Song ID: John Christie – “4th of July” (1974)
Rare little beauty written by Paul McCartney. This 45 is apparently John Christie’s only release and also the only thing I know about him.
Update (12/06/10): My “only release” pronouncement has been mercifully disproven by Herman Hamerpagt (see comments below). Christie, who was a discovery of Dave Clark (of the Dave Clark 5) actually put out an album called Relax in ’74 and had a hand in Clark’s ’80s musical Time. A record hunter’s work is never done.
John Christie – “4th of July” (1974)
April 11th, 2009 at 5:11 am
Thank you for posting this. I have nearly everything by Macca but have NEVER heard this anywhere else.
April 11th, 2009 at 5:22 am
Hey, my pleasure. It’s ridiculous how hard it is to find this…
April 11th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Thanks
Could have been great if Macca had done this
April 12th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I wonder how he came to get this McCatney gem ??? Did he know Paul already ??
Interesting….I would love to hear a McCartney demo….
April 12th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
I’m guessing JC was a fleeting pet project of Paul’s since he’d also produced it. Would love to find out more…
April 19th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
This single was released for 1 day and withdrawn.
July 4th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Is this 45 a commercial copy for the public? I have one, but it is a white label promo copy.
October 6th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
I can’t hear anything! There’s no link. Please post it again!!
Thank you from Brazil.
December 6th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
The single “4th Of July” is not the only record released by John Christie. John comes from Australia and Dave Clark (from the Dave Clark Five) discovered John and produced all his records, that means 12 singles, 1 album and 1 cd.
John can also be heard on the soundtrack album of Dave Clark’s musical “Time”.
John starred in a lot of West End musicals and I’ve heard he’s now singing regulary on cruise ships.
December 6th, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Thank you!!! See update above.
November 20th, 2011 at 6:59 pm
I was able to get a promo copy.
I am a great fan of the Beatles and Macca.
I really would like to know what this song would have turned to if Macca had been the one to record it himself.
It is a great piece of music and only such a fantastic musician like Macca could give away such a good and beautiful song.
September 10th, 2018 at 2:47 pm
He also released a single called “Everybody but me” although that may have been the B side of 4th of July but was my preferred once I discovered it, not because I didn’t like 4th of July. In addition, he released an album called Relax the “Relax” song went “Relax and just take your time, ease all the pain in your crowded mind, tell me what’s so wrong and tell me what goes on”. I was a member of his fan club in the 1970s. He had a deep sexy voice on the Album. Doesn’t seem to be much about him online though if he was in concert I would love to go see him.
August 30th, 2020 at 3:38 pm
I worked quite a lot with John Christie during the Time Musical recordings. A really lovely guy with a huge exciting voice. He actually wrote a lot of the songs in the musical along with DC. Too have been searching to see what he might be up to these days but as you say there isn’t much about him…