Singer-Songwriter Lou Christie Dies at 82 After Brief Illness

Lou Christie, the pop music icon best known for his 1966 chart-topper Lightnin’ Strikes, has passed away at the age of 82. His wife, Francesca, confirmed that he died at home in Pittsburgh following a short illness.

Born Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco, Christie rose to fame in the early 1960s with his distinctive falsetto voice and a string of hits co-written with his longtime collaborator, Twyla Herbert. Their breakthrough came with The Gypsy Cried and Two Faces Have I in 1963, and the duo continued to create music that resonated with fans, including the 1969 hit I’m Gonna Make You Mine and the controversial Rhapsody in the Rain in 1966.

Christie and Herbert, a classically trained musician nearly 22 years his senior, wrote hundreds of songs together. Reflecting on their partnership, Christie told Goldmine magazine in 2005, “I never worked with anyone else who was that talented, that original, that exciting. She was just bizarre, and I was twice as bizarre as her.”

Although he recorded his last album in 2004, Lou Christie continued performing live, touring alongside fellow legends Frankie Avalon and Fabian as part of Dick Fox’s Golden Boys.

Lou Christie is survived by his wife Francesca, a former British beauty queen he married in 1971, and their daughter Bianca. Their son, Christopher, tragically died in a motorcycle accident in 2014 at the age of 46.