Lou Christie's career included three separate hit periods on the charts that spanned both sides of the British Invasion between 1963 and 1969. Like so many young singers of the early sixties he began singing in local groups and then made his way as a background singer and made a few records on small labels in his hometown, Pittsburgh. Local radio programmer Nick Censi heard Lou and liked his falsetto voice, telling him to come up with something like Franki Valli (The Four Seasons) was burning up the charts with.. Cenci also renamed him after Julie Christie, still a common practice in those days if you had an ethnic name like Luigi Sacco.Unlike many singers of his day, Christie co-wrote most of his songs. His writing partner was Twyla Herbert, a self-proclaimed mystic who he met at a church audition and who was twenty years older than him. The partnership worked and they immediately came up with The Gypsy Cried, a major hit that sold over a million despite its never getting above #28 on the charts. This was common with new artists in those days of numerous labels and radio stations where a new artist would break slowly one market at a time. The follow up, Two Faces Have I, was equally big and made #6 this time. A third single, How Many Teardrops did not do so well (#46). Then Lou was inducted into the army and disappeared for a while, a death sentence for most Top Forty artists.But Lou suddenly emerged triumphant in early 1966 with Lightnin' Strikes, a song that reached #1 and became his signature song. His new label, MGM, didn't like the song at first, the label head, Lenny Shear actually throwing it in the wastebasket in front of Lou and saying it was "a piece of crap". But Lou and his manager put up their own money to promote the song throughout the country. Shears changed his mind when he and Lou were photographed for Billboard holding the song's gold record. The follow up, Rhapsody In the Rain, is famous for being so suggestive in its lyrics that it had to be rerecorded with new ones to get airplay. It lost some momentum with all that going on but still made Top 20. It's a true pop masterpiece based on Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet concert overture with its backup singers, chimes and clever arrangement.There was a hitless period after that, and two label changes, but in 1969 he signed with Buddah Records and producer/composer Tony Romeo who had written for The Cowsills and David Cassidy (and you can hear a bit of that in the bridge: "I'll try every trick in the book..."). The song otherwise duplicated the arrangements of his 1966 hits. It made top Ten and was a good final hit for Christie.Rhino has done their usual great job with this CD, with excellent sound and good liner notes. Please note that these are all original recordings. This disc was released in the 80's so it doesn't have the length of some later discs, but a seventeen song survey of Lou's career will be enough for most people. I do wish that Beyond the Blue Horizon had been included here. Lou had a great tenor voice besides the falsetto, and I wish they had let him use it more often as it's easier to listen to. Any Lou Christie fan will be pleased with this disc and can buy it confidently.