Christopher Cross: The Yacht Rock Icon Who Dominated 1980 Before MTV Changed Everything

Back when the Grammys actually meant something in the 80s, no single artist had swept the big four awards… Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Best New Artists… Until Christopher Cross… The most unlikely star of that year, he was facing some fierce competition: Pink Floyd, Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel, Lionel Richie, and Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees. But his song Sailing was so heart-shaking and smooth that it would invent a genre that wouldn’t be named for 30 years in fact: Yacht Rock. In the end Christopher not only beat that fierce batch of artists, but he had such a career year that nobody in their right mind could ever dream of topping it with an Oscar and 5 Grammys. But in the end, he banished the awards to his garage and wondered if was worth it. To this day he remains one of the most distinct voices in history… Nobody has ever been able to mimic it and Christopher's debut album is in a category all by itself. The story is next on Professor of Rock.

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