Chris Christian
Encyclopedia
Chris Christian is a songwriter
, record producer
, and a record label executive. His songs have been recorded by Elvis Presley
, Olivia Newton-John
, Natalie Cole
, Sheena Easton
, The Pointer Sisters, Al Jarreau
, The Carpenters
, Amy Grant
, Patti Austin
, Dionne Warwick
, Amy Grant
, The Imperials
, B.J. Thomas, B W Stevenson, Marilyn McCoo
, Dan Peek (America), Cheryl Ladd
, Jane Oliver, Sandi Patty
, Ali Lohan, and others.
As a member of the trio of Cotton, Lloyd & Christian in the early 1970s, he enjoyed two top 40 Billboard Hits on 20th Century Records. Christian also played guitar in the Chet Atkins
, Jerry Reed
, and Wayne Newton
, band.
As a record producer, he is best known for starting Amy Grant's music career by signing her at age 16 to his production company and playing a demo of one of her songs over the telephone to Myrrh Records
executive Stan Moser. Christian produced her first album and acted as executive producer for her second, handing over production duties to his college friend Brown Bannister
. His company continued to publish and own her songs until 1997 when he sold them to Gaylord Entertainment.
He has produced for The Pointer Sisters, Patti Austin
, Al Jarreau
, Natalie Cole
, Ali Lohan, Dallas Cowboys
, B J Thomas, Debby Boone
, B W Stevenson,and over 100 more.
As the first Artist signed to Boardwalk Records Neil Bogart
, with Bob Gaudio (Four Seasons) producing, he recorded "I Want You, I Need You," which peaked at #37 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1981 and reached the Top 10 on Billboards A/C Chart. Cheryl Ladd
sings back-up on the song along with many other Artists on the album including Christopher Cross, Nigel Olsen, Frankie Vallie, Dann Huff, Tommy Funderburk, Bill Champlin, Amy Holland, and Robbie Patton. Robert Kardashin (the Kardashins father) was his manager and was responsible for Chris signing with Boardwalk Records
.
Christian has produced albums that have been nominated for nine and won four Grammy Awards. He has also been nominated for seven Gospel Music Association
Dove Awards, winning five. He has also released sixteen other albums.
In 1981, Chris launched his own label Home Sweet Home Records
. On that label he produced albums for White Heart
, Steve Archer
, Mark Heard
, Dan Peek
, B J Thomas, Steve Archer
, Rick Riso, Luke Garrett, Marilyn McCoo
and others.
In 1992 he founded HSH Educational Media and Executive Produced and wrote the music for the popular Children's series "Gerbert" which aired on PBS and what is now ABC Family Channel for 10 years. "Gerbert" won an ACE award for best Pre-School Show.
Chris purchased The Studios at Las Colinas in 1992 with partner Steve Jarchow, buying Jarchows interest in 1993 and purchasing the acreage around the Studios with partner Ross Perot Jr. They sold their interest in the Studio and most of the remaining property in 2003.
Christian was CEO of World Digital Media Group and YMC Records, a joint venture by Radio Shack
, Dish Network
, Sirius Radio, and CC Entertainment until May 2007.
He was inducted into the West Texas Music Hall of Fame. http://www.westexmusichof.com/artists/chrischristian.html
He was also inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2007.http://www.hallmuseum.com/induction.htm
He recently became an owner of a WNBA team.
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
, record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, and a record label executive. His songs have been recorded by Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
, Natalie Cole
Natalie Cole
Natalie Maria Cole , is an American singer, songwriter and performer. The daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, Cole rode to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be ", "Inseparable" and "Our Love"...
, Sheena Easton
Sheena Easton
Sheena Easton is a Scottish recording artist. Easton became famous for being the focus of an episode in the British television programme The Big Time, which recorded her attempts to gain a record contract and her eventual signing with EMI Records.Easton rose to fame in the early 1980s with the pop...
, The Pointer Sisters, Al Jarreau
Al Jarreau
Alwin "Al" Lopez Jarreau is a seven-time Grammy Award winning jazz singer.- Background :Jarreau was born in Milwaukee, the fifth of six children. His web site refers to Reservoir, Inc., the name of the street where he lived. His father was a Seventh-Day Adventist Church minister and singer, and...
, The Carpenters
The Carpenters
Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of sister Karen and brother Richard Carpenter. The Carpenters were the #1 selling American music act of the 1970s. Though often referred to by the public as "The Carpenters", the duo's official name on authorized recordings and...
