Christopher Frederick Andrews (born 15 October 1942) is an English-German singer-songwriter whose musical career started in the late 1950s.

Career

Andrews was born in

Romford Romford is a large town in east London and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Historically, Romford ...

, Essex, England, and by his mid teens had formed his own group, Chris Ravel and the Ravers.Larkin C ''Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music'', (Muze UK Ltd, 1997) ) p13 On 14 March 1959, he made his British television debut, performing on the '' Oh, Boy!'' show. He would later return in April to perform a

cover Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...

's, "

Move It "Move It" is a song written by Ian Samwell and recorded by Cliff Richard and the Drifters (the English band that would later become "The Shadows"). Originally intended as the B-side to "Schoolboy Crush", it was released as Richard's debut sing ...

". For

Adam Faith Terence Nelhams Wright (23 June 1940 – 8 March 2003), known as Adam Faith, was an English singer, actor, and financial journalist. A teen idol, he scored consecutive No. 1 hits on the UK Singles Chart with " What Do You Want?" (1959) and "P ...

, Andrews wrote "The First Time" (No. 5 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, 1963) and "We Are in Love" (No. 11, 1964), and then a string of hits for

Sandie Shaw Sandie may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Sandie Clair (born 1988), French professional racing cyclist * Sandie Fitzgibbon, Irish former camogie player * Sandie Jones (1950/1951–2019), Irish singer * Sandie Lindsay, 1st Baron Lindsay of Birker (187 ...

. They included " Girl Don't Come" (No. 3, 1964/65), " I'll Stop at Nothing" (No. 4, 1965), " Message Understood" (No. 6, 1965) and " Long Live Love" ( No. 1, 1965). The latter remained a chart topper in the

for three weeks. "Girl Don't Come" was covered by

Cher Cher (; born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Often referred to by the media as the Honorific nicknames in popular music, "Goddess of Pop", she has been described as embodying female ...

on her debut album, ''

All I Really Want to Do "All I Really Want to Do" is a song written by Bob Dylan and featured on his Tom Wilson- produced 1964 album, ''Another Side of Bob Dylan''. It is arguably one of the most popular songs that Dylan wrote in the period immediately after he abandon ...

''. Also in 1965, Andrews as a solo artist, got to No. 3 in the same listings with "

Yesterday Man "Yesterday Man" is a song written by Chris Andrews and was his first single as a solo singer, released in September 1965. It climbed to No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart, and No. 1 in Ireland, New Zealand, Germany and Austria. In England it sold 20,00 ...

", which peaked in Germany at No. 1 for four weeks; followed up with a No. 13 hit in the UK "To Whom It Concerns". The

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

section of this song was used as the theme for

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

's long-running TV programme, '' The Late Late Show'', until 1999, and a re-arranged version returned as the show's theme music in September 2009. As well as obtaining a high placing in the UK

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

, "Yesterday Man" climbed to No. 1 in Ireland and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a

gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

. Later releases were not as successful, but his own hits are seen as early examples of bluebeat influenced white pop music. Although his chart appearances dwindled in Britain by 1966, his chart topping success continued in mainland Europe for a number of years, particularly in Germany, and Andrews often recorded in foreign languages. It is possible that Chris Andrews' huge success in Germany was connected to the fact that his two UK hits, at least, were rhythmically redolent of

Oom-pah Oom-pah, Oompah or Umpapa is an onomatopoeic term describing the rhythmical sound of a deep brass instrument in combination with the response of other instruments or registers in a band, a form of background ostinato. The oom-pah sound is us ...

music (although not intentionally so; see above), thus making them more acceptable to older German audiences who would not have liked many of the other Anglophone songs which became hits there. In South Africa, his later single releases proved particularly popular, with "

Pretty Belinda "Pretty Belinda" is a song written and recorded by Chris Andrews, which he released as a single in July 1969. Commercial success The single did not enter the UK singles charts but it reached the No. 1 spot in Austria and peaked at No. 3 in G ...

" (1969), "Carol OK" and "Brown Eyes" (both 1970) all topping the charts there. "Yo Yo" reached No. 7 at the end of 1970. Andrews remains active in his career as a singer-songwriter, working primarily in continental Europe and in the United Kingdom. He lives with his second wife Alexandra, who is also his manager, in

Selm Selm is a town in the district of Unna, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated approximately 20 kilometers north of Dortmund and 25 kilometers west of Hamm. Geography The town belongs to the southern part of the Münsterland. ...

, Germany, and

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...

. Because of the

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...

vote, Andrews also obtained German citizenship in 2016.

Songwriting credits

*"To Whom It Concerns" –

Keith Keith may refer to: People and fictional characters * Keith (given name), includes a list of people and fictional characters * Keith (surname) * Keith (singer), American singer James Keefer (born 1949) * Baron Keith, a line of Scottish barons ...

*" As Long as You're Happy Baby" –

*"Come Closer" – Adam Faith *" Don't Run Away" – Sandie Shaw *"The First Time" – Adam Faith *" Girl Don't Come" – Sandie Shaw *" Heart of Stone" –

Suzi Quatro Susan Kay Quatro (born June 3, 1950) is an American singer, bass guitarist, songwriter, and actress. In the 1970s, she scored a string of hit singles that found greater success in Europe and Australia than in her homeland, reaching No. 1 in th ...

*"Here's Another Day" – Adam Faith *" How Can You Tell" – Sandie Shaw *"I'll Remember Tonight" –

The Mamas & the Papas The Mamas & the Papas were a folk rock vocal group formed in Los Angeles, California, which recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968. The group was a defining force in the music scene of the counterculture of the 1960s. The group consisted of Am ...

*" I'll Stop at Nothing" – Sandie Shaw *" Long Live Love" – Sandie Shaw *" Message Understood" – Sandie Shaw *" Nothing Comes Easy" – Sandie Shaw *"Nothing Less than Brilliant" – Sandie Shaw *" Run" – Sandie Shaw *" Show Me" – Sandie Shaw *" Think It All Over" – Sandie Shaw *"

Think Sometimes About Me In their most common sense, the terms thought and thinking refer to conscious cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation. Their most paradigmatic forms are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, a ...

" – Sandie Shaw *"

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 ...

" – Sandie Shaw *" Tomorrow" – Sandie Shaw *" We Are in Love" – Adam Faith *"You Don't Love Me" – The Roulettes *" You've Not Changed" – Sandie Shaw

Discography

Singles

References

External links