Music / Chris Rea

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Christopher "Chris" Anton Rea (4 March 1951 - 22 December 2025) was an English singer and songwriter from Middlesbrough.

He started his career in 1973 and released his first album in 1978, which spawned the US hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)". He became most notable in 1989 with the release of The Road to Hell, with the second part of the Title Track reaching the top 10 on the UK charts.

He passed away on 22nd December 2025, he was 74 years old.

Discography:

• Whatever Happened to Benny Santini? (1978)
• Deltics (1979)
• Tennis (1980)
• Chris Rea (1981)
• Water Sign (1983)
• Wired to the Moon (1984)
• Shamrock Diaries (1985)
• On the Beach (1986)
• Dancing with Strangers (1987)
• The Road to Hell (1989)
• Auberge (1991)
• God's Great Banana Skin (1992)
• Espresso Logic (1993)
• La Passione (1996)
• The Blue Cafe (1998)
• The Road to Hell: Part 2 (1999)
• King of the Beach (2000)
• Dancing Down the Stony Road (2002)
• Blue Street (Five Guitars) (2003)
• Hofner Blue Notes (2003)
• The Blue Jukebox (2004)
• Blue Guitars (2005)
• The Return of the Fabulous Hofner Bluenotes (2008)
• Santo Spirito Blues (2011)
• Road Songs for Lovers (2017)
• One Fine Day (2019)

The Tropes to Hell:

• Blues: From Dancing Down the Stony Road, his music became this.
• Christmas Songs: "Driving Home for Christmas", which is about the narrator driving home for Christmas and being excited to reunite with his family and friends. It is very popular in the UK and plays on the radio around the season often.
• Concept Album: The Road to Hell is a concept album about social dissolution, rising violence and Thatcherism.
• Dance of Romance: "Let's Dance".
  When you sing
  Of the joy only love can bring
  Heaven knows
  It's in my heart and my soul
  We're caught in a world full of tears
  And so many bad times and fears
  So while there's a chance, and you're near
  Let's dance
• Despair Event Horizon: "Tell Me There's a Heaven" is about the narrator crossing it and lamenting the cruelty of the world.
  Tell me there's a heaven
  Where all those people go
  Tell me they're all happy now
  Papa tell me that it's so
• "Double, Double" Title: "Shine Shine Shine" and "Boom Boom".
• Driving Song: "Driving Home for Christmas".
  I'm driving home for Christmas
  Driving home for Christmas
  With a thousand memories
  I take look at the driver next to me
  He's just the same
  Just the same
• Dying Town: "Steel River" describes the decline of industry around a river town, based on his own experiences of life declining in the industrial towns of the north of England. It was in part intended as a Take That! to Thatcherism.
• Epic Instrumental Opener: He often opened the first track of his album with one. For instance, "The Road to Hell Part 1" has one lasting about 2:40, and the title track of Auberge takes 3:15 to get to the vocals.
• Epic Rocking: Started to appear about once an album beginning in the mid-1980s. "Hired Gun" off Shamrock Diaries is 8:02, "It's All Gone" is 7:27, "Looking for a Rainbow" is 8 minutes long, the title track of Auberge is over 7 minutes, and "Can't Get Through" is 8:17. His longest track is the opener to God's Great Banana Skin, "Nothing to Fear", which is 9:02.
• Fake Band: The Return of the Fabulous Hofner Bluenotes documents the history of the fictitious band The Delmonts, a guitar instrumental band from the late 1950s who later evolved into the blues band The Hofner Bluenotes. The project includes a book telling their story (with photos, posters and newspaper cuttings of the band), along with three C Ds of their music.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: "Touche D'Amour" and "Auf immer und ewig". The title is the only foreign language lyric.
• Greatest Hits Album: Several, with 1988's New Light Through Old Windows being distinctive for having all the songs re-recorded for it.
• It Has Only Just Begun: "Fool (If You Think It's Over)", in which a seventeen-year-old girl who has lost her first love is being comforted with the notion that she has much more to do in her life.
• Longest Song Goes First: Auberge, God's Great Banana Skin, Espresso Logic and The Road to Hell: Part 2 all open with their longest tracks, an Epic Rocking track.
• New Sound Album:
  • His debut album, Whatever Happened to Benny Santini?, is keyboard-based soft rock reminiscent of Elton John. After this, most of his albums have been guitar-oriented.
  • Beginning around Dancing With Strangers, his sound became more polished and commercialised.
  • Starting with Dancing Down the Stony Road, he changed his style from rock music to Blues.
• Non-Appearing Title: The title track of Shamrock Diaries. "Diary" on its own does appear, however.
• Pop-Star Composer: He composed the soundtrack for the film La Passione. The song "Soft Top, Hard Shoulder" was also originally written for the film of the same name.
• One-Woman Song: "Josephine" and "Julia", both of which were named after his daughters.
• Playing Card Motifs: He has a song called "Ace of Hearts", which is about a man who avoided commitment in the past, but fallen in love and become hooked on it, so "only the ace of hearts can save me now".
• Questioning Title?: Whatever Happened to Benny Santini?
• Rock-Star Song: "Whatever Happened To Benny Santini?". After rejecting the stage name, he decided to invent a fictional backstory for Benjamin Santini, a young pop star who was destined for success but has now vanished into obscurity.
• Self-Titled Album: His fourth album is just called Chris Rea.
• Sequel: The Road to Hell: Part 2 to The Road to Hell, which revisits the same concepts of social dissolution and rising violence.
• Stage Names: Averted. During the recording of his debut album, he sarcastically invented the stage name Benjamin Santini, but his record label wanted him to adopt it. Said album's title refers to this episode.
• There's No Place Like Home: "Driving Home For Christmas" is about a man who is driving home to his family in time for the holidays and glad to do so.
• Train Song: Deltics; there is even a photo of the prototype Deltic on the back of the album cover.