R.I.P. Lou Christie (19 February 1943 - 18 June 2025)
Very sad to hear of the death of the great soft rock vocalist and teenage angst emoter for the ages, Lou Christie, born Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco.
Lou’s mid-'60s AM radio anthems "Lightning Strikes" and my favorite "Rhapsody in the Rain" were odes to male priapic lust of the adolescent variety, enveloped in near-Spectorian productions which featured thunderous orchestrations, crooning dirty white girl group-type backup singers (kinda like The Angels) standing in for the objet d’amour in lyrical question who whispered, commented on, and answered Greek chorus-like Lou’s falsetto call of frustrated desire with encouraging yelps and screams, urging him on to GO ALL THE WAY!
Which he does on both of these singles.
Years ago, I appeared on the syndicated Joey Reynolds Radio Show with my pal Mitch Myers in support of his book The Boy Who Cried Freebird.
Joey’s other guests that night were the legendary Lou Christie himself and the late John "Cha Cha" Ciarcia, owner of the fantastic Italian pastry joint Cha Cha’s of Little Italy at 113 Mulberry Street. Caroline had cast Cha Cha in many a mob-related film (Mafia movies and TV series being just one of her specialties. She currently is casting FX’s Gravesend), so we got a little 3-way repartee going after I played some deep blues on my National steel:
Cha Cha: “I know his wife!”
Me: “But not in the Biblical sense!”
Joey: “Have to cut to a commercial now to pay those bills! Lift that barge, tote that bale!”
After a break for our sponsor, Joey interviewed Lou, who was sweet, gracious, and charmingly modest. After the show, I told him how much his music meant to me growing up, especially "Rhapsody in the Rain," the earworm follow-up to "Lightning Strikes."
Lou: “You know that?? We got banned all over the place with that record!”
But not in good old heavily Italian-American Syracuse, where I grew up.
How about a little research? Why was the song banned? The opening lyrics.
"Baby, the raindrops play for me
A lonely rhapsody cause on our first date
We were making out in the rain
And in this car our love went much too far
It was exciting as thunder
Tonight
I wonder where you are?
The windshield wipers seemed to say
"Together, together, together, together"
And now they are saying
"Oh, never, never"
Ooh wee, ooh wee, baby"
MGM had Mr. Christie rerecord them.
As Wiki notes a "clean" version" was sidestep the ban.