Starting a Lou Christie thread. . .

. . . okay here we go. . . .

My friend Tim is a huge Lou fan.
He's seen him in concert about 6 or 7 times.
Collected Lou stuff from placing ads in Goldmine.
Tim's favorite by Lou is "If My Car Could Only Talk".

My favorite is the classic pop of "Lightenin' Strikes".

What's yours?

 

"Beyond the Blue Horizon" ... should've been a HUGE hit.

 

A tie between 'LS' and 'Rhapsody in the Rain'!


Although I love his voice, I don't really know a lot about Lou...

 

My favorite is also "Lightnin' Strikes" and then its follow-up "Rhapsody in the Rain."

The best overall compilation is probably the Enlightnin'ment Rhino compilation from 1991.
http://www.amazon.com/Enlightninmen...2338187-5622228?ie=UTF8&qid=1188703608&sr=1-2

Another excellent compilation - Original Sinner: The Very Best of the MGM Recordings is an excellent collection on RPM that examines his MGM recordings in greater depth and contains both censored and uncensored versions of Rhapsody in the Rain.
http://www.amazon.com/Original-Sinn...5622228?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1188703608&sr=1-2

 

In addition to the already mentioned titles, I like "I'm Gonna Make You Mine" as well.

 

I can't pick one favorite, but "Outside the Gates of Heaven" is up there.

 

My fave is the Paint America Love album. An underrated classic that deserves more respect, and remastering for a new stand-alone CD release.

Also have the Glory River comp, and the Beyond The Blue Horizon CD with bonus tracks. Still haven't heard all the Lightning Strikes period material.

 

GREAT Interpretation of a magnificent song!

 

The first Lou Christie song I remember hearing was "There's Always Something There To Remind Me" on a Japanese Bacharach songbook back in the mid or late 90's.
My favorite is "If My Car Could Only Talk".

and the best Christie-related record has to be The Tammys' Egyptian Shumba (I currently have 3 versions!).

 

I'm glad someone else has mentioned "Paint America Love". Yes, it's a hugely underrated LP, along the lines of the Four Seasons' "Genuine Imitation Life Gazette" or some of Jimmy Webb's writing from the late 60s-early 70s. Truly remarkable, and an easy find on LP (to my knowledge it's never appeared in its entirety on CD).

"If My Car Could Only Talk" and "Wild Life's In Season" are wonderful too.

 

Not a big hit, but I always liked "Painter".

 

I like most Lou stuff, especially "If My Car Could Only Talk" and "I Have Sinned" (the mono 45 has a cello overdub missing from CD versions I've heard). The rare picture sleeve for "If My Car..." has the lyrics printed on the back.

 

I dig Lou! Saw him sing "Lightnin' Strikes" with NRBQ once, too.
I like "Guitars & Bongos"!


A while back, it dawned on me that at the beginning of the solo on "Lightnin' Strikes", the guitarist is quoting "Yakety Sax".

 

It was well used in the film "Rainman".
I'm sure more people were exposed to Lou's version
thru this movie than ever hearing it on the radio.
Great record !

 

What a falsetto voice! Amazing.

There's a short but detailed bio at Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Christie

I'm leaning towards "Rhapsody In The Rain". "Two Faces Have I" was a catchy tune as well.

 

What is the exact difference between the censored and uncensored version of "Rhapsody..."? Is it an edit and what was removed on the censored version?

 

I like 'Trapeze' & 'Backtrack' as well as the big hits. Lou's great!

 

His first (?) lp on Roulette, that has Two Faces Have I, Gypsy Cried, and as I believe xios meant to say, Have I Sinned. I had that album as a kid, then found it again a couple of years ago.

 

"There's Always Something There To Remind Me," came from his "Lightnin' Strikes" album. Which, IMO, is a pretty strong effort. An odd album, though. Both sides of the album, sounds like two different productions and performers. The second side sounds like the Lou that we hear on the oldies radio. He does a great version of "Since I fell For You," on side one. I also like his version of "You've Got Your Troubles." Although, he's hardly on the recording.

Yeah...Lou's cool...

 

The picture sleeve for "If My Car Could Only Talk" is, for some reason,
hugely rare. One sleeve went for about 4-hundred bucks on Ebay!

The sleeve is one of the crown jewels of my friend Tim's collection.

 

In case anyone finds the Two faces Have I stereo off-putting, it is available in mono on one of the Ace TEENAGE CRUSH cds.

 

Going strictly on memory here... I liked LC's hits but never bought the records.

I remember the furor, and there was an alternate version released... whether it was just an alternate vocal track or something more, I don't know... and there may be other revisions, but here's the one I remember:

The line "and in this car our love went much too far" was changed to something like "our love was like a shooting star".

Somewhere, someone was stunned and offended to discover someone besides Mommy and Daddy might allow themselves sex in 1966.

 

Lightnin' Strikes was reportedly John Lennon's "song of the hour" in early '66., playing it incessantly.