GRETCHEN CHRISTOPHER ~ "Good As Gold" The Artist and Her Music ~TEENAGE SUCCESS:A Leap Year Baby, born February 29th, to musical parents, Helen and Ian Christopher, in Olympia, Washington, Gretchen Diane Christopher committed her life to the arts before her fifth birthday. She wrote a high school paper entitled "Give Me Professional Entertainment!" and made her professional debut singing solo, choreographing and dancing for television. A few months later, Gretchen composed the song "Come Softly" at the piano at Olympia High School. For the Senior Class Talent Assembly, she sang and combined it in counterpoint with the street corner humming and harmony of two classmates, creating "Come Softly To Me" and the trio who would become "The Fleetwoods."Gretchen recorded the song and the trio at home and took the tape to Seattle Record Promoter Bob Reisdorff. He listened, said, "It'll sell a million!" and formed Dolphin (soon changed to Dolton) Records. "Come Softly To Me" became the #1 Record, Best Selling Sheet Music in the U.S. and Britain, a worldwide hit, and the first Gold Record (million-seller) produced on a Northwest label.
Co-written by former-fellow-cheerleaders Gretchen Christopher and Barbara Ellis for their Senior Class Party, "Graduation's Here," was the second Top 40 Hit (#1Hit "Come Softly To Me" being the first) on which Gretchen sang lead, with Barbara adding kid-glove harmony, and Gary Troxel a doo-wop scat back-up.When not singing melody, Gretchen led the vocal arranging, harmonizing and creating the dynamic fills and answer lines that earmarked the "Fleetwoods Sound" -- with the third member following her in close harmony. Such was the case with their third release, "Mr. Blue", which also turned to Gold.With "Come Softly To Me" and "Mr. Blue", The Fleetwoods became the only group in the world to have two #1 Hits top The Billboard Hot 100 in 1959. And according to Jerry Osborne's Ask Mr. Music column (6/12/06), "From 1940 through 1969, The Fleetwoods are the only mixed-gender trio to have more than one No 1 hit."After eleven hit singles on Billboard's Hot 100, including nine Top 40, three of these Top Ten, and two Number One, The Fleetwoods chose retirement, and Gretchen continued to write and perform, keeping The Fleetwoods name and music alive.GRETCHEN CHRISTOPHER, MANAGER OF THE FLEETWOODS:Following the success of her solo concerts, in 1982 the other group members asked Gretchen to reorganize The Fleetwoods and train a replacement for Barbara Ellis, the female member who retired. Gretchen Christopher signed to serve as Manager, with "the sole authority to bind the Original and Replacement Fleetwoods by contract for any performance commitment as manager deems appropriate to carry out the business of The Fleetwoods."Utilizing her talents as choreographer, scriptwriter, graphic designer, publicist and P.R. person, Gretchen expanded the trio's performance opportunities and repertoire beyond just the usually-requested top three songs. She created a fully choreographed, 20-song, one-hour show, complete with dialogue and costume changes. As Manager, she negotiated bookings for the group, from Southern Cal Expo at Del Mar to Madison Square Garden in New York, from Americana Lake Geneva to the Tropicana in Las Vegas, resulting in the most active period of performing since The Fleetwoods first hit.Near the end of 1983, Gary Troxel, the male member of the group, submitted his written resignation, giving up his right to perform as The Fleetwoods. Gretchen Christopher remained, the only Original still performing. Under contract as the sole authority to carry out the business of the Fleetwoods, Gretchen auditioned and trained Replacements on both coasts, and continued to keep the name and music alive, interspersing group bookings between solo performances, as she does to this day.GRETCHEN CHRISTOPHER SOLO ARTIST:After 11 Billboard hit singles and 15 albums as The Fleetwoods' lead female vocalist, arranger and BMI Million Airs Songwriter, Gretchen Christopher is now writing, recording, producing and releasing her first SOLO CD, Gretchen's SWEET SIXTEEN! (SUITE 16).