, Amy Grant
Amy Grant
Amy Lee Grant is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, media personality and actress, best known for her Christian music. She has been referred to as "The Queen of Christian Pop"...
, Patti Austin
Patti Austin
-Life and career:Austin was born in Harlem, New York. She made her debut at the Apollo Theater at age four and had a contract with RCA Records when she was only five. Quincy Jones and Dinah Washington have proclaimed themselves as her godparents....
, Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health....
, Amy Grant
Amy Grant
Amy Lee Grant is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, media personality and actress, best known for her Christian music. She has been referred to as "The Queen of Christian Pop"...
, The Imperials
The Imperials
The Imperials are an American Christian music group that has been around for over 45 years. Originating as a southern gospel quartet, the innovative group would become pioneers of contemporary Christian music in the 1960s. There have been many changes for the band in membership and musical styles...
, B.J. Thomas, B W Stevenson, Marilyn McCoo
Marilyn McCoo
Marilyn McCoo is an American singer, actress, and television presenter, who is best known for being the lead female vocalist in the group The 5th Dimension, as well as hosting the 1980s music countdown series Solid Gold...
, Dan Peek (America), Cheryl Ladd
Cheryl Ladd
Cheryl Ladd is an American actress, singer and author. Ladd is best known for her role as Kris Munroe in the television series Charlie's Angels, hired amid a swirl of publicity prior to its second season in 1977 to replace the departing Farrah Fawcett-Majors...
, Jane Oliver, Sandi Patty
Sandi Patty
Sandra Faye "Sandi" Patty is an American Christian music singer. For many years she was known as Sandi Patti. She has been dubbed "The Voice" by critics, because of her wide range and flexibility.-Early life:...
, Ali Lohan, and others.
As a member of the trio of Cotton, Lloyd & Christian in the early 1970s, he enjoyed two top 40 Billboard Hits on 20th Century Records. Christian also played guitar in the Chet Atkins
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...
, Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed Hubbard , known professionally as Jerry Reed, was an American country music singer, innovative guitarist, songwriter, and actor who appeared in more than a dozen films...
, and Wayne Newton
Wayne Newton
Wayne Newton is an American singer and entertainer based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He performed over 30,000 solo shows in Las Vegas over a period of over 40 years, earning him the nicknames The Midnight Idol, Mr. Las Vegas and Mr. Entertainment...
, band.
As a record producer, he is best known for starting Amy Grant's music career by signing her at age 16 to his production company and playing a demo of one of her songs over the telephone to Myrrh Records
Myrrh Records
Myrrh Records, also known as Myrrh Worship, is a Christian music record label. According to Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, the label was instrumental in developing a popular following for Contemporary Christian music as the label that first published music by Barry McGuire, 2nd Chapter of...
executive Stan Moser. Christian produced her first album and acted as executive producer for her second, handing over production duties to his college friend Brown Bannister
Brown Bannister
Brown Bannister is a CCM producer and songwriter. Bannister released one album of his own, Talk to One Another, in 1981 on NewPax Records. It was reissued on the Reunion Records Label five years later, featuring a newer recording of the album's final cut, "Create In Me A Clean Heart"...
. His company continued to publish and own her songs until 1997 when he sold them to Gaylord Entertainment.
He has produced for The Pointer Sisters, Patti Austin
Patti Austin
-Life and career:Austin was born in Harlem, New York. She made her debut at the Apollo Theater at age four and had a contract with RCA Records when she was only five. Quincy Jones and Dinah Washington have proclaimed themselves as her godparents....
, Al Jarreau
Al Jarreau
Alwin "Al" Lopez Jarreau is a seven-time Grammy Award winning jazz singer.- Background :Jarreau was born in Milwaukee, the fifth of six children. His web site refers to Reservoir, Inc., the name of the street where he lived. His father was a Seventh-Day Adventist Church minister and singer, and...
, Natalie Cole
Natalie Cole
Natalie Maria Cole , is an American singer, songwriter and performer. The daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, Cole rode to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be ", "Inseparable" and "Our Love"...
, Ali Lohan, Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
, B J Thomas, Debby Boone
Debby Boone
Deborah Anne Boone is an American singer and stage actress. She is best known for her 1977 hit, "You Light Up My Life," which spent a then record ten weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and led to her winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist the following year...
