Singer, songwriter, and musician Tony Christie was born Anthony Fitzgerald in Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, England on April 25, 1943. His best-known recording is the song “(Is This the Way to) Amarillo,” which climbed the charts twice in the UK: 1971 and 2005. He began his singing career in the 1960s and took his stage name after watching a film starring British actress Julie Christie. Discovered by talent manager Harvey Lisberg, Tony Christie began releasing singles in the mid- ‘60s although they didn’t achieve chart success. However, in 1970, the song “Las Vegas” hit number 2 in Belgium, number 18 in South Africa, and just missed the Top 20 in the UK, rising to number 21. The single was eventually included on his 1971 self-titled debut album. He scored an even bigger international hit in 1971 with “I Did What I Did for Maria,” which reached to top spot in New Zealand, number 2 in the UK and South Africa and number 3 in Australia and Switzerland. That same year, his version of the Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield song “(Is This the Way to) Amarillo” was his biggest international hit to date, reaching number 1 in Belgium and Germany and sliding comfortably inside the Top 10 in Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Switzerland. The song reached number 18 in the UK but would have even more success a few decades later. Tony Christie scored a few more international chart hits – “Don’t Go Down to Reno” (1972) and “Avenues and Alleyways” (1972) – but by 1973, he’d faded from the UK charts although he remained popular throughout the rest of Europe. He continued to tour and record throughout the rest of the ‘70s and into the 1980s and 1990s but didn’t achieve any significant chart success until 1999 when he provided vocals on the single “Walk Like a Panther” by All Seeing I. Things picked up for Tony Christie in 2002 when his biggest hit, 1971’s “(Is This the Way to) Amarillo,” was used in the British TV comedy show Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights. The song’s resurgence inspired the re-release of the single in 2005 for the Comic Relief charity and it sailed to the top of the charts. Tony Christie re-recorded the song for the German market the same year, but it was the original that garnered all the attention. Thrust back into the spotlight, Tony Christie continued to record new music and perform live and released successful albums such as Simply in Love (2006), Made in Sheffield (2008), Now’s the Time! (2011), Pop Nonsense (2019), and We Still Shine (2024). In 2025, Tony Christie released the album A New Life which contained new recordings of many of his classic hits.
