Lightning Striking Again What Year Did It Come Out
Lou Christie: Lightnin' Strikes (1966)
Graham Reid | | 2 min read
Few people tin say they celebrated their 23rd birthday in quite the aforementioned mode every bit Lou Christie, this single was number one the Us -- and just starting to go global.
It was quite a comeback for Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco from rural Glenwillard almost Pittsburg: he'd had some skirmishes with the charts and been on Dick Clark'due south Caravan of Stars traveling revue (he was seated next to Diana Ross for 72 consecutive nights) merely he'd been sidelined past a 6 calendar month stint as an ground forces reservist. And by that time the British Invasion was at its peak.
Few American teen idol acts like Christie -- his fellows in Bob Marcucci'due south management stable included Fabian and Frankie Avalon -- would survive the Invasion, only Lou was always kind of different. Mayhap it was the tight trousers, possibly information technology was the falsetto.
Mayhap it was the gypsy adult female?
When Christie was xv he and his sister Amy Sacco had formed a group called the Crewnecks. It was when they attended a bogus audition that Lou met Twyla Herbert who was twice his age, a former concert pianist and psychic. They vicious in with each other (they shared a love of classical music, notably opera) and became songwriting partners.
Inside a short menses they spun out 4 pretty interesting hits including The Gypsy Cried which was released under the proper name "Lou Christie".
Given his voice, a lot of listeners idea he was a she. And pouty Lou looked like he might also liked to take a walk on the wild side.
A few other pocket-sized hits followed, then came the army stint in early '65, the signing to Marcucci'south roster, and this Herbert-Christie penned Lightnin' Strikes which had every bit much ear-piercing ache as anything by Johnny Ray and Factor Pitney combined.
And sex: "If she gives me a sign she wants to make time . . . I tin't cease, I can't end . ."
It'south an interesting song across its very compelling vocals, as Christie noted: "The structure was unique then. There were four different parts to the song. We'd have an intro, then part of a poetry, then another refrain, and then the claw. The trouble with that song was the glueing it together".
Things got a little unglued when some of his before fabric was rush released by a former characterization (thus confusing the market) merely interestingly Lou also co-wrote Cryin' in the Streets. "Anyone who has e'er been to 42nd Street in New York City would know that song attempts to reflect the jungle atmosphere. People there are pretty much like animals."
You exercise have to wonder if this Lou met the other Lou there at the fourth dimension.
Christie'due south adjacent hit notwithstanding was the even more than salaciously sexual Rhapsody in the Pelting (banned for its sexual beat of windscreen wiper rhythms and lyrics about making out in the rain).
After that things slowly unwound for Christie on the hitting-making forepart despite Jack Nitzsche producing If My Car Could Only Talk and the dramatic Shake Hands and Walk Away Crying.
Christie then label hopped (he was 4 years on Neil Bogart's Buddah), he enjoyed some success with I'm Gonna Brand You Mine and headed to Europe to do cabaret. He lived in London in the early Seventies, married and had kids, battled an addiction, and went back to the states and quit music. He worked every bit truck commuter and on an oil rig.
He returned to do some soundtrack work, started doing gigs with Lesley Gore . . .
But really not much across Lightnin' Strikes and Rhapsody in the Rain are worth serious attention.
Merely when that emotional drama and falsetto kick in, Lou Christie demands your most serious attention.
Look away of you can.
For more unusual one-off songs with an interesting back-story run into From the Vaults.
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Source: https://www.elsewhere.co.nz/fromthevaults/3049/lou-christie-lightnin-strikes-1966/
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