British singer/songwriter Chris Rea, 74, died on Dec. 22, after years of ill health (Cancer! Stroke! Diabetes!). I was going to call him a “rock star,” but he hated that term: “None of my heroes were rock stars,” he said. “I arrived in Hollywood for the Grammy Awards once and thought I was going to bump into people who mattered, like Ry Cooder or Randy Newman. But I was surrounded by pop stars.” His only big hit in the US was "Fool (If You Think It's Over),” but in England he was well known for "I Can Hear Your Heartbeat,” "Stainsby Girls,” "Josephine,” "On the Beach,” "Let's Dance,” "Driving Home for Christmas,” "Working on It,” "Tell Me There's a Heaven,” "Auberge,” and "Julia.” Rea began performing in the early 1970s, and was still working, despite his illnesses, through the 2010s (he also starred in the 1999 film Parting Shots). Rea was the son of a successful ice-cream café owner, which sounds like heaven, but he was not interested in taking over the family business: he liked to "read a lot and even though I chose music, journalism was my first passion. I wanted to be a journalist and write about car racing. Somewhere deep down I believe I could have been a decent journalist.”
“Fool (If You Think It's Over)” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aZBqrHs4qo&list=RD3aZBqrHs4qo&start_radio=1
