Return to Rock-and-Roll Page.Chris Montez had one huge hit in the early 60's and a number of other songs on the charts later in the decade.
Born Christopher Montanez in 1943 in Los Angeles, he attended high school with the Beach Boys. At 17 he made his first single She's My Rockin' Baby. Chris Montez was a fan of another Los Angeles area teenager, ill-fated rock star Ritchie Valens. Producer Jim Lee helped to promote Montez, forming a record label called Monogram for him.
The second single that Chris recorded for Monogram proved to be the biggest hit of his career. In the early 60's there were a number of dance tunes on the charts, so he recorded Let's Dance and in 1962 it became a top ten song and a huge hit overseas as well. He followed that with Some Kinda Fun, a song that he had co-written with Jim Lee. It had modest success in the United States but was a top ten song in the UK, sold a million copies, and led to a tour of the UK with the then-emerging Beatles.
In 1966 Chris Montez re-emerged on A&M records, working with Herb Alpert on some songs and re-doing some old standards. Among the songs he put on the charts at this time were The More I See You, Call Me, and Time After Time.
Let's Dance is a song that just won't go away. It was re-issued in 1972 and became a hit song all over again in the UK, then came back again in 1979. It remains a popular song. Chris Montez is still active on the oldies circuit, where he is very popular.
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