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<p>On Lou Christie&#8217;s huge hit, &#8220;Lightnin&#8217; Strikes,&#8221; back-up singers interject the word &#8220;Stop!&#8221; while Christie&#8217;s driving falsetto insists &#8220;I can&#8217;t stop&#8221; and &#8220;No, I can&#8217;t stop myself!&#8221;</p><p>They&#8217;re just lyrics. But in real life, too, Christie has been known to insist on doing things his way.</p><p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll lose your voice by the time you&#8217;re 20,&#8221; Christie remembers one of his high-school teachers said, in an attempt to persuade young Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco, as he was then known, to stop hitting the high notes.</p><p>Christie, whose voice can also delve octaves lower into the bass register, didn&#8217;t stop singing falsetto, and he didn&#8217;t lose his voice.</p><p>&#8220;I can still sing in the same key,&#8221; the singer, now 75, said in a telephone interview, laughing as he admitted he didn&#8217;t want to specify which key it is. &#8220;I don&#8217;t want to jinx myself.&#8221;</p><p>Fans can hear Christie&#8217;s distinctive voice for themselves when Gallery of Sound owner Joe Nardone Sr. brings The Ultimate Doo Wop &amp; Rock Show to the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre at 7 p.m. June 9.</p><p>Also taking the stage will be The Duprees, The Happenings and The Chantels, three acts whose nostalgic sound likewise hearkens back to the &#8217;50s and &#8217;60s.</p><p>Christie came of age back then, growing up on a farm outside of Pittsburgh in a family of six brothers and sisters where &#8220;everybody sang.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;My mother sang like Peggy Lee. She sang with big bands back in the 40s and never talked about it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;My dad had perfect pitch, and he had an old, beat-up Italian guitar. He played about four chords and sang wonderful Italian folk songs.&#8221;</p><p>Christie&#8217;s dad also worked rotating shifts in a steel mill and maintained a farm.</p><p>&#8220;Everything my dad planted, we ate,&#8221; Christie reminisced. &#8220;Our house was like a bus stop. We always had people over. There was always something on the table for them.&#8221;</p><p>The generosity of Christie&#8217;s parents extended to sheltering neighbors who had lost their home and breadwinner in a fire. &#8220;My father eventually gave them an acre of land and built a house on it for them.&#8221;</p><p>As much as the future entertainer appreciated his family and was fond of the chickens he fed and goats he milked on the farm, he was eager for a different kind of life. He especially wanted something different from the steel mills.</p><p>Fortunately, Christie&#8217;s talent led to success as a singer and songwriter that began not long after his 1961 graduation from high school. In February 1966, the month he turned 23, &#8220;Lightnin&#8217; Strikes&#8221; hit the No. 1 position for record sales.</p><p>Some of his other well-known hits are &#8220;The Gypsy Cried,&#8221; &#8220;I&#8217;m Gonna Make You Mine,&#8221; &#8220;Rhapsody in the Rain&#8221; and &#8220;Two Faces Have I,&#8221; all of which he expects to sing at the Kirby.</p><p>&#8220;Just like Frank Sinatra has to sing &#8216;My Way,&#8217;&#8221; he said. &#8220;You don&#8217;t want to disappoint the fans.&#8221;</p><p>When he&#8217;s not performing, Christie hosts a Sirius radio show and maintains a website called itshouldhavebeenahit.com</p><p>&#8220;I pick songs that never had a chance, songs I&#8217;ve loved since I&#8217;ve heard them,&#8221; he said. &#8220;There&#8217;s a Supremes record on there that was never released as a single, and something by Roy Orbison.</p><p>&#8220;How I know a lot of these people, I traveled with them on the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We&#8217;d do 70 one-nighters in a row and sleep every other night on a bus.&#8221;</p><p>For the past 30 years or so, Christie has lived in a duplex on the top of an apartment building in New York City, where the one-time farm boy trucked in soil so he could plant herbs, tomatoes and evergreens high above the street. He also has a &#8220;wine garden,&#8221; but it no longer has any grapes. &#8220;The darn pigeons ate most of them,&#8221; he said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Lou Christie will bring his distinctive, nostalgic show to the F.M. Kirby Center on June 9. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_lou.christie1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Lou Christie will bring his distinctive, nostalgic show to the F.M. Kirby Center on June 9. </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photo </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_AP_740426061.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">When Joe Nardone presents The Ultimate Doo Wop &amp; Rock Show at 7 p.m. June 9 at the F.M. Kirby Center, Lou Christie will appear along with the Duprees, the Happenings and the Chantels. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_AP_740426061.jpg</photo1><caption1>When Joe Nardone presents The Ultimate Doo Wop &amp; Rock Show at 7 p.m. June 9 at the F.M. Kirby Center, Lou Christie will appear along with the Duprees, the Happenings and the Chantels. </caption1><photoCredit1>AP photo </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mary Therese Biebel</p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p><strong>What:</strong> Joe Nardone Presents The Ultimate Doo Wop &amp; Rock Show</p><p><strong>Who: </strong>With Lou Christie, The Duprees, The Happenings and The Chantels</p><p><strong>When:</strong> 7 p.m. June 9. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.</p><p><strong>Where:</strong> F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, 71 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre</p><p><strong>Tickets:</strong> $34.50 to $54.50 plus fees. Available at Kirby Center box office, online at kirbycenter.org and by phone at 570-826-1100. </p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Doo wop show to feature Lou Christie, The Duprees, more at F.M. Kirby Center