Why did Christopher Cross' career go STRAIGHT INTO THE SHITTER?!

He got caught between the moon and New York City.

It was the best that he could do.

MTV

His beautiful voice but average looks were at Cross purposes.

His on-stage persona is severely lacking. He's a bit like Sade - a great voice for recorded music but perhaps not so great on stage.

He moved to Austin many years ago and lives a very low-key life.

I always get him confused with Christopher Columbus.

The music scene changed, his style of "Yacht Rock" went out of favor. Also, he was too ugly for the MTV era.

How dare you compare lumpy and bland Christopher Cross to the divine Sade?

For a while he was Sailing.

All caught up in the reverie, every word was a symphony.

I’m sure he was happy with the payday 💵, but I have to think his soul died a little when the N’Sync boys start to ascend during this performance.

Not enough gay men wanted to Cross swords with him.

People quickly smartened up and realized his real name is actually Blandy McBlanderson from Blandsville.

From Wiki: Cross was the first artist in Grammy history to win all four general field awards in a single ceremony, bringing home Record of the Year ("Sailing"), Album of the Year (Christopher Cross), Song of the Year ("Sailing"), and Best New Artist at the 23rd Annual Grammy Awards in 1981; this was not replicated until Billie Eilish won all four awards at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2020.

He didn’t put out a filthy sex tape at the exact right moment

His career went down, not into the shitter. It's a subtle point but tradition must be respected.

He had such a long way to go, to make it to the border of Mexico.

Think of Christopher…laugh. Don’t cry.

I know he’d want it this way.

He was unavoidable for a short time. I suspect people have enough of him. he was one of those people who was able to get am and fm airplay at the end of the am music era. He wa not someone who could survive in the fm/mtv world of the 80s.

"average looks"

R4 is very kind.

With the onslaught of obesity and lard asses. Mr. Cross would almost be considered a twink. If only he was born twenty years later.

Love his music and yacht rock too.

He could make a comeback, follow Lizzo's lead. Shed those clothes and show those rolls!

Apparently he was quite ill from Covid.

R23 Wow that's crappy

He has a lot of chins these days.

Face for radio.

To R8...I've seen Sade in concert. A cardboard cutout of her would have had more presence than she did on stage. And her voice, which is paper thin live, could not cut it by itself.

Wait a minute, so you think his looks were his downfall? Explain Elton John then

There are one hit wonders and then there are people like Cross, Paula Cole, etc who maybe have a few albums but only one ever hits, becomes popular/wins an award. So they're sort of a one album wonder.

Yes, he did have the Laura song from another album become a hit too, because of its connection to General Hospital. Beyond that, it was all about that single album.

I think Elton was a bit more established by the early 80's than Cross. I think Elton had a top 10 hit every year from 1970-1995. My brother once said that Elton could put out an album of farts and it would hit the top 10.

Elton was saved in the early 80's by the Velvet Mafia.

Miss David Geffen signed him, and used his influence in the industry to continue to foist "Fat Reg" (as Mick Jagger and David Bowie used to snidely refer to him behind his back) upon the public, despite his being a shell of his former self, artistically speaking.

If Christopher Cross were a homosexual, maybe he could have been saved as well.

So, what you all are saying is that Christopher Cross' career didn't nosedive because of his looks it more then likely was something political that he wasn't willing to participate in. That makes more sense

r28 Elton John became a big star long before the MTV era.

No r32 it was his ugly looks, MTV taking over the music industry, and Cross's brand of Yacht Rock going out of style. By 1983 it was all about Duran Duran and Culture Club.

As a teenager I would listen to Paul Gambacinni’s BBC Radio 1 show every week, when he played the US charts. I was obsessed with music, and I would listen to everything. I was always aware how bland American mainstream music was compared to that in the UK, but Christopher Cross was my limit. He was so boring.

Funny, R35 - I used to listen to a radio show here in the States called Rock Over London, hosted by Graham Dene, played usually on radio stations in the states with a new wave/indie sensibility.

