I Love Music
[media=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z66OR3dn5YQ]
On this day in 1980, “Sailing”, by singer-songwriter Christopher Cross, became the number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. The popularity of that song, along with the February 1980 release of another hit single by Cross, “Ride Like the Wind”, soon made the relatively unknown performer a super star in the popular music world.
His stardom would only last a few years, as it turned out.
Cross won an unprecedented (and still unmatched) 5 Grammy Awards in 1981 and had several more hits over the next few years, but his career declined after 1983-84, and despite critical acclaim for some of his work, none of his later songs or albums were popular with the general public.
There has been a fair amount of speculation as to why this talented artist’s star dimmed so quickly. A variety of possible reasons have been suggested, but regardless of why it happened, the singer-songwriter was philosophical when he reflected on the rise and fall of his career:
“Would I have rather had a career like Peter Gabriel’s or Sting’s or somebody that grows over a long period of years and sustains like they have?”, Cross asked himself in an interview 20 years after his heyday. “I’d prefer that as opposed to the sort of meteoric curve of my career…[but] I hear my music in grocery stores and people do know who I am, and I continue to tour so it’s great. Given the options, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
On this day in 1980, “Sailing”, by singer-songwriter Christopher Cross, became the number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. The popularity of that song, along with the February 1980 release of another hit single by Cross, “Ride Like the Wind”, soon made the relatively unknown performer a super star in the popular music world.
His stardom would only last a few years, as it turned out.
Cross won an unprecedented (and still unmatched) 5 Grammy Awards in 1981 and had several more hits over the next few years, but his career declined after 1983-84, and despite critical acclaim for some of his work, none of his later songs or albums were popular with the general public.
There has been a fair amount of speculation as to why this talented artist’s star dimmed so quickly. A variety of possible reasons have been suggested, but regardless of why it happened, the singer-songwriter was philosophical when he reflected on the rise and fall of his career:
“Would I have rather had a career like Peter Gabriel’s or Sting’s or somebody that grows over a long period of years and sustains like they have?”, Cross asked himself in an interview 20 years after his heyday. “I’d prefer that as opposed to the sort of meteoric curve of my career…[but] I hear my music in grocery stores and people do know who I am, and I continue to tour so it’s great. Given the options, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
