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"(Is This the Way to) Amarillo" | |
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Single by Tony Christie | |
from the album With Loving Feeling | |
B-side | "Love Is a Friend of Mine" |
Released | November 1971 |
Recorded | 1971 |
Genre | Pop, schlager |
Length | 3:35 (album and video version) 3:12 (single version) |
Label | MCA (UK and Europe); Kapp (US) |
Songwriter(s) | Neil Sedaka, Howard Greenfield |
Producer(s) | Tony Christie, Peter Callander, Mitch Murray |
"(Is This the Way to) Amarillo" is a song written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. It is about a man traveling to Amarillo, Texas, to find his girlfriend Marie.
Written by two Americans with a strong country-western lyrical theme, the song was first released in Europe, where it has become much more popular than in the composers' native country, with a big-band/orchestral pop arrangement sung by Tony Christie. Christie's version was a major hit in Europe and a modest success in his native United Kingdom upon its release, then became even more popular in the mid-2000s when the song was reissued. As Christie's version failed to make a major impact in the U.S., Sedaka released his own recording of the song in 1977, which narrowly missed the top 40 but was an easy listening hit in the U.S. and Canada.