s and 1980s, bringing his pop crossover acumen to that genre. As Thomas told this author in 2014 of his collaborations with Christian, "We knew there was a message to the material, but we took on each song as a musical project and tried to make the best-sounding music that we could." Recently, Retroactive Records in association with Chris Christian's Home Sweet Home Records has remastered, reissued and expanded three of his albums in deluxe CD editions: one pure pop (1981's star-studded self-titled album for Boardwalk Records), one contemporary Christian (his first self-titled LP, from 1976), and one for Christmas (1988's Thinking of You This Christmas).
The most deluxe of these sets is dedicated to 1981's Chris Christian in its U.S. CD debut. Christian was the first solo artist and singer-songwriter signed to Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart's new Boardwalk Records label, and Bogart shepherded the album's single "I Want You, I Need You" to the top ten of the U.S. AC chart. In every respect, Chris Christian is a lost "yacht rock" classic with guest spots by Christopher Cross, Bill Champlin, Tom Scott, David Hungate, Frankie Valli, Amy Holland, Cheryl Ladd, English singer-songwriter Robbie Patton, Nigel Olsson of The Elton John Band, and on its bonus tracks, David Foster and America's Gerry Beckley. Valli's Four Seasons co-founder Bob Gaudio produced the album as well as playing keyboards.
Chris Christian's melodic, easygoing, radio-friendly California soft rock sound yielded not only the top 40 Pop/top ten AC "I Want You, I Need You" but a No. 21 AC medley of the Motown classics "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "You're All I Need to Get By" with vocalist Amy Holland, a.k.a. Mrs. Michael McDonald and an accomplished performer in her own right. Gaudio's lush production was ably supported by the string charts of Bergen White and Jimmie Haskell, and the crack band including Carlos Vega on drums, Dennis Bellfield on bass, Paul Jackson Jr. on guitar, Greg Mathieson on keyboards, and Paulinho da Costa on percussion. The new reissue adds seven rare and previously unreleased bonus tracks including "Walnut Hill" with Dann Huff, an alternate version of "Last Goodbye" with David Foster, and "Day Like Today" with Gerry Beckley. The latter was a Contemporary Christian hit in a version with Beckley on background vocals, but on this "pop" take, he additionally takes the second verse solo. Retroactive's reissue of Chris Christian includes a 16-page booklet with photos, lyrics, memorabilia, the artist's track-by-track liner notes, and a trading card. Rob Colwell has remastered.
The series rewinds to 1976 for the first Chris Christian album, his solo debut for the Myrrh label. Chris Christian contains his rendition of his friend/engineer-producer Brown Bannister's "Mountain Top" which Chris would produce on Amy Grant's first album as well as his own "Why Does the Devil (Have All the Good Music)," and "Odessa Beggarman" which he would helm for B.J. Thomas. Musicians on the Nashville-recorded LP include The Wrecking Crew's Joe Osborn on bass; The Memphis Boys' Reggie Young and session veteran Steve Gibson on guitar; Shane Keister of Elvis Presley's TCB Band on keyboards; and drummer Larrie Londin (whose credits range from Elvis to Journey). Multi-instrumentalist Christian played guitar, percussion, accordion, and keyboards throughout. The sound here isn't so much the smoother contemporary Christian sound but rather a country-flecked soul/R&B-based style. The 16-page booklet has the original liner notes, photos, memorabilia, lyrics, and track-by-track notes from Christian. Rob Colwell has again remastered this expanded edition which adds one bonus cut, the outtake "I Don't Have a Prayer Without You."
The third and final release to date in the Chris Christian series is his 1988 album Thinking of You This Christmas. He arranged and produced this collection of vocal and instrumental Christmas classics both secular and spiritual ("O Come All Ye Faithful," "Jingle Bells," "Deck the Halls," "White Christmas") and original songs including the title track - originally penned for a Dallas Cowboys (!) Christmas album, also recently reissued by Retroactive - and "Christmas All Year Round," a duet with Motown's Charlene of "I've Never Been to Me" fame. "God Bless the Children" is Christian's own version of the song he wrote for B.J. Thomas to record at MCA. This expanded release adds four bonus tracks, among them "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" featuring Kirk Whalum on saxophone and "Gift of Love" with The Boone Girls (Debby, Cherry, Laury, and Lindy) singing a cappella four-part harmony. The 16-page booklet offers home photos, lyrics, and the artist's memories of each song. As with the other titles in the series, Rob Colwell has handled the remastering.
All three titles from the prolific and versatile Chris Christian are available now from Boone's Overstock, the exclusive online retailer for Retroactive Records.
