Song:Sailing
Album:The Very Best Of Christopher Cross
In the early 80s, singer songwriter Christopher Cross had a ridiculous amount of success with his 1979 debut album. Sailing was the biggest of those hits. But by the mid-80s he seemed to fall off the face of the earth and is a regular topic on Whatever Happened To. He was born Christopher Geppert May 3, 1951 in San Antonio, TX. His father was a pediatrician in the US Army and Cross grew up in Washington, DC. His dad was pediatrician for President Eisenhower's grandchildren. Cross moved back to San Antonio and led a local cover band before signing with Warner Bros. in 1979. He wrote all the songs on his debut album. It was produced by Michael Omartian. Omartian was a Los Angeles session musician who was just becoming an in demand producer. The success of Chtistopher Cross really took him to a new level. The first single Ride Like The Wind reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Sailing topped the chart. The album Christopher Cross was certified 5XPlatinum and was the biggest selling album of 1980. It won the Album Of The Year Grammy. Cross also won Best New Artist and Sailing won Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Arrangement. he was the first artist to win all four major Grammys and no one has done it since. It was all downhill from there. Cross' other number one hit was the theme from the 1981 film Arthur but that was a very successful film. He also had a top ten hit in 1984 with Think Of Laura which was played a lot on the daytime soap General Hospital. By his 1985 album Every Turn of the World, Cross had dropped off the charts and he left Warner Bros. in 1988. You can get all his hits on this budget comp. So what happened? Why did he fade that quickly? I dunno. I didn't like him much. I didn't like his voice or his songs. So I'm not sure why he was popular in the first place. His music seemed to appeal to the Easy Listening market and that is a significant audience. But why didn't they keep buying his records? Maybe Christopher Cross' early 80s run was one big fluke. He's still around. Cross' latest release was a 2CD live set A Night In Paris earlier this year on his own label. I guess he's a nostalgia act now. But he was big for a couple of years. Here's Christopher Cross performing Sailing 1980.
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