Chris Montez
Chris Montez , born as Ezekiel Christopher Montanez (born January 17, 1943 in Los Angeles ), is an American pop singer of Mexican descent.
Musical career
Montez spent his childhood in Hawthorne , a southwestern suburb of Los Angeles. His Hispanic family loved music, and as a child he performed rancheras songs with his brothers . After learning to play the guitar from his brothers, he became interested in rock 'n' roll and especially in Richie Valens . As a teenager he founded his own band, with which he also performed songs he had written. Montez fell on the owner of the record company Monogram Records Jim Lee, who signed him in 1961.
In February 1962, Montez 'first single was released by Monogram, whose A-track All You Had to Do he composed himself. His second record, released three months later, was a great success for Montez. The title Let's Dance climbed to fourth place in the Hot 100 of the US music magazine Billboard and also reached top positions internationally. The record has been sold over a million times worldwide. At the end of the year Montez came back to the Hot 100 with the title Some Kinda Fun, also written by him . These successes earned him participation in numerous TV shows and tours with Sam Cooke and Clyde McPhatter , among others, and appearances in Great Britain. Although Monogram brought out six more singles with Montez, there were no more record successes.
Thereupon Montez ended his engagement with Monogram and concluded a new record deal with the record company A & M Records in early 1965 . There he met Herb Alpert , who produced several of his records in the future and, in view of the dawning beat era , oriented Montez towards the soft ballad style. This measure proved to be the right one, because Montez returned to the Hot 100 (22nd place) with his first single and the title Call Me . The follow-up song The More I See You sold even better, it reached number 16 in the Hot 100 and was also an international success again, with number three in Great Britain. After the sales of Montez records began to stagnate again from 1967, Montez left the A&M record company in 1968.
After a few attempts with the record labels Paramount and Jamie, Montez signed with CBS International in 1972 to revive his career in Europe. He sang singles mainly with new titles in English and Spanish, which were mainly distributed in Germany and the Netherlands. With the new edition of Let's Dance , Montez reached a place in the top 10 (9th) in Great Britain in 1972. With the titles Ay No Digas and Now One Knows Montez came in 1973 in the German hit lists, where he was able to occupy places 20 and 32 respectively. In addition, CBS brought the long-playing records Let's Dance and Ay No Digas onto the European market. In 2008, Frozen Pictures produced the documentary El Viaje Musical de Ezekiel Montanez: The Chris Montez Story , which premiered at the Digital Film Festival in Paso Robles , California in November 2009 .
US discography
Albums
| title | Label / catalog no. | published |
|---|---|---|
| Let's Dance and Have Some Kinda 'Fun | Monogram 100 | 1963 |
| The More I See You | A&M 115 | 1966 |
| Time after time | A&M 120 | 1966 |
| Foolin 'around | A&M 128 | 1967 |
| Watch What Happens | A&M 4157 | 1968 |
| All Time Greatest Hits | Chrysalis | 1992 |
| Greatest hits | Bellaphone | 1995 |
| Watch What Happens | Vivid | 1999 |
| The hits | Sony | 2006 |
| Call Me - A&M Years | Eclipse | 2006 |
| More I See You | Pid | 2012 |
| Time after time | Pid | 2012 |
| Let's dance | Hallmark | 2013 |
Singles
| From page | Catalog no. | published |
|---|---|---|
| Monogram | ||
| All You Had to Do / Love Me | 500 | 2.1962 |
| Let's Dance / You're the One | 505 | 6.1962 |
| Some Kinda Fun / Tell Me | 507 | 11.1962 |
| Rockin 'Blues / Let's Do the Limbo | 508 | 2.1963 |
| In an English Towne / My Baby Loves to Dance | 513 | 1963 |
| No, No, No / Monkey Fever | 516 | 1963 |
| You're the One / All You Had to Do Was Tell Me (with Kathy Young ) | 517 | 1.1964 |
| It Takes Two / To Shoot Curl (with Kathy Young) | 520 | 7.1964 |
| It's Not Puppy Love / He's Been Leading You On | 522 | 1964 |
| AT THE | ||
| Call Me / Go Head on | 780 | 11.1965 |
| The More I See You / You, I Love You | 796 | 4.1966 |
| There Will Never Be Another You / You Can Hurt the One You Love | 810 | 8.1966 |
| Keep Talkin '/ Time After Time | 822 | 10.1966 |
| Because of You / Elena | 839 | 2.1967 |
| Just Friends / Twiggy | 852 | 1967 |
| Follin 'around / dinghy | 855 | 1967 |
| Once in a While / The Face I Love | 906 | 1968 |
| Love Is Here to Stay / Nothing to Hide | 958 | 7.1968 |
| Where Are You Now / Watch What Happens | 985 | 1968 |
| Paramount | ||
| We Can Make the World a Whole Lot Brighter / The End of the Line | 0109 | 1971 |
| Jamie | ||
| Let's Dance / Somebody Loves You | 1410 | 1973 |
Chart placements
Albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
 US
|
|||
| 1966 | The More I See You / Call Me |
US33 (24 weeks) US |
|
| 1967 | Time after time |
US106 (11 weeks) US |
Singles
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 UK
|
US
|
|||
| 1962 | Let's Dance Let's Dance and Have Some Kinda Fun !!! |
DE7 (24 weeks) DE |
AT12 (8 weeks) AT |
UK2 (35 weeks) UK |
US4 (14 weeks) US |
Chart entry in AT only 1973
|
| 1963 | Some Kinda Fun Let's Dance and Have Some Kinda Fun !!! |
DE19 (12 weeks) DE |
- |
UK10 (9 weeks) UK |
US43 (9 weeks) US |
|
| My baby loves to dance |
DE51 (4 weeks) DE |
- | - | - | ||
| 1966 | Call Me The More I See You |
- | - | - |
US22 (10 weeks) US |
|
| The More I See You The More I See You |
DE28 (4 weeks) DE |
- |
UK3 (13 weeks) UK |
US16 (14 weeks) US |
||
| There Will Never Be Another You The More I See You |
- | - |
UK37 (4 weeks) UK |
US33 (8 weeks) US |
||
| Time After Time Time After Time |
- | - | - |
US36 (8 weeks) US |
||
| 1967 | Because Of You Foolin 'Around |
- | - | - |
US71 (5 weeks) US |
|
| 1973 | Ay no digas |
DE20 (19 weeks) DE |
AT1 (20 weeks) AT |
- | - | |
| 1974 | Now One Knew |
DE32 (2 weeks) DE |
AT4 (8 weeks) AT |
- | - | |
| 1979 | Let's Dance / Memphis |
- | - |
UK47 (3 weeks) UK |
- |
with Lonnie Mack
|
gray hatching : no chart data available for this year
literature
- Frank Laufenberg: Rock & Pop Lexicon. Econ Taschenbuch Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-612-26206-8 , Volume 2, p. 1041.
- Martin Popoff : Standard Catalog of American Records 1948–1991. Krause Publications, Iola 2010, ISBN 978-1-4402-1131-7 , p. 821.
Web links
swell
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Montez, Chris |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Montanez, Ezekiel Christopher |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American pop singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 17, 1943 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | los Angeles |