Lou Christie, ‘Lightnin' Strikes' Pop Crooner, Is Dead at 82

New York Times

20-06-2025

Lou Christie, who with his heartthrob persona and piercing falsetto rode high on the mid-1960s pop charts with hits like 'Lightnin' Strikes' and 'Two Faces Have I,' while transcending teen-idol status by helping to write his own material, died on Wednesday at his home in Pittsburgh. He was 82.
His family announced the death on social media, saying only that he died 'after a brief illness.'
With his perky doo-wop-inflected melodies and his gymnastic vocal range, Mr. Christie was at times compared to Frankie Valli of the Four Seasons. Like Mr. Valli, Mr. Christie hit his stride as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the other guitar groups of the British Invasion were starting to shatter the handsome-teen-crooner archetype personified by the likes of Fabian and Frankie Avalon.
'They started disappearing,' Mr. Christie once said of such singers in an interview with the site Classic Bands. 'It was so interesting that I kept going. I hit the end of that whole era.
'I've always been between the cracks of rock 'n' roll, I felt. The missing link.'
Even in changing times, he held his own, thanks in part to the songs he wrote with his songwriting partner, Twyla Herbert, who was two decades his senior. The songs they created together had more emotional complexity than the standard odes to puppy love.
While his debut album, released in 1963, failed to make a splash, two of the singles featured on that album climbed the charts. 'The Gypsy Cried' reached No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963. 'Two Faces Have I,' a showcase for Mr. Christie's signature falsetto, climbed to No. 6 a few months later.
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