Chris Montez (born
Ezekiel Christopher Montanez, January 17, 1943,
Los AngelesLos Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
), is a
Mexican AmericanMexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. They account over 12.5% of the country's population: 28.3 million Americans listed their ancestry as Mexican as of 2006 forming about 64% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States. The United States is home to the second largest Mexican...
singer.
Montez grew up in
Hawthorne, CaliforniaHawthorne is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. The city in 2000 had a population of 84,112.- History :Hawthorne's first known residents were Indians of the Shoshonian linguistic group, occupying the South Bay, Los Angeles area as early as the 1500s...
, influenced by the
LatinoThe demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American or Spanish-speaking descent."* "A Latin American."...
flavored music of his community and the success of
Ritchie ValensRichard Steven "Ritchie" Valenzuela , better known by the stage name Ritchie Valens, was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist....
.
In 1962, he
recordedSound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
the
singleIn music, a single is a short recording of one or more separate tracks. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats.-History:...
, "
Let's Dance"Let's Dance" is a 1962 hit-single by Chris Montez, written and produced by Jim Lee. It went to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S., and to #2 in the UK Singles Chart.The song was later covered by Ramones on their debut album...
" on Monogram Records. It went to #4 on the
Billboard Hot 100The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chartA record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
in the
U.S.The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and to #2 on the
UK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record industry. The full chart contains the top 200 singles based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 of this list...
.
Although Montez toured with
Clyde McPhatterClyde McPhatter was an American R&B singer.-Life and career:McPhatter was raised in a religious Baptist family, and formed a gospel group in 1945 after his family moved to New Jersey...
,
Sam CookeSamuel "Sam" Cook was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music....
,
The PlattersThe Platters were a successful vocal group of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive sound was a bridge between the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition, and the burgeoning new genre...
, and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, there were no more hits for Montez until four years later.
Chris Montez (born
Ezekiel Christopher Montanez, January 17, 1943,
Los AngelesLos Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
), is a
Mexican AmericanMexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. They account over 12.5% of the country's population: 28.3 million Americans listed their ancestry as Mexican as of 2006 forming about 64% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States. The United States is home to the second largest Mexican...
singer.
Early life
Montez grew up in
Hawthorne, CaliforniaHawthorne is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. The city in 2000 had a population of 84,112.- History :Hawthorne's first known residents were Indians of the Shoshonian linguistic group, occupying the South Bay, Los Angeles area as early as the 1500s...
, influenced by the
LatinoThe demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American or Spanish-speaking descent."* "A Latin American."...
flavored music of his community and the success of
Ritchie ValensRichard Steven "Ritchie" Valenzuela , better known by the stage name Ritchie Valens, was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist....
.
In 1962, he
recordedSound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
the
singleIn music, a single is a short recording of one or more separate tracks. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats.-History:...
, "
Let's Dance"Let's Dance" is a 1962 hit-single by Chris Montez, written and produced by Jim Lee. It went to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S., and to #2 in the UK Singles Chart.The song was later covered by Ramones on their debut album...
" on Monogram Records. It went to #4 on the
Billboard Hot 100The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chartA record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
in the
U.S.The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and to #2 on the
UK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record industry. The full chart contains the top 200 singles based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 of this list...
.
Although Montez toured with
Clyde McPhatterClyde McPhatter was an American R&B singer.-Life and career:McPhatter was raised in a religious Baptist family, and formed a gospel group in 1945 after his family moved to New Jersey...
,
Sam CookeSamuel "Sam" Cook was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music....
,
The PlattersThe Platters were a successful vocal group of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive sound was a bridge between the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition, and the burgeoning new genre...
, and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, there were no more hits for Montez until four years later. This was despite
The BeatlesThe Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960 who became one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music...
opening a
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
concertA concert is a live performance, usually of music, before an audience. The music may be performed by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band. Informal names for a concert include "show" and "gig"...
for him while performing with
Tommy RoeFor the English footballer of the same name see Tommy Roe Tommy Roe is an American pop music singer-songwriter....
.
1966 comeback
Montez returned to the
recording studioA recording studio is a facility for sound recording. Ideally, the space is specially designed by an acoustician to achieve the desired acoustic properties...
in 1965, this time at
A&M RecordsA&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group which operates through the Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
. Montez was searching for the same
rock and rollRock and roll is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States after World War II in the late 1940s, from a combination of the rhythms of the blues, from the African American culture, and from America's country music and gospel music scenes...
formula that would replicate the success of "Let's Dance". During a recording session, A&M co-founder
Herb AlpertHerbert "Herb" Alpert is an American musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass or just TJB...
(who co-produced Montez's first A&M album) suggested that Montez try a different approach: a middle of the road, soft
balladA ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative and set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later North America, Australia and North Africa. Many...
sound. Though reluctant at first, Montez agreed to go along with his mentor's suggestion.
"Call Me" (a
Tony HatchTony Hatch is an English composer, songwriter, pianist, music arranger, and producer...
composition) was the first single released from his 1966 A&M
albumAn album or record album is a collection of related audio or music tracks distributed to the public. The most common way is through commercial distribution, although smaller artists will often distribute directly to the public by selling their albums at live concerts or on their websites.-...
