
Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco (February 19, 1943 - June 18, 2025), known professionally by his stage name Lou Christie, was an American pop and soft rocksinger-songwriter known for several hits in the 1960s, including his 1966 US chart-topper "Lightnin' Strikes" and 1969 UK number two hit "I'm Gonna Make You Mine".
Christie was born Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco on February 19, 1943, in Glenwillard, Pennsylvania, and grew up in suburban Pittsburgh. While attending Moon Area High School, he studied music and voice, served as student conductor of the choir and sang solos at holiday concerts. His teacher, Frank Cummings, wanted him to pursue a career in classical music, but Sacco wanted to cut a record to get on American Bandstand.
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Links to Peel[]
Lou Christie's Lightnin' Strikes was a US chart topper which Peel mentioned on his 12 October 2004 show, was popular on KOMA in the mid-60's:
"That was the number one record almost the whole eighteen months that I was working for KOMA in Oklahoma City around that time."
When he moved on to KMEN radio, the song also entered the KMEN British Pop Top Ten, which Peel was presenting between 1966 and 1967. At the same time the single was popular on Radio London, the pirate station Peel would work for when he returned to the UK, and made the British singles charts in 1966.
In the New Singles, published in Disc and Music Echo on 21st November 1970, Peel reviewed Lou Christie's single, Indian Lady, and wrote the following:
"Lou Christie made two of the great records of the early 60's. One was "Lightnin' Strikes" and I can't for the life of me remember the name of the other[1] . This is baby-food really and rather poor baby-food at that."
There is no evidence of Peel playing any of Lou Christie's songs when the singer was in his prime in the late 60's, but Christie was an artist with a commercial approach to his music. He showed no interest in the new pop and rock styles JP was playing on the Perfumed Garden and Top Gear until the early 1970s, but even then Peel wasn't impressed.
Shows Played[]
- 12 October 2004: Lightnin' Strikes (7") MGM
- 05 November 2004 (BBC World Service): Lightnin' Strikes (7") MGM : (JP: 'A record that I used to play an awful lot on a radio station that I worked for in Oklahoma City at that time, KOMA.')
References[]
- ↑ This was probably "Rhapsody In The Rain", the follow-up single to "Lightnin' Strikes", not as big a hit but in a similar style with Christie's falsetto vocals backed by a female chorus. According to Wikipedia, he was forced to re-record the song with toned-down lyrics because the original version was too sexually explicit for its time.