Chris Rea Essentials

If Chris Rea is now regarded as one of the finest musicians to have emerged from England’s Northeast, an introspective singer-songwriter whose work was regularly coloured by references to his native Middlesbrough, it was in the US that he first found fame. In 1978, his luxurious soft-rock hit “Fool (If You Think It's Over)” made the upper reaches of the Billboard Hot 100 but it wasn’t until the mid-’80s that he began to significantly breach the UK charts, scoring hits decorated with his serrated voice and built on bluesy pop rock that slid between Eric Clapton’s relaxed shuffle and Dire Straits’ gritty twang. Within that framework, Rea’s most successful songs revealed a versatile artist who could unleash dark blues-rocker “The Road to Hell, Pt. 2”, a song teeming with apocalyptic visions and searing slide-guitar licks, deliver an enduringly loved holiday hit (“Driving Home for Christmas”) or fire out a peppy parter-starter (“Let’s Dance”). After a number of serious health issues, he returned to recording in the early 2000s, focusing on pure electric blues. Rea passed away in 2025 aged 74.