,
The More I See You. The title single from the album, sung in a soft, very high tenor range and played on primarily adult-formatted
radio stationRadio broadcasting is an audio broadcasting service, broadcast through the air as radio waves from a transmitter to an antenna and a thus to a receiving device. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast common programming, either in syndication or simulcast or both...
s, confused some
disc jockeyA disc jockey is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, dis
k referred to phonograph records, while dis
c referred to the Compact Disc, and has become the more common spelling...
s, who were unfamiliar with Montez's past work. When announcing the song, the DJs would often refer to Montez as a female. But by the time the album was released, Montez' pictures on the front and back of the jacket cleared up any mystery surrounding his
genderGender commonly refers to the set of characteristics that humans perceive as distinguishing between male and female entities, extending from one's biological sex to, in humans, one's social role or gender identity. As a term, "gender" has more than one valid definition...
, as explained in the album's notes on the back of the record jacket.
The More I See You album yielded three Top 40 singles for Montez: The title cut, plus "Call Me" and "There Will Never Be Another You".
Later years
Montez recorded three more albums for A&M:
Time After Time,
Foolin' Around, and
Watch What Happens. None of these albums mirrored the success of
The More I See You. The title cut "
Time After Time"Time After Time" is a jazz standard written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne in 1947.It was first introduced by Frank Sinatra in the 1947 movie It Happened in Brooklyn.It has been recorded by many artists, including:...
", did reach #36 on the
Billboard Hot 100The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, but no other singles made the top 40. Subsequent singles hit below the top 40, or only on the Billboard Easy Listening Top 40. Following the release of
Watch What Happens in 1968, Montez left A&M Records.
In November 1972, Montez charted a
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
hit in
BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the fifth largest country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean...
: "Loco por ti (Crazy About You)".
Montez resurfaced in 1974 at
CBS RecordsCBS Records is a record label founded by CBS Corporation in 2006 to take advantage of music from its entertainment properties owned by CBS Television Studios. The initial label roster consisted of only three artists; rock band Señor Happy and singer/songwriters Will Dailey and P.J...
, with the release of a new LP,
The Best of Chris Montez, a mix of both old and new recordings.
Montez recorded one more album for CBS:
Raza: Ay No Digas, which did well
internationalInternational or internationally most often describes interaction between nations, or encompassing two or more nations, constituting a group or association having members in two or more nations, or generally reaching beyond national boundaries...
ly, but failed to make an impact in the U.S. His final album, with exclusively
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
-language material, was
Cartas de Amor, released on the independent label AYM in 1983.
Montez today
Most of his American appearances in 2007 were in
BransonBranson is a city in Taney County in the U.S. state of Missouri. It was named for Rueben Branson, postmaster and operator of a general store in the area in the 1880s. Branson is a popular destination for vacationers from Missouri and the surrounding states. The population was 6,050 at the 2000 census...
,
MissouriMissouri is a state in the Midwest region of the United States bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Missouri is the 18th most populous state with a 2008 estimated population of 5,911,605. It comprises 114 counties and one independent city....
.
In July, 2008,
Frozen PicturesFrozen Pictures is a motion picture, television and multimedia production company founded and operated by veteran producers and writers Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns....
announced plans to produce a documentary musical film on Montez's life and career. "'Chris Montez is an incredibly influential musician whose life and music have touched on every major thread in rock ‘n' roll, from Latino rock to R&B, Sixties pop to lounge, surf to punk,' said
Burt KearnsBurt Kearns is an American television and film producer, writer, director, screenwriter, journalist and author, possibly best known for his controversial 1999 tabloid television memoir, Tabloid Baby.-Recent Highlights:...
, who writes, produces or directs all of Frozen's projects with
Brett HudsonBrett Hudson musician, singer/songwriter possibly best known as the youngest of the 1970s group the Hudson Brothers is now a TV producer and writer living in Malibu, California. Formed the production company Frozen Pictures with Burt Kearns...
. 'His story is epic.'
As of 2009, Chris Montez continues to perform throughout the U.S. and Internationally.
Chart singles
- "Let's Dance
"Let's Dance" is a 1962 hit-single by Chris Montez, written and produced by Jim Lee. It went to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S., and to #2 in the UK Singles Chart.The song was later covered by Ramones on their debut album...
" (1962) #4 U.S.The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, #2 UKThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record industry. The full chart contains the top 200 singles based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 of this list...
- "Some Kinda Fun" (1962) #43 U.S.
- "Call Me" (1966) #22 U.S., #2 U.S. AC
- "The More I See You
"The More I See You" is a popular song.The music was written by Harry Warren, the lyrics by Mack Gordon. The song was published in 1945,and sung by Dick Haymes in the film Diamond Horseshoe....
" (1966) #16 U.S., #2 U.S. AC
- "There Will Never Be Another You" (1966) #33 U.S., #4 U.S. AC
- "Time After Time
"Time After Time" is a jazz standard written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne in 1947.It was first introduced by Frank Sinatra in the 1947 movie It Happened in Brooklyn.It has been recorded by many artists, including:...
" (1966) #36 U.S., #12 U.S. AC
- "Because of You
"Because of You" is a popular song. It was written by Arthur Hammerstein and Dudley Wilkinson in 1940. It was used in the 1951 movie I Was an American Spy....
" (1967) #71 U.S., #25 U.S. AC
- "The Face I Love" (1968) #15 U.S. AC
- "Love Is Here To Stay
"Love Is Here to Stay" is a popular song and a jazz standard. The music was written by George Gershwin, the lyrics by Ira Gershwin, for the movie The Goldwyn Follies which was released shortly after George Gershwin's death. "Our Love Is Here to Stay" also appeared, perhaps most memorably, in the...
" (1968) #38 U.S. AC
External links