Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco (Lou Christie) Obituary (1943 - 2025)

Born Feb 19, 1943, Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco (Lou Christie) attended Moon High School in Moon Township, PA. View the obituary, post a memory, or share a photo about Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco (lou Christie).

Graduation Year	Class of 1961
Date of Birth	Feb 19, 1943
Date of Passing	Jun 18, 2025
About	Lou Christie, the Pittsburgh legend who hit the high notes and the high spots on the charts, has died at 82. A social media post from his family on Christie’s Facebook page on Wednesday noted, “It is with deep sorrow that we share the passing of our beloved brother, Lou Christie, who left us after a brief illness. “He was cherished, not only by his family and close friends, but also by countless fans whose lives he touched with his kindness and generosity, artistic and musical talent, humor, and spirit. His absence leaves a profound void in all our hearts. He will be greatly missed, always remembered in forever loved.” Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco grew up near the old Pittsburgh Airport in the Glenwillard section of Crescent Township and did his earliest singing in school and church. Despite a voice teacher urging him toward classical music, the sound of Pittsburgh’s own Jimmy Beaumont (of The Skyliners) steered him toward pop. While attending Moon Area High School, he debuted as Lugee & The Lions in 1959. “When I started out it was all just sheer determination and desire and passion to create a career for myself in music,” he told the Post-Gazette in 2015. Backed by local record man Nick Cenci, he entered Pittsburgh’s Gateway Studio and came out with “The Gypsy Cried,” a song penned with writing partner Twyla Herbert. Cenci changed his name to Lou Christie (to the singer’s surprise) and released “The Gypsy Cried” on the local Co&Ce label. The song became his first million seller and a No. 24 single in 1963 with help from the New York label Roulette Records. Christie topped that success a few months later with another falsetto heartbreaker, “Two Faces Have I,” which went to No. 6. Throughout the star-making process, the young singer found himself firmly resisting the best attempts by handlers to mold him into just another teen idol. One of Christie’s first road experiences was playing the Chitlin’ Circuit down South as part of the 1964 Dick Clark Caravan of Stars. “I traveled with the Supremes, Drifters, Crystals, Ronettes, and we all jumped on a bus 31 nights in a row and slept on the bus every other night and slept in a hotel room every other night. Dick was on the bus the first couple years,” he told the PG. “We’d travel 300 miles a day, all through the South. It was like a freedom bus. It was a dangerous period we went through in the early ’60s, that whole Selma thing. They wouldn’t let us go into diners. People shot at the bus and threw rocks at the bus. They would say, ‘We’re going stop the show tonight because the white people can’t go on if the band is Black, and the Black people can’t go on …’ and we said, ‘No, this is what the show is.’ We all stuck together.” He went on to sign with the Columbia Pictures label Colpix, which had its sights on grooming him for the big screen. “They wanted me to take Frankie Avalon’s place on the beach party stuff,” he said, “and I thought, ‘Oh, I don’t think I want to do that. That was already done.” After a six-month interruption of his career to join the Army Reserve, he came back to soar over The Beatles, Stones and Motown groups to No. 1 on the charts with “Lightnin’ Strikes.” He scored another hit with “Rhapsody in the Rain,” a song banned by the Catholic Church for its risque lyrics, and took his act to British TV shows like “Top of the Pops” and “Ready, Steady Go!” His success continued past the mop top era with “I’m Gonna Make You Mine” in 1969 and 1971’s “Paint America Love,” a hippie-ish orchestral pop album. “It was some of the best work I’d ever done and the record label did not know what to do with it,” he told the PG. “They had no concept of what I was doing and I was trying to get away from ‘aye-aye-aye.’ I was starting to think different. I was growing up.” During that period, he married former Miss England Francesca Winfield, and they had a son and daughter while living between England and New York. His final impact on the charts was the 1974 country album “Beyond the Blue Horizon,” rooted in his boyhood love of the Grand Ole Opry and the WWVA Jamboree in Wheeling. He hit No. 13 on the Adult Contemporary chart with the title track. After the country experiment, he moved back to Pittsburgh for a time and took a job driving a truck. When disco hit, Christie in the late ‘70s, Christie formed the dance-pop label 2001 in conjunction with the local 2001/VIP clubs. The ’80s brought the oldies revival era, which put him back on the road on tours as the Golden Boys of Bandstand with Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell and Fabian. Christie remained a favorite in the oldies world because when it was time to hit those high notes, he shocked crowds by getting up there, even in his 70s. Christie’s final post on Facebook, on June 15, was about the loss of Brian Wilson, noting, “Brian Wilson wrote the soundtrack of our Summer.” “Shocked & Saddened to hear Lou Christie has passed away,” Fabian posted on Facebook. “Didn’t know about his illness and now he’s gone. Unbelievable. A true friend and obviously a great talent. Shocked and Stunned.” “I first knew him as Lugee of Lugee and the Lions before any of the hits,” Ed Salamon, longtime radio executive and author of “Pittsburgh’s Golden Age of Radio,” told the PG. “He was one of the few artists I met before I got into radio. We met at Volkwein’s, a sheet music store on Forbes Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh. I still talked with him every couple of months. We were friends for more than 60 years. It was one of my proudest moments when he asked me to receive his award and give his acceptance speech when he was inducted into the Pittsburgh Rock ‘N Roll Legends in 2015.” Pittsburgh pianist Craig Zinger, who performed and recorded with Christie, said in a Facebook post, “...every moment with Lou was filled with unforgettable music, laughter, and heart. His voice was one-of-a-kind, but even more special was the warmth and spirit he brought to every note and every room. Honored to have been part of that journey with him.” “What a legacy Lou leaves behind, not only in his songs such as ‘Lightning Strikes,’ ‘Two Faces Have I’ and ‘Rhapsody In The Rain,’ but also in his tireless showmanship,” his friend Bruce Roberts posted on Facebook. “I often would stand in the wings and marvel at his boundless energy and humor with the audience and band. He had respect for everyone. He knew he owed his career to each person who crossed his path.”