ICONIC songwriter Lou Christie has died, aged 82.
The Lightnin’ Strikes & Rhapsody in the Rain singer passed away at his home in Pittsburgh after battling a short illness, his wife said.
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The artist reached number one of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966 with the catchy single Lightin’ Strikes – when he was just 23 years old.
And he had another top 20 hit that year with “Rhapsody in the Rain,” considered overly raunchy at the time.
He died on Wednesday aged 82, his wife Francesca told The Hollywood Reporter.
The renowned singer was known for his signature falsetto, and he broke onto the scene with two songs in 1963 with the two tunes The Gypsy Cried and Two Faces Have I.
Both tracks were written in collaboration with the late Twyla Herbert – a long-time work partner.
Pop hit Lightnin’ Strikes was arranged, conducted and produced by Charles Calello.
The tune featured backing vocals from Bernadette Carroll, Peggy Santiglia and Denise Ferri of The Delicates.
It was released on MGM Records in December 1965, and even made it to the number one spot two months later – on Christie’s 23rd birthday.
The song is written from the perspective of an unfaithful man.
And in a 2016 analysis of the song by magazine Rebeat, they noted: “When Christie spots ‘lips begging to be kissed,’ his voice mutates into a shrill keen, completely unrecognizable from the charmer he posed as just seconds earlier.
“The switch from his teen idol croon to the manic, eerie falsetto signifies that he has transformed into some unknown thing incapable of being controlled.”
The popular singer, real name Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco, was born on February 19, 1943 in Glenwillard, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh.
He became friends with Twyla Herbert when he was 15 years old at Moon Area High School.
The classically trained musician was nearly 22 years Lou’s senior — but the duo would go on to write hundreds of songs together in the future.
Christie told Goldmine magazine in 2005: “I never worked with anyone else who was that talented, that original, that exciting.
“She was just bizarre, and I was twice as bizarre as her.”
After graduating from high school in 1961, he moved to New York, before working as a session vocalist.
He was given his iconic stage name by Pittsburgh music exec Nick Cenci, who produced The Gypsy Cried.
Christie recorded his last album in 2004.
And recently he toured with Frankie Avalon and Fabian as a member of Dick Fox’s Golden Boys.
Christie is survived by his wife and daughter.
His son, Christopher, died in 2014 at age 46 in a tragic motorcycle crash.
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