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Christopher Anton Rea was an English-Irish rock and blues singer-songwriter, guitarist and record producer. He was known for his distinctive gravelly voice, slide guitar playing and music style blending soft rock with blues.
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entertainment · English musician and producer (1951–2025) · singer-songwriter · singer · recording artist · actor · musician · guitarist · record producer · composer · also Chris Rea, Christopher Anton Rea, Christopher Rea, Benny Santini, Rea
Born 4 March 1951 · Died 22 December 2025 · Q262314
116 published statements · 0 followers
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“read a lot and even though I chose music, journalism was my first passion. I wanted to be a journalist and write about car racing [...] somewhere deep down I believe I could have been a decent journalist”
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“I was never a rock star or pop star and all the illness has been my chance to do what I”
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The Mirror: Chris Rea leaves huge eight-figure sum in will to wife Joan as fortune revealed
The Sun: Driving Home for Christmas singer Chris Rea left £12million in will for his wife after death aged 74 last year
Public attention spiked: 3,240 Wikipedia readers in one day, 3.6× the usual 902, with 0 article edits.
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Public attention spiked: 3,189 Wikipedia readers in one day, 3.5× the usual 902, with 0 article edits.
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The Guardian: Sad wartime fate of Chris Rea’s grandfather | Letters
The Guardian: Despite his knack for slick pop, the principled and passionate Chris Rea never took the easy road
The Guardian: Chris Rea, singer-songwriter behind Driving Home for Christmas, dies aged 74 – video
The Guardian: Chris Rea obituary
The Guardian: Chris Rea’s Driving Home for Christmas is an evergreen, everyman anthem that captures the season’s true spirit
The Guardian: Chris Rea – a life in pictures
The Guardian: Chris Rea, rock and blues singer-songwriter, dies aged 74
The Hollywood Reporter: Chris Rea, British Singer-Songwriter Known for “Driving Home for Christmas,” Dies at 74
Yahoo: Chris Rea winced when I mentioned his hits. He shouldn’t have
Digital Spy: 'Driving Home for Christmas' singer Chris Rea dies, aged 74
Yahoo: Chris Rea, husky-voiced blues-tinged singer of hits including Driving Home for Christmas
Deadline.com: Chris Rea Dies: “Driving Home For Christmas” & “Fool (If You Think It’s Over)” Singer Was 74
Died 2025-12-22.
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Released album “The Christmas Album”.
Concluded that Rea's work has an underrated legacy in blues rock due to several factors (geography, pop beginnings, avoidance of fame, timing), which "deserves serious study", especially the Blue Guitars (2005), "arguabl
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And again, shortly after his death in 2025
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Released album “ERA 1 1978-1984: As, Bs & Rarities”.
Released album “One Fine Day”.
Released album “The Best”.
The Guardian: Chris Rea cancels Brighton concert after on-stage collapse
The Guardian: Chris Rea 'stable' after on-stage collapse at Oxford theatre
Released album “Road Songs for Lovers”.
Released album “30 Most Slow Blues”.
The Guardian: Chris Rea: how we made Driving Home for Christmas
Which left him with slurred speech and reduced movement in his arms and fingers
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Was completing a 22-year restoration of an original replica of a Ferrari 156 Sharknose Formula One racing car
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Released album “The Very Best”.
Released album “The Journey 1978 - 2009”.
Released album “Santo Spirito Blues”.
Released album “Still So Far to Go… The Best of Chris Rea”.
Released album “Original Album Series”.
Released album “Fool (If You Think It’s Over)”.
Released album “The Return of the Fabulous Hofner Blue Notes”.
Released album “2 in 1: On the Beach / The Road to Hell”.
Released album “The Works: A 3 CD Retrospective”.
Released album “The Ultimate Collection: 1978–2000”.
Released album “(Blue Guitars) - A Collection Of Songs -”.
Released album “Greatest Hits”.
Released album “The Road to Hell & Back”.
Released album “The Platinum Collection”.
