Artist:Chris Montez
Song:The More I See You
Album:All-Time Greatest Hits
So you all know what a one hit wonder is. Chris Montez was a two time one hit wonder. What does that mean? In Montez' case, he scored a top five hit with the 1962 single Let's Dance. He signed with a different label and scored a top 20 hit with the 1966 single The More I See You. Let's Dance was written and produced by Jim Lee and released on his own Monogram label. In those days, when a single caught on, small labels would farm it out to a label with national distribution. So Lee leased it to London Records and Let's Dance reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Lee produced a Chris Montez album and released additional singles. But nothing caught on. Montez was touring but he needed to find a new label. Enter Herb Alpert whose A&M Records was starting to make noise with his band The Tijuana Brass. Montez signed with A&M. But Alpert suggested a more easy listening sound that would appeal to an older audience. The 1965 single Call Me reached #22 on the Billboard Hot 100 and The More I See You reached #16. Alpert produced the record. The More I See You was written by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon and Dick Haymes performed it in the 1945 film Diamond Horseshoe. Montez' recording is probably the most memorable. Montez recorded four albums for A&M. He recorded for Columbia in the 70s. With two big hits on different labels, how do you get them on the same Greatest Hits album? Well, sometimes you can't. But in this case, enter recording engineer Steve Hoffman of the reissue label DCC Compact Classics. He got permission to include Let's Dance and The More I See You on this remastered comp. Problem solved. We got lucky. It doesn't always turn out like that. Here's Chris Montez performing The More I See You probably in the 70s.
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