The autobiographical concept album tells a poignant love story through 16 sweet, soulful, insightful, songs (including new recordings of #1 Hit "Come Softly To Me", Top 40 Hit "Graduations Here", "Time of Love" and "Blues Go Away").When Gretchen was 16 and "he" was 18 (the older man in her life), they met and fell in love for the very first time. (Who knew it would last all his life?) Two years later, she left to pursue her dreams. Achieving story book success, first solo and then as The Fleetwoods; yet finding loneliness at the top, she poured her feelings into writing songs reflecting love and loss, dealing with depression, searching for self and a new attitude.Now, after nearly four decades apart, she and her first love are together again! And Gretchen's sweet 16, again (born February 29th! It is the stuff of dreams (what if we could meet our first love again?) - a true story, and an inspiration to young loves and lost loves of every age.The CD may be ordered or sound clips heard by clicking
Gretchen's SWEET SIXTEEN!QUICK QUOTES:BMI Million Airs Songwriter/Recording Artist Gretchen Christopher creates a rare rapport with audiences.
"She wraps her warm voice around you and leads you down a goose pimple path."Upon hearing Gretchen perform live, Legendary Jazz Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie pronounced,
"You sing like an angel."Meeting Gretchen at the Grammy Awards, Winner Linda Ronstadt exclaimed,
"I love your music!"Gretchen's music has the quality of standards. Her autobiographical lyrics and memorable melodies express themselves softly, profoundly; documenting feelings and experiences from teen years through love, loss, laughter and life thereafter. Audiences
share her musical journey, from the 1959 Gold #1 Record and Best Selling Sheet Music "COME SOFTLY TO ME" ('n doo be doo, Dom dom) and Top 40 Hit "GRADUATION'S HERE" (both of which she co-wrote and sang lead on, with The Fleetwoods) to the inspiring and soul-bared lyrics, dynamic and haunting tunes she's writing today, worthy of Broadway.MOTION PICTURES:Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) has twice named Songwriter Christopher and "Come Softly To Me" BMI "Million Airs," having logged over two million radio air plays in the USA. Translated and recorded by nearly 100 different artists, worldwide, the song is also heard in the films:* STAND BY ME
* CLEAN & SOBER
* CROSSING DELANCEY
* 28 DAYSBesides numerous television performances, Gretchen appears in one movie, is portrayed in another, and her Fleetwoods hits are featured in the soundtracks of a dozen motion pictures, including:* AMERICAN GRAFFITI
* DINER
* RETURN TO MACON COUNTY
* AMERICAN HOT WAX
* NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATIONHer music is familiar to the youngest movie-goers, as well as the millions who bought her records and hear them broadcast today.Cited as "Actress-Singer-Composer" with the ability to dramatize a song and move an audience beyond the mere recitation of lyrics and music, Gretchen Christopher received, in December 1992, the Southern California Motion Picture Council's highest honor, the Jeanie Golden Halo Eagle Award, for her contribution to the Entertainment Industry and Performing Arts.MORE HONORS & DISTINCTIONS:When she reprised her autobiographical show "Come Softly To Me, Gretchen Christopher" at Hollywood's Cinegrill in 1993 and '94, the Music & Performing Arts Angels presented to her, for lifetime achievement, the Angel Victory Award, naming Gretchen Christopher "Inspirational star, singer, composer, artist, dancer, choreographer." The latest in a distinguished line of honorees, from Sammy Davis Jr. in 1979, to Debbie Reynolds in 1993.Making her life and living in the arts, Gretchen danced, choreographed and sang solo on television at age 17, founded The Fleetwoods at age 18, sang lead on more than 20 of their recordings and wrote 11 of them. She's performed and led the vocal arranging on 15 albums, including 11 nationally charted hits ("TRAGEDY", "GOODNIGHT MY LOVE", and "(He's) THE GREAT IMPOSTER", to name a few). They spent a total of 110 weeks on The Billboard Hot 100, five of those at Number One, with "COME SOFTLY TO ME" and "MR. BLUE".In 1988, delighting the audience by wearing the same gown she'd worn 28 years earlier when Dick Clark presented her with her first Gold Records, dancer trim, blonde and blue-eyed Gretchen accepted another Gold Record as The Fleetwoods were inducted into the NW MUSIC HALL OF