Released album “Blue Guitars II - Country Blues”.
Released album “Blue Guitars XI - 60S & 70s”.
Released album “Blue Guitars V - Texas Blues”.
Released album “Blue Guitars IX - Celtic & Irish Blues”.
Released album “Blue Guitars III - Louisiana & New Orleans”.
Released album “Blue Guitars IV - Electric Memphis Blues”.
Released album “Blue Guitars VI - Chicago Blues”.
Released album “Blue Guitars X - Latin Blues”.
Released album “Blue Guitars I - Beginnings”.
Released album “Blue Guitars VII - Blues Ballads”.
Released album “Blues Guitars VIII - Gospel Soul Blues & Motown”.
Released album “Blue Guitars”.
Released album “Heartbeats: Chris Rea Greatest Hits”.
With all proceeds (£11,762) going to the charity NSPCC
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Released album “Het Beste Van Chris Rea”.
Released album “The Blue Jukebox”.
Released album “Hofner Blue Notes”.
Released album “Blue Street (Five Guitars)”.
The Guardian: Chris Rea, Carling Apollo, London
Rea released Blue Street (Five Guitars) and Hofner Blue Notes, and The Blue Jukebox the following year
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Released album “Dancing Down the Stony Road”.
Released album “All Time Hits 1980-2002”.
Released album “The Very Best of Chris Rea”.
And underwent a Whipple procedure, which resulted in the removal of the head of the pancreas and part of the duodenum, bile duct, and gall bladder
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Released album “Forever Gold”.
Released album “King of the Beach”.
“s Peter Harris about his plans for the future and why performing on stage in the North East makes him more nervous than playing Wembley. And Chris, who wrote the moving tribute to Teesside”
When King of the Beach made it to the UK Top 30
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Released album “The Road to Hell, Part 2”.
Released album “World Ballad Collection”.
Ten years after The Road to Hell, the dance and electronic infused The Road to Hell: Part 2 failed to reach the UK Top 40
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Released album “The Best of Chris Rea”.
Released album “The Blue Cafe”.
The Blue Cafe, his fourteenth studio album, followed
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Released album “La Passione”.
Released a soundtrack album for La Passione, which Rea also wrote and produced
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Released album “Very Best”.
Another compilation album, The Best of Chris Rea, was released which peaked at No
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Rea had developed stomach ulcers
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Released album “Midnight Blue”.
Released album “The Best Of”.
Released album “Down the Road…! Live at the Ahoy, Rotterdam 8.3.’93”.
Released album “Espresso Logic”.
Participated in the 1993 British Touring Car Championship ToCa shootout as a guest driver
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Released album “God’s Great Banana Skin”.
Released album “Auberge”.
Auberge repeated its predecessor's success, reaching No
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Released ep “Winter Song”.
Released ep “Ing...”.
Released album “The Road to Hell”.
Released album “Grand Collection”.
Released album “The Best of Chris Rea: New Light Through Old Windows”.
Released ep “Driving Home for Christmas: The Christmas EP”.
Released album “Dancing With Strangers”.
Released album “Herzklopfen”.
Released album “Live in Sydney Lyric Theatre, Entertainment Centre 1987-10-03”.
Released album “On the Beach”.
Released album “1986-07-10: Dancing Shoes: Casino, Montreux, Switzerland”.
Rea was a support act along with The Bangles and The Fountainhead for Queen at Slane Concert for an estimated 80,000 audience
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Released album “Shamrock Diaries”.
Released album “Wired to the Moon”.
Released album “Water Sign”.
Released album “Chris Rea”.
Released album “Tennis”.
At Chipping Norton Recording Studios, most of which had never been released
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Released album “Deltics”.
Released album “Whatever Happened to Benny Santini?”.
Joined the local Middlesbrough band, Magdalene, which earlier had included David Coverdale who had left to join Deep Purple
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Wasn't the place to be if you wanted to do movie scores
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Born 1951-03-04.
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