THE MORE I SEE YOU

The More I See You" is a popular song.

The music was written by Harry Warren, the lyrics by Mack Gordon. The song was published in 1945, and featured in the film "Diamond Horseshoe".

Nina Simone recorded the song on her final album, A Single Woman in 1993.

It has also been recorded by Chris Montez (1966), Peter Allen, Michael Buble, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (1980) and many others.

Chris Montez (born Ezekiel Christopher Montanez, January 17, 1943, in Los Angeles, California, the last of twenty children), is a Mexican American singer.

Montez grew up in Hawthorne, California, influenced by the Latino flavored music of his community and the success of Ritchie Valens.

In 1962, he recorded the single, "Let's Dance" on Monogram Records. It went to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in the U.S. and to #2 on the U.K. Singles Chart.

One would expect such an auspicious start to be followed by a number of chart-toppers, but such was hardly the case. Though Montez would tour with Clyde McPhatter, Sam Cooke, the Platters, and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, there would be no more hits for Montez until four years later. This was despite a relatively new and highly popular group of Liverpudlians, who called themselves The Beatles, opening a London show for him while performing with Tommy Roe. It was once speculated that John Lennon started a fight with Montez at a London bar, when Lennon allegedly poured a beer over Montez' head.

1966 Comeback

With a desire to return to the charts, Montez returned to the recording studio in 1965, this time at A&M Records. Montez was searching for the same rock and roll formula that would replicate the success of "Let's Dance". During a recording session, A&M co-founder Herb Alpert dropped in and suggested that Montez try a different approach: a Middle of the road, soft ballad sound.

Montez had no desire to shift from rock and roll to adult standard, but trusted Alpert's instincts enough to give it a try. "Call Me" (a Tony Hatch composition) was the first single released from his 1966 A&M album, "The More I See You". The title single from the album, making its way to primarily adult-formatted radio stations, confused some non-rock and roll DJs, who were unfamiliar with Chris' past work. When back-announcing the song, the DJs would often refer to Chris as a female ( Likely because these songs were sung in a falsetto). But by the time the album was released, Montez' pictures on the front and back of the jacket cleared up any mystery surrounding his gender.

"The More I See You" album yielded three top 40 singles for Montez: The title cut, plus "Call Me" and "There Will Never Be Another You". Unfortunately, it was this album that would yield the most Top 40 hits for Montez.

Later Years

Montez would record three more albums for A&M: "Time After Time", "Foolin' Around", and "Watch What Happens". None of these albums mirrored the success of The More I See You album. The title cut album, "Time After Time", did hit the Top 40, but no other hits followed. Following the release of "Watch What Happens" in 1968, Montez left A&M Records.

In November, 1972, Montez charted a Latin hit in Brazil: "Loco por ti (Crazy about you)" became very popular in that country. Montez resurfaced in 1974 at CBS Records, with the release of a new LP, "The Best of Chris Montez", a mix of both old and new recordings, with the new ones having little to no resemblance of his past hits. This, and Chris' more mature appearance on the cover, with longer hair, a mustache, and a stylish (for the mid-1970s) patterned shirt, was proof that the album marked time.

Montez recorded one more album for CBS: Raza: Ay No Digas, which did well internationally, but failed to make an impact in the U.S. His final album, with exclusively Spanish-language material, was Cartas de Amor, released on the independent label AYM in 1983.

(taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Montez)