(no Christopher Cross, though.)

Had no idea a BBC DJ was doing....well, sort of the same thing.

For those of you saying his face had nothing to do with it. I vividly remember the first time he was doing a guest spot on a show.....or maybe it was at the Oscar ceremony.

They introduced him and out came this.....homely fat man. He looked nothing like he sounded.....and after seeing him - I couldn't listen to his songs and UNSEE his....face.

The same with David Clayton-Thomas singing "Spinning Wheel"....nope didn't want to see it.

David Clayton Thomas is a matinee idol compared to Fugtopher Cross.

His career may be in the shitter, but he's alright, I think he's gonna make it.

"Think of Laura" was a huge hit after it was featured on General Hospital

The boys in my class always sang Fart, Fart like the wind to his song

He's pure early 1984 and needed to be shrugged off with that repellent era.

I was very young at the time, but my mom played the hell out of the Sailing album.

He was already over by 1984

It has all been said by others because there isn’t much to say. I was listening at the time and, even then, it was very pleasant listenable music for a while but just not that compelling for the ling run.

/for the long run, either. Sorry

He benefited from a moment of cultural confusion when nobody knew what pop music was going to be.

In 1980, disco was dead, New Wave wasn't burning up the charts, and there wasn't really a big exciting sound.

So a bunch of soft, inoffensive rock slipped in—Captain & Tennille, the Xanadu soundtrack, Kenny Rogers, and Christopher Cross all had #1s that year.

True r47. 1980-1981 was a transitional time for pop music, shit was all over the place. "The 80s" really started in 1982 as far as music goes.

[quote] Yes, he did have the Laura song from another album become a hit too, because of its connection to General Hospital. Beyond that, it was all about that single album.

Sure, Jan

I honestly didn't remember it was him doing the Arthur theme, I often got him and the dude that did the Tootsie theme confused

The Tootsie theme "It Might Be You" was by Stephen Bishop, and he looked like a straight-up serial killer.

He blew his whole load on his first album. His subsequent releases had diminishing returns as far as quality of songwriting went.

Then there was this dude, who also sounded like Stephen Bishop.

"Let's go hang out in the back of my van, then we'll take a drive into the woods!"

No one expected him to win one, much less sweep all four top awards. There was some controversy over it, and it did nothing to quell the criticisms that the Grammys were out of touch. He was up against some heavy competition. He lost one to Kenny Loggins.

He can always have the honor of saying that he beat Streisand and Sinatra out for Grammys.

Album of the year:

Christopher Cross - Christopher Cross

Barbra Streisand, Barry Gibb - Guilty

Billy Joel - Glass Houses

Frank Sinatra - Trilogy: Past, Present, Future

Pink Floyd - The Wall Lyrics

Pop Male Vocalist:

Kenny Loggins - This Is It

Christopher Cross - Christopher Cross

Kenny Rogers - Lady

Paul Simon - Late in The Evening

Frank Sinatra - Theme from New York New York

Record Of The Year:

Christopher Cross - Sailing

Barbra Streisand, Barry Gibb - Woman in Love

Bette Midler - The Rose

Frank Sinatra - Theme from New York New York

Kenny Rogers - Lady

Song Of The Year:

Christopher Cross - Sailing

Amanda McBroom - The Rose

Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb - Woman in Love

John Kander, Fred Ebb - Theme from New York, New York

Lionel Richie - Lady

Michael Gore, Dean Pitchford – Fame

Best New Artist:

Christopher Cross

Pretenders

Irene Cara

Robbie Dupree

Amy Holland

Wow r55 that was quite a year! I can't believe Cross won over all of the others.

"Think of Laura" reached the top ten in early 1984. It was in the top 40 for months and was unfortunately inescapable if you around people playing radios.

Cross did not win over Kenny Loggins for Best Pop Male Vocal. His fifth Grammy was for Arranging.

