12. Lou ChristieGlory River: The Buddah Years
Take someone who made a couple of oldies radio staples, pick up on a forgotten part of their career, and bingo! Lou Christie did ‘Lightnin’ Strikes’, an American number one in 1966, but when he signed to Buddah in 1968 he made his strangest and most intriguing records – ‘Rake Up The Leaves’, ‘Canterbury Road’. The centrepiece of this comp is his Paint America Love concept album, like a Polish-Italian version of What’s Going On. His falsetto is so extreme – I love that inversion of machismo, singers like Del Shannon, Frankie Valli and Lou. Then he chucked it all in to be a truck driver. What a hero. The sleevenotes by Harry Young, who runs his fan club, are phenomenal: "Enigma. Grand, sweeping vision. Choirs of angels. Spirit ghost piano."