Chris Christian, Chris Christian (Boardwalk Records LP NB1 33240, 1981 - reissued Retroactive RRCD1555, 2020)
- Don't Give Up on Us - with Christopher Cross
- I Want You, I Need You - with Cheryl Ladd
- Love's Not One to Forget
- The Last Goodbye
- Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing/You're All I Need to Get By - with Amy Holland
- Make It Last - with Frankie Valli, Bill Champlin, and Tommy Funderburk
- Houston - with Nigel Olsson
- I Don't Believe You
- What Can There Be - with Robbie Patton
- Whatever It Is
Bonus Tracks
- Walnut Hill
- Only Wanna Be with You
- Day Like Today - with Gerry Beckley
- Déjà vu
- Justice in Love
- Last Goodbye (New Unreleased Version) - with David Foster
- Chemistry
Chris Christian, Chris Christian (Myrrh LP MSA 6569, 1976 - reissued Retroactive RRCD1556, 2020)
- Why Does the Devil (Have All the Good Music)
- Mountain Top
- Starving Sinner, Sleeping Saint
- Odessa Beggarman '74
- Hallelujah
- Get Back to the Bible
- Great, Great Joy
- Grave Cave
- You Are Love
- I Don't Deserve
- I Don't Have a Prayer Without You (Bonus Track)
Chris Christian, Thinking of You This Christmas (Home Sweet Home LP, 1988 - reissued Retroactive RRCD1554, 2020)
- Come All Ye Faithful
- Thinking of You This Christmas - with Bob Breunig
- Jingle Bells
- Jingle Bells (Reprise) - with Casey Christian
- Christmas with Children
- Greensleeves (What Child Is This) (Bonus Track)
- Deck the Halls (Bonus Track)
- Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
- Christmas All Year Round - with Charlene
- God Bless the Children
- White Christmas - with Ron Jones
- On This Very Special Day
- Silent Night - with Janice Archer Cruse and The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders
- Away in a Manger
- Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - with Kirk Whalum (Bonus Track)
- Gift of Love - with The Boone Girls (Bonus Track)
Zubb says
Oh, I hope there is a chance of the two Cotton, Lloyd and Christian albums on the 20th Century label being reissued on CD.
Joe Marchese says
Ditto, Zubb!
Stefano says
Indeed long long overdue! I tried to suggest them to several reissue companies, but no one answered.
RecordSteve says
Well done Bro. Joe on your homework of Chris Christian=singer, songwriter, producer & muti-talented on
various instruments! I just rec'd the remastered "Thinking of You This CHRISTmas" ($10.) & enjoying it very much! This CD is a family friendly sing-a-long songs of classic & Chris' own songs that will touch your heart. I
highly recommend it for everyone to add it to their traditions during CHRISTmas celebrations. Also, I might add
if you like Chris' music, you should check out B.J. Thomas' "Christmas is Coming Home" album for his inter-
pretation of a couple of Chris' songs or "B.J. Thomas Live." Thanks for listening and catch ya on the flip side....
Merry CHRISTMAS music lovers!
Joe Marchese says
Thanks for the kind words, Steve. I second your recommendations of B.J.'s recordings of Chris C's work. Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas and happy New Year!
Bradley Olson says
Actually, the 1981 album did have a CD release available on Chris Christian's website previously.
Joe Marchese says
Hi Bradley, thanks for sharing that info; it's much appreciated. As difficult as it often is to keep track of international releases (even with great resources such as Discogs), it's even more difficult to keep track of every private-press artist release. I'm glad Chris has finally given the album a full, official U.S. CD debut with this wide release, and I hope he continues working with this label for more. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
Chris Christian says
Joe, I only pressed 1000 1981 cd's when cd's were invented. NEVER had an official World Wide release. You were correct!
In my 1976 album, "Why does the devil"... that is a song I wrote. I had never heard of Larry Norman then, as I was in Nashville to make POP music, and grew up in the Church of Christ where there wrre no instruments used in the Church. Same for Brown and Amy Grant. I changed the 2nd verse of "Why" when someone told me about Larry Norman before I delivered the album to Word Records. Nice detailed research. Good Job!!!
Joe Marchese says
Chris, thank you for dropping by! I'm so appreciative of both your kind words and your clarifications. These reissues are truly wonderful...might we see the series continue? I've recently had the opportunity to read your memoir, and can't recommend it enough. As a longtime admirer of your work, it was a privilege some years back to write the liner notes to the CD reissue of BJ Thomas' "Home Where I Belong." Thank you for the music, and all the best to you.
Chris Christian says
Joe, I never knew a CD release of "Home Where I Belong" ever came out. Do you remember what label or distributor put it out. I'd love to have a CD copy. Thanks for letting me know about it's release. Chris
Joe Marchese says
Hi Chris,
"Home Where I Belong" was reissued in 2014 by Real Gone Music as a two-for-one CD paired with "Happy Man." I'd be more than happy to send you a copy. Please drop us a line at theseconddisc-at-gmail-dot-com. Best, Joe
JP Detroit says
The record label is Retroactive. For some reason here it's referred to as Radioactive throughout.
Larry Davis says
Was wondering about that...cuz Radioactive was absorbed into Geffen/UMG and I was thinking/wondering "it's back??" But I'm mixed regarding CC...the yacht rock side has me intrigued but the Christian side (does his name have anything to do with it??) is a turnoff cuz I'm an atheist...yet I do enjoy secular/humorous Christmas music...
Joe Marchese says
Sorry for any confusion, Larry! There have been a number of Retroactive labels over the years, as well. These reissues are all extremely well done; I think you might enjoy the Boardwalk release, and all of Christian's albums both secular and spiritual have terrific musicianship and songwriting alike.
Joe Marchese says
It's just human error, JP. 🙂 Apologies for any confusion; the label was correctly referred to in the track listings.
Harry Gore says
I'm glad Chris' first album on Myrrh is out but I wish the same care and attention were given to Mark Heard's 5 albums on Home Sweet Home records,Chris' label.The reissues that came out years ago were done rather poorly.
Record Steve says
FYI-Chris Christian Christmas CD now on $ale @ Boone's Overstock...we now return you to your life of music.