There's an extra wrinkle to "Think of Laura" and GENERAL HOSPITAL. Apparently the show didn't bother to get permission to use the song.

Correct R59. The song was a tribute to his girlfriends college roommate who was killed by a stray bullet. He was/still is furious that it was used as a Luke and Laura storyline. He is pretty cool on social media and responds to fans regularly.

I think if cross had become big maybe a few years before, his career may have withstood the mtv explosion. A lot of talented musicians who weren’t conventionally attractive did very well in the 70s.

OP, have you ever experienced fame on that level? I'd've escaped to some remote island which I would have promptly purchased, never to be seen or heard from again. Fame will kill your soul. Even if you're prepared for it, it's about the most stressful experience, aside from starting a thread on DL, that could possibly be imagined.

I can see both sides of that issue.

I understand he was mad they never asked him to use his song.

On the other hand, his song became a hit solely, and I do mean ONLY, because it was played on TV. It made him money and got his late friend's story out there.

As a soap fan, I remember when musicians and artists would clamor to be played on an episode of a soap because it promoted their songs and made people go out and buy them. Now those same episodes can't be played, because suddenly the record companies want a bajillion dollars to play thirty seconds of their crappy song.

I'm not sure I quite buy that he had zero knowledge of GH using the song before it happened. He wrote the song, therefore he has to have some say for it to be used in other media. Unless he completely signed over his sync rights to another entity, which I kind of doubt. And if he did, then he doesn't have a leg to stand on.

According to Wikipedia:

[quote]ABC did not ask for Cross's permission to use the song and never paid him for using it.

Their source for this info is Cross' own Twitter account in which he tweeted:

[quote]And to add insult to injury, GeneralHospital never asked for permission to use #ThinkOfLaura and never paid for the usage. Only a genuine group of assholes would do that.

So, did he ever sue ABC for damages or unpaid royalties? It would seem like a slam dunk, but I can't find any coverage of a lawsuit.

Yeah, how do you get away with using something and not licensing it? Especially from a major label. I do business now, so I know how things have worked for the past 20 or so years in terms of licensing music, but I find it hard to believe that in 1983 it was a free for all with no rules. I know sampling had to go through some major growing pains, but this is not sampling.

I wouldn't say a free for all was in place then, but it was very much "any promotion is good promotion" and record labels wanted that exposure.

Music rights would have been a matter of discussion for a film but a rinky dink soap opera wouldn't have merited a second glance.

Things changed when everything went through several corporate mergers and then Napster, etc. happened, and suddenly the bean counters started enforcing things that had, in essence, not been applied or enforced before.

The early 80s were special for me and christopher cross was the soundtrack of my life. Beautiful voice, and that distinctive catch in his delivery....

Elevator music could only be popular for so long.

In high school c. 1983, I had to lip-sync to a song for speech and drama class and I chose "Sailing". I sat on a stool and mouthed it (I was very nervous). Not an exciting performance.

I for one always thought David Clayton-Thomas was hot when singing "Spinning Wheel", but I like thick-set men.

His music is like a perfect snapshot of 1980. Seventies shlock hadn't died out yet and there was still no identifiable 80s music.

I saw a picture and was surprised by how unattractive he is.

I used to find him cute

Christopher Cross today. He's 70 years old.

He was fat and ugly, which didn't work in the MTV era.

Christopher Cross had a huge debut album that had four hit singles : Ride Like The Wind, Sailing, Never Be The Same, and another I just forgot. But he was hardly just one album. His biggest hit came later, with Arthur's Theme, a number one song that also won an Oscar. Then, much later, he had a big hit with Think Of Laura. So his career was not exactly Daddy Dewdrop and "Chick-A-Boom".

As for Elton, I believe he was the answer to a Jeopardy question about who had the longest streak of consecutive years for having a hit in the Top 40. Starting with "Your Song", he had a Top 40 hit every year for 25 years. (And that was BEFORE he had the the biggest selling single of all time)