The “Golden Hits Of The 70s”
Main MenuConcept Refinement The Author..Wayne JancikGolden Age Of The 50sGolden Age Of The 60s1970s and There After
CHRIS REA
“FOOL (IF YOU THINK IT’S OVER)”
(CHRIS REA)
United Artists 1198
No. 12 September 16, 1978
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In the U.K. 27 charted tunes bear Rea’s name; his Road to Hell album (1989) went quadruple-platinum in
the homeland alone. Water Sign (1983) went Top 20 in Denmark, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, France,
Germany, Holland . . . Two years later, Shamrock Diaries scored in most of the same countries, plus
Australia, Japan, and New Zealand.
Chris Rea does not sell well in the States. The reason, explained Rea to Danny McCue, The Music Paper:
his visits here are seldom. “The danger of touring America is that you can’t tell your bedroom in St. Louis
from your bedroom in Milwaukee … That sounds like prison to me and a high price to pay for inflating
your ego and your bank account.”
In addition to being seldom heard, Rea feels he is misperceived by Americans. “This single [“Fool”] which
I wasn’t particularly happy with became a massive hit,” said Rea to McCue. “… In the end, I finished up
virtually having a breakdown, and three years later if you mentioned Chris Rea’s name, the reaction was,
‘Leave him. he’s a failure.”‘
“The English Springsteen,” as Chris Rea (b. Mar. 4, 1951, Middlesbrough, England) has often been labeled
by the British press, is of mixed mind about having a hit recording in America. “Fool,” a tune he wrote for
his sister, came from his debut LP, Whatever Happened to Benny Santini?, produced by Gus Dudgeon.
However, Chris was not pleased with this over-orchestrated and, in his view, misconceived album
(although it did sell 1 million copies in the United States alone). A few years later, Columbia Records
allowed Rea a free hand in their Chipping Norton Studios in Oxfordshire, England. Chris referred to the
resulting album, Tennis (1980), as “my first album–one that sets the record straight.” Neither the LP nor
any of the singles pulled from it have sold much in the United States.
In the five years preceding his One-Hit Wonder status, Chris worked as a musician on the pub and concert
circuit fronting Magdelene, later relabeled the Beautiful Losers, after a Leonard Cohen novel. David
Coverdale of Deep Purple, later Whitesnake, was once a member of the Beautiful Losers, designated by
Melody Maker as the “best new band of the year.” Magnet Records soon signed a recording contract for
Rea’s solo services. The “miscast” Benny Santini was the initial result.