One of the most loved pop American artists {o emerge in the beginning of the 80s. A solitary figure that very often took long pauses between the release of his albums and never cared about the rules for a perfect career. Christopher Cross’ goal is and always was to remain sincere in his music and to put all his energy in writing and recording great pop songs. Probably that’s why his music is still perceived as pure and sincere, and after many years is still among the most played on adult oriented pop stations all over the world.
Christopher Cross was one of the biggest new stars of 1980, virtually defining adult contemporary radio with a series of smoothly sophisticated ballads including the chart-topping Sailing.
He is best known for his Top Ten hit songs, “Sailing”, Ride Like the Wind, and “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do), the latter of which he performed for the film Arthur starring Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli. Sailing earned three awards at the 1981 Grammy Awards Ceremony, while “Arthur’s Theme” won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1981 (with co-composers Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager and Peter Allen.) His greatest successes are:
• Academy Award for Best Song, 1981, “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)’
• Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, 1981, Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)
• Grammy, 1981 - Record of the Year- Sailing”
• Grammy, 1981 - Album of the Year - Christopher Cross
• Grammy, 1981 - Best New Artist - Christopher Cross
• Grammy, 1981 - Song of the Year - “Sailing
• Grammy, 1981 - Best Arrangement - “Sailing”
Cross first played with a San Antonio based cover band named Flash and released his self-titled debut album, Christopher Cross in 1979, which garnered him five Grammy Awards. He is the first and only artist to personally receive all of the “Big Four” Grammy Awards (Best Record, Song, Album, and New Artist) in the same year. Although Norah Jones’ debut album Come Away with Me and song “Don’t Know Why” won the same four awards in 2003, she did not personally receive the Song of the Year Grammy because it is a songwriter’s award. Hits from this album included “Sailing”, ‘Ride Like the Wind” (featuring backing vocals by Michael McDonald) and “Never Be the Same”. His second album, Another Page, which came out in 1983, included the hit songs “Think of Laura”, “No Time For Talk”, and “All Right”. Cross released his third album Every Turn of the World in 1985. He went on to make three more albums in the 90’s that have gained critical response.
“The Cafe Carlyle Sessions” is the new Christopher Cross studio album after nearly 10 years. 15 songs personally selected by Christopher Cross and completely re-recorded. The idea to re-record his classics started when Christopher Cross was asked to perform an acoustic gig at the Carlyle in New York. Cross found the new minimal versions so exciting that he wanted to record an entire album of acoustic, jazz influenced new version of his classics. The album features all his hits, re-recorded with a jazz quartet under the supervision of Chris Walden (who previously worked with Diana Krall, Michael Bolton and many others).
Also available “A Christopher Cross Christmas”
The album goes back to the traditional Christmas music, capturing the richness of the melodies and the great emotional feeling of such standards, including ‘Silent Night”, “The Christmas Song”, “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” and many others performed and arranged by Cross in a way that only top stars can offer. A true classic destined to be one of the best classic Christmas albums of all time.
