August 20, 2021 —– Chart #105
Hello Musical Friends,
Welcome to Friday and the 105th edition of Chart of the day. Our selection today is a song from a Texas artist who splashed onto the music scene in the late 70’s and had heavy radio play in the 80’s. Christopher Cross (born Christopher Charles Geppert; May 3, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer from San Antonio, Texas. Cross won five Grammy Awards for his eponymous debut album released in 1979. The singles “Sailing” (1980), and “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” (from the 1981 film Arthur) peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. “Sailing” earned three Grammys in 1981, while “Arthur’s Theme” won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1981 (with co-composers Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager, and Peter Allen).
“Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” was the main theme for the 1981 film Arthur starring Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli. I still think the first 10 minutes of this movie is some of the funniest stull in cinema. If you have not watched Arthur lately, try it out and enjoy the laughter. The song won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1981. In the US, it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and on the Hot Adult Contemporary charts during October 1981, remaining at the top on the Hot 100 for three consecutive weeks. Overseas, it also went to number one on the VG-lista chart in Norway and was a top-ten hit in several other countries. The song became the second and last American number-one hit by Christopher Cross. It was included as a bonus track only on the CD and cassette versions of his second album, Another Page, released in 1983. The B-side of the record, “Minstrel Gigolo”, was the same song used on the back of Cross’s debut single, “Ride Like the Wind”.
The song was written in collaboration between Cross, pop music composer Burt Bacharach, and Bacharach’s frequent writing partner and then-wife Carole Bayer Sager. A fourth writing credit went to Minnelli’s ex-husband, Australian songwriter Peter Allen, also a frequent collaborator with Bayer Sager: the line “When you get caught between the moon and New York City” from the chorus was taken from an unreleased song Allen and Bayer Sager had previously written together. Allen came up with the line while his plane was in a holding pattern during a night arrival at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Cross first played with a San Antonio-based cover band named Flash before signing a solo contract with Warner Bros. in 1978. Although best known for his vocals, Cross’s guitar-playing is such that it once led to an unfulfilled invitation to play with Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of Steely Dan. He also played guitar during a Deep Purple concert in 1970 when Ritchie Blackmore fell ill shortly before the show.
The video with movie clips:
1986 live performance: https://youtu.be/ltkhC5w7O80
Keep rockin’ my friends,
Stan