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British rock and blues singer-songwriter Chris Rea has died aged 74. This was confirmed by a spokesman for the family. The musician died peacefully in hospital after a short illness.
Chris Rea was one of the most successful British songwriters for decades. He gained worldwide fame with songs such as “Driving Home for Christmas”, “The Road to Hell” and “On the Beach”. In total he sold more than 30 million albums.
Chris Rea was born in 1951 in Middlesbrough, England, to an Italian father and an Irish mother. He grew up with six siblings and later described himself as an outsider. Irish-Italian roots in an industrial city shaped his view of the world.
Early life and musical roots
At the age of 22, Rea joined the band Magdalene, in which David Coverdale had previously played. This was later followed by an engagement with the Beautiful Losers before he was offered a record deal as a solo artist. In 1974 his first single “So Much Love” was released.
He celebrated his first major success in the USA: “Fool (If You Think It’s Over”) reached number 12 in the charts in 1978 and earned him a Grammy nomination for best new artist. However, the breakthrough could not be repeated immediately afterwards.
It wasn’t until the mid-1980s that he enjoyed success again, with “On The Beach” and “Josephine”. The album “New Light Through Old Windows” from 1988 was particularly formative. It contained “Driving Home for Christmas”, a song that initially received little attention, but later became one of the best-known Christmas songs in Europe and reached the British top 10 for the first time in 2021.
Creation of “Driving Home for Christmas”
Chris Rea wrote the song during a difficult phase in his life. He had no management, no record deal and was temporarily not allowed to drive himself. His wife drove him from London to Middlesbrough while he wrote down the first lines in the car.
In the 2000s, Rea increasingly withdrew from the commercial pop business and returned to his blues roots with albums like “Dancing Down the Stony Road”.
Health setbacks
Chris Rea struggled with serious health problems for years. In 2001 he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In a major operation, the pancreas and parts of the stomach and small intestine were removed, resulting in diabetes.
In 2016 he suffered a stroke that left him permanently unsettled. A year later he collapsed during a concert and had to be treated in hospital.
Chris Rea has been with his wife Joan since he was a teenager. The marriage resulted in daughters Josephine and Julia, to whom he later dedicated songs.