FAME.Kicking off the 1990's CD, THE BEST OF THE FLEETWOODS, with her concert by the same name, Gretchen reprised the classics, then introduced one of her new up-tempo tunes and wowed the audience with her dancing and an energy only hinted at in the trio's recordings. Result: Two encores, a standing ovation, and an invitation to headline (with her own songs) the Bob Hope USO Show for the "Chosin Few" (2000+) at the Tropicana in Las Vegas (for survivors of the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir).WORLD CLASS COMMUNICATOR:Solo, Gretchen has performed her new music and world renowned hits in London, Manchester, Moscow, Helsinki, Brussels, Edinburgh, and Paris; and in North America, from Hollywood to New York, and from Mexico City to the Worlds Fair in Vancouver, British Columbia. She's sung and danced across Europe and was featured in "Celebrity Corner" on the HAL Scandinavian Symphony Cruise, as well as the First Caribbean Cruise of the New Millennium.PIONEER, MENTOR:A resident of her birthplace, Olympia, Washington, "the hippest town in the West" (TIME Magazine, re: Ladyfest), Gretchen paved the way for many artists. Besides leading by example (her trio The Fleetwoods being the first Northwest label artists to achieve national #1 Hits and earn Gold Records for millions of sales, now equivalent to Platinum), Gretchen offered workshops in the performing arts.Her Jazz Dance classes were the nucleus around which The Evergreen State College (TESC) formed its Leisure Education Program. Instructing through three decades, between performances, she introduced and taught Disco Dancing, A Cappella Doo-Wop Singing, Ballet, Swing and more. From the Seventies, into the new Millennium, Christopher and her dancers provided the first and annual entertainment for TESC Super Saturday, the biggest 1-day festival in Washington.In 1978, appointed to St. Martin's College Adjunct Faculty as Sr. Lecturer 1 in the Discipline of Fine Arts (equivalent to PhD), Christopher introduced Jazz Dance into their curriculum and numbered monks among her students.In 2000, acknowledged for a lifetime of achievements, Gretchen Christopher was honored and asked to speak as one of St. Martin's College's select "Voices of Washington."Christopher continues to be a woman of many "firsts". In Seattle, she performed for the June 25, 2000, Grand Opening Concert of the Experience Music Project (EMP), which exhibits her first Fleetwoods tour costume and Gold Records, the first earned by a Northwest artist.Gretchen's performances of Jazz, Gospel, and Fleetwoods hits followed, in July, at (Ventures Guitarist) Nokie's First Northwest Music Celebration, in Veneta, Oregon.In August, Gretchen Christopher and the Coasters opened Issaquah's First Full Scale Music Festival. In November, instead of reprising her California appearance at the lavish anniversary celebration of the Mark Victor Hansens (authors/editors of Best Selling Book series CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL) for whom she'd performed an original song, Gretchen chose to serve as Panelist for the first ROCKRGRL Music Convention in 2000.WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH:In 2001, despite its being the day after the earthshaking 6.8 Nisqually Quake of February 28, Gretchen came through with her scheduled show at Skagit Valley Casino above Seattle: "Gretchen Christopher, the Original Voice of The Fleetwoods" lifted spirits, much as she had in Hollywood, when she flew in to fulfill her Cinegrill contract and the needs of shaken but devoted fans, after the Northridge Quake.In 2001, to benefit survivors of the September 11th terrorists' attacks on America, Gretchen dedicated one of her solo concerts to an evening of fundraising. October 13th, (chosen in memory of the birth date, life, love and loss of her niece, Dawn Christopher, 1964 - 2001) Gretchen temporarily transported the audience beyond the tragedies, with grace, spontaneity, gentle humor, and two hours of her new music and Fleetwoods hits, contributing (through the Salvation Army and American Red Cross) all proceeds of her work, "Come Softly To Me" For Peace on Earth.WRITING & RECORDING:Gretchen continues to compose original music and lyrics. Recording in California, Texas and Washington, she is currently compiling a CD of her new songs which, in solo concerts, have brought standing ovations.SOUNDCLIPS:Click here to hear:
Gretchen's SWEET SIXTEEN!
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