Christopher Cross was no longer the name of a group. He accepted his Grammys unaccompanied by his bandmates. “Ride Like the Wind” and “Sailing” were massive hits, and at the Grammy Awards in February 1981, Cross became the first artist to win Best New Artist and Album, Record, and Song of the Year in one night. But almost as soon as it was released in December 1979, Christopher Cross was a sixty-point-headline boffo smash. Omartian reportedly spent seven hundred hours in the studio with the band and a succession of big-name guests, from stars like Michael McDonald and Don Henley to triple-scale ringers Larry Carlton and Jay Graydon. “But I thought Chris was a great pop writer.”Īt the weekly Wednesday morning A&R meeting, his enthusiasm for Cross puzzled his bosses-Warners had already moved into new wave and punk rock, anticipating a new decade-but they allowed him to sign the band and produce its album. office of Warners in mid-1978, A&R employees rolled their eyes, except for Michael Omartian, a junior member of the staff, who especially liked “Sailing” and “Ride Like the Wind.” “It wasn’t what Warners considered cool,” he told me. When a new Christopher Cross demo arrived at the L.A. They’d heard his music and shrugged at this Texas songwriter who didn’t sound a lick like he was from Texas. Geppert wanted to be in their company, literally and figuratively.īut the accomplished and opinionated A&R executives at Warners who were charged with signing new talent didn’t reciprocate Geppert’s affections. In this era, the roster at Warner/Reprise included Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot, Van Morrison, Randy Newman, Bonnie Raitt, Todd Rundgren, James Taylor, and Neil Young. Records, a label that was renowned for turning singer-songwriters into stars. In the late seventies, Geppert, front man and songwriter for the Austin four-piece band called Christopher Cross, periodically sent demos to Warner Bros. Chris Geppert knew where he wanted Christopher Cross to go.

Futurama whatevers in that box