Beautiful music by Chris Montez

Posted by Mark Frauenfelder, December 23, 2008 2:18 PM | permalink

The Mayor of Mt. Holly wrote about the wonderful Chris Montez on his blog, and found this 1966 video of his song "The More I See You." Good stuff.

Oh, man how I love Chris Montez. I got turned on to him by my good pal John P. of King Cat fame, and if that is not reason enough to believe that Mr. Montez isn't something of a ray of sunshine on the face of all living creatures, check this!
Those Beatles fellas opened up for Chris Montez at his 1962 London show!
It is alleged that while in London for said show he got into a fight with John Lennon in a pub and that Lennon poured a pint over his head at one point.
Mr. Herb Alpert signed Chris Montez to his fledgling A&M record label, resulting in 3 amazing records of laid back, cheery, latin-infused bliss.

Chris Montez!

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Discussion

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#1 posted by BDiamond , December 23, 2008 3:02 PM

Is it just me, or does Michael Franks (jazz/pop singer/songwriter) sound a lot like Chris Montez?

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#2 posted by Anonymous , December 23, 2008 3:04 PM

there was a commercial in the 80's for a steak sauce (A1?) in Canada... where a cow sings a cover of this song. It was super funny, but I can't seem to find it on the Youtubes.... anyone know what I'm talking about?

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#3 posted by Shrdlu , December 23, 2008 4:25 PM

A lot of singers covered this song. The words were written by Mack Gordon and music by Harry Warren.

It was introduced by Dick Haymes in the 1945 film Diamond Horseshoe, also starring Betty Grable and Phil Silvers (aka Sergeant Bilko).

I recall versions from Nat King Cole and Chet Baker.

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#4 posted by Dave Rattigan

, December 23, 2008 4:57 PM

Dangit, he's kinda cute.

First time I ever actually saw him. I've known the song forever, and always wondered whether "Chris" was a man with a high voice or a woman with a low voice.

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#5 posted by Ugly Canuck , December 23, 2008 5:11 PM

Is this fellow anything like Trini Lopez?

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#6 posted by gretagretchen , December 23, 2008 6:37 PM

Proof again that Herb Alpert is a genius (since he signed this guy)/

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#7 posted by PrettyBoyTim , December 24, 2008 2:19 AM

They seem to have a lot of his stuff in MP3 format on amazon.co.uk - pretty cheap too.

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#8 posted by CVR , December 24, 2008 6:56 AM

Chris Montez is almost a genre unto himself. I've heard the anthology released on CD by A&M records, where he redefines "lightweight" (in a good way). In fact, when I was ripping and tagging the CD for my mp3 player and had to fill in the field for "genre", the only thing I could think of that seemed appropriate for Montez was "Queer". I really do mean that in the best possible way.

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#9 posted by avraamov , December 24, 2008 7:21 AM

anyone who upset lennon gets my vote.

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#10 posted by MayorMike , December 24, 2008 7:29 AM

@ Dave Rattigan:

Funny you should bring up this conundrum about the beautifully androgynous voice of Mr. Montez. The liner notes to his debut A&M record are anchored in one man's account of encountering this very song on the radio and thinking that the DJ announced the singer as Miss Montez.

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#11 posted by DudeCraft , December 25, 2008 5:24 AM

Oh man, thanks for the post on Chris Montez. I am forever trying to find songs with the word "monkey" in the title and I found "Monkey Fever" by Mr. Montez yesterday. What a song! Much appreciated.