, B W Stevenson,and over 100 more.
As the first Artist signed to Boardwalk Records Neil Bogart
Neil Bogart
Neil Bogart was an American record executive. He is perhaps best known as the founder of Casablanca Records, with Peter Guber....
, with Bob Gaudio (Four Seasons) producing, he recorded "I Want You, I Need You," which peaked at #37 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1981 and reached the Top 10 on Billboards A/C Chart. Cheryl Ladd
Cheryl Ladd
Cheryl Ladd is an American actress, singer and author. Ladd is best known for her role as Kris Munroe in the television series Charlie's Angels, hired amid a swirl of publicity prior to its second season in 1977 to replace the departing Farrah Fawcett-Majors...
sings back-up on the song along with many other Artists on the album including Christopher Cross, Nigel Olsen, Frankie Vallie, Dann Huff, Tommy Funderburk, Bill Champlin, Amy Holland, and Robbie Patton. Robert Kardashin (the Kardashins father) was his manager and was responsible for Chris signing with Boardwalk Records
Boardwalk Records
Boardwalk Records was a record label founded by Neil Bogart in 1980, after PolyGram acquired his Casablanca Records. The label had a huge hit act with Joan Jett before Neil Bogart died of cancer in 1982...
.
Christian has produced albums that have been nominated for nine and won four Grammy Awards. He has also been nominated for seven Gospel Music Association
Gospel Music Association
The Gospel Music Association was founded in 1964 for the purpose of supporting and promoting the development of all forms of Gospel music. There are currently about 4,000 members worldwide...
Dove Awards, winning five. He has also released sixteen other albums.
In 1981, Chris launched his own label Home Sweet Home Records
Home Sweet Home Records
Home Sweet Home Records is a record label, based in Dallas, Texas.Home Sweet Home was founded in 1981, in Nashville, Tennessee, by Grammy Award-winning producer and singer-songwriter Chris Christian...
. On that label he produced albums for White Heart
White Heart
White Heart, also listed as Whiteheart, was a Contemporary Christian Music pop-rock band which formed in 1982. White Heart's discography includes thirteen albums, the most recent of which was released in 1997. Original members Billy Smiley and Mark Gersmehl worked with a continually-changing cast...
, Steve Archer
Steve Archer
Steve Archer is an American singer-songwriter and producer. He is a pioneer of the genre of Jesus music, later to become known as contemporary Christian music...
, Mark Heard
Mark Heard
John Mark Heard was a record producer, folk-rock singer, and songwriter originally from Macon, Georgia, USA....
, Dan Peek
Dan Peek
Daniel Milton 'Dan' Peek was a musician best known as a member of the rock band America from 1970 to 1977, together with Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell...
, B J Thomas, Steve Archer
Steve Archer
Steve Archer is an American singer-songwriter and producer. He is a pioneer of the genre of Jesus music, later to become known as contemporary Christian music...
, Rick Riso, Luke Garrett, Marilyn McCoo
Marilyn McCoo
Marilyn McCoo is an American singer, actress, and television presenter, who is best known for being the lead female vocalist in the group The 5th Dimension, as well as hosting the 1980s music countdown series Solid Gold...
and others.
In 1992 he founded HSH Educational Media and Executive Produced and wrote the music for the popular Children's series "Gerbert" which aired on PBS and what is now ABC Family Channel for 10 years. "Gerbert" won an ACE award for best Pre-School Show.
Chris purchased The Studios at Las Colinas in 1992 with partner Steve Jarchow, buying Jarchows interest in 1993 and purchasing the acreage around the Studios with partner Ross Perot Jr. They sold their interest in the Studio and most of the remaining property in 2003.
Christian was CEO of World Digital Media Group and YMC Records, a joint venture by Radio Shack
Radio shack
Radio shack is a slang term for a room or structure for housing radio equipment.-History:In the early days of radio, equipment was experimental and home-built. The first radio transmitters used a noisy spark to generate radio waves and were often housed in a garage or shed. When radio was first...
, Dish Network
Dish Network
Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...
, Sirius Radio, and CC Entertainment until May 2007.
He was inducted into the West Texas Music Hall of Fame. http://www.westexmusichof.com/artists/chrischristian.html
He was also inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2007.http://www.hallmuseum.com/induction.htm
He recently became an owner of a WNBA team.