Representative Albums: "Christopher Cross," "The Best of Christopher Cross," "The Very Best of Christopher Cross"
Representative Songs: "Ride Like the Wind," "Arthur's Theme (Best That You," "Sailing"
Biography
Christopher Cross was far and away the biggest new star of 1980, virtually defining adult contemporary radio with a series of smoothly sophisticated ballads including the chart-topping "Sailing"; seemingly as quickly as he shot to fame, however, his star descended, although he continued recording and touring for years to come. Born Christopher Geppert in San Antonio, TX on May 3, 1951, Cross first surfaced in the Austin-based cover band Flash before signing a solo contract with Warner Bros. in the autumn of 1978. His self-titled debut LP appeared two years later, with the lead single "Ride Like the Wind" rocketing to the number two spot; the massive success of the second single "Sailing" made Cross a superstar, and in the wake of two more Top 20 hits, "Never Be the Same" and "Say You'll Be Mine," he walked off with a record-setting five Grammys in 1981, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Sailing." He soon scored a second number one as well as an Academy Award with "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)," which he co-wrote with Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager, and Peter Allen for the smash Dudley Moore film comedy Arthur. Cross' much-anticipated sophomore effort Another Page arrived in 1983, but except for the Top Ten entry "Think of Laura" (popularized through its constant presence on the daytime soap phenomenon General Hospital), the album failed to repeat the success of its predecessor, and somewhat amazingly, he never returned to the Top 40 again. Every Turn of the World appeared to little notice in 1985, and when 1988's Back of My Mind failed to chart altogether, Cross was dropped by Warner. His next album, Rendezvous, did not appear until five years later on BMG. Window followed in 1995, and in 1998 he signed to CMC International for Walking in Avalon, a two-disc effort split between new studio material and live recordings of his past hits. Cross returned in the spring of 2000 with The Red Room. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
Cross first played with a San Antonio-based cover band named Flash before signing a solo contract with Warner Bros. Cross released his self-titled debut album, Christopher Cross, in 1979, which garnered him five Grammy Awards. He is the only solo artist to receive all of the "Big Four" Grammy Awards (Best Record, Song, Album, and New Artist) in the same year. Hits from this album included "Sailing", "Ride Like the Wind" (featuring backing vocals by Michael McDonald) and "Never Be the Same".
His second album, Another Page, which came out in 1983, included the hit songs "Think of Laura", "No Time For Talk", and "All Right." "All Right" was used by CBS Sports for its highlights montage following the 1983 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, won in an upset by North Carolina State, which defeated the University of Houston (the Phi Slamma Jamma team with Clyde Drexler) in the championship game, 54-52. Although Another Page sold respectably, it did not nearly live up to the high expectations set by his debut album.
Cross released his third album Every Turn of the World in 1985. However, the album failed to produce any top 40 hits, and did not sell well. He went on to make three more albums in the 90's and although some of his releases have gained critical response, he has failed to catch the mass audience he once enjoyed. After his decline in fame in the mid 1980s, Cross has toured and opened for various acts since the '90s and released his second Greatest Hits package in 2002.
Cross completed a new Christmas album, A Christopher Cross Christmas, released in 2007. Christopher has just finished recording a new acoustic album of his hits titled The Cafe Carlyle Sessions. He is also working on a new studio album that is expected to be released in the spring of 2010. He does about 100 live performances a year.
Christopher Cross's daughter Madison is also interested in singing, beginning from when she sang a duet with her father at school as a little girl. From there, she began traveling with him, and sometimes performing at his shows. At the age of nine, Madison began an acting career in musical theater. In 2005, Cross recorded her first single, He Was Just Like Me, dedicated to Mattie Stepanek, a young poet who died in 2004 due to muscular dystrophy. The single was put into rotation on Radio Disney.
Cross performed the song "Sailing" alongside the pop band 'Nsync at the Fourth Annual Blockbuster Awards in 1999.
Cross also performed lead vocals on "So Far Away", a song from Alan Parsons' album On Air. When Parsons was touring in support of that album, Cross would sometimes join the band onstage to sing the song if he was available.
Cross spent much of his youth living in a home on Newbury Terrace in Terrell Hills, just outside San Antonio, Texas. That home had earlier belonged to the Cummins family and another notable San Antonian, the historian and author Light Townsend Cummins, grew up in that same house a decade earlier. It has since been demolished.
A small snippet of Cross's early hit "Sailing" was played in the DreamWorks film "Flushed Away".
Cross performed his hit song "Ride Like the Wind" on the NBC show Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Monday, October 5th, 2009, in a "Yacht Rock" themed episode. He was joined by Michael McDonald, the "blue-eyed" soul singer with whom he has worked in the past. As the credits were rolling, Cross, McDonald and The Roots, the Fallon house band, broke into "Sailing", which he also performed in an online-only performance on NBC.com
