Chris Rea dies aged 74

Famous for his hit singles including Driving home for Christmas

Chris Rea, the British singer-songwriter known for hits including Driving Home For Christmas, has died at the age of 74.

A statement from his family said that he died “peacefully in hospital … following a short illness”.

Rea blended blues, pop, soul and soft rock on 25 studio albums, featuring hits including The Road to Hell, taken from a UK No 1 album of the same name; Driving Home for Christmas, a perennial seasonal favourite; and tracks such as On the Beach and Josephine that earned popularity in the Balearic dance scene. He sold more than 30m albums.

He was born in 1951 in Middlesbrough to an Italian father and Irish mother, and had six siblings. “To be Irish Italian in a coffee bar in Middlesbrough – I started my life as an outsider,” he later said.

As a young man he dabbled in music while working labouring jobs, including in his father’s ice-cream factory, and considered being a journalist. He eventually joined a band aged 22, Magdalene, who had previously featured David Coverdale (later of Deep Purple). He then joined another band, the Beautiful Losers, but struck out solo when offered a record deal, releasing his debut single, So Much Love, in 1974.

His first flush of success came in the US, where his 1978 song Fool (If You Think It’s Over) reached No 12 and earned him a Grammy nomination for best new artist. He struggled to match that achievement for some years – likening industry machinations in this period to “a big manure heap of bubbling stuff. I had no control over it, I didn’t know what to do” – though the 1985 album Water Sign was a hit across Europe and helped to turn his fortunes around.

The late 1980s were his most commercially successful period: finally embraced in the UK despite often sitting outside the dominant trends in pop, 1987’s Dancing With Strangers began a run of six UK top 10 albums, two of them reaching No 1.