Leap like a salmon home from the sea

Thursday music corner: The now 80-year-old English singer and musician with the stage name of Tony Christie was born in Yorkshire in 1943 under the name Anthony Fitzgerald. He had five UK top 40 singles between 1970 and 1975, with the most successful being the 1971 single I Did What I Did For Maria. His second-highest chart placing was for the 1971 single (Is This The Way To) Amarillo, which became a UK chart-topping single when Christie re-released it in 2005 in collaboration with comedian Peter Kay. 

Christie's 2005 comeback was spurred in part by the success of his 1999 chart success singing lead vocals on a track for the Sheffield band The All Seeing I. The band had won plaudits for its zeitgeisty 1998 single Beat Goes On (a cover of a 1967 Sonny & Cher single), which hit number 11 in the UK pop charts and topped the UK dance charts. Their follow-up single was a collaboration with Pulp front-man Jarvis Cocker, who in turn invited Christie to provide lead vocals for the single Walk Like A Panther. The single reached number 10 in the UK pop charts and earned the band an appearance on Top of the Pops. The band's next single, the Philip Oakey collaboration 1st Man in Space, reached number 28 and was their last charting single.

Since 1999 Christie has released six studio albums plus a live album, Tony Christie at the V Festival - Live! (2005).

The All Seeing I featuring Tony Christie - Walk Like A Panther (1999)  

See also:

Music: Tony Christie - I Did What I Did For Maria (1971)

Music: All Seeing I - Beat Goes On (1998)

Music: Jarvis Cocker - Swanky Modes (2020)