Royalties from Chris Rea’s ‘Driving Home for Christmas’ Revealed
Rea had been dropped by his manager at the time, was nearing the end of his recording contract, and had only $280 to his name.
Not allowed to drive, he relied on his future wife Joan Rea to make the long drive from Teesside to London’s Abbey Road studios to pick him up days before Christmas.
The journey back north, delayed by snow and traffic, inspired lyrics that would later become one of Britain’s most played holiday songs.
Rea recounted the moment in a 2016 interview. He said, “Every time the street lights shone in the car, I started writing down lyrics.”
The journey took six hours and ended at 3am, when a single letter on the doormat changed his fortunes.
“So there was a check for £15,000,” Rea said. “We went from having only $220 to being able to buy a house.”
The payment, worth about $19,000, came from an American performing rights organization after his song “Fool (If You Think It’s Over)” became a hit in the United States.
The lyrics to “Driving Home for Christmas” were then initially set aside, put in a can, before resurfacing years later.
The song was released in 1986 as a B-side to Hello Friend and gained momentum when radio DJs started playing the record.
Rea later admitted: “I never intended to write a Christmas hit; I was a serious musician.”
Despite that reluctance, the song has become a perennial favorite, entering the UK Singles Chart every year since 2007 and peaking at number 10 in 2021.
Rea first performed the song live on 21 December 1986 at the Hammersmith Odeon, after pressure from his road crew.
“If I’m going to sing this damn song, we’re going to do it right,” he said. Twelve snow cannons filled the venue with artificial snow, leaving Rea with a cleaning bill of about $15,000.
Recent analysis has found 53 percent of cases Rea’s Spotify streams only came from the Christmas track.
Industry analysts estimate that the song generated more than $8.8 million of his roughly $19 million fortune over 39 years.
Rea sold a total of more than 30 million records, including major albums The road to hell and on the beach.
Last year, Rea closed his company Posedrive Productions and, along with Joan, received a payout of almost $16 million within the company.
A second company, Navybeck Limited, had assets worth about $800,000. The couple had lived in a detached house near Maidenhead since 1989, believed to be worth more than $3.8 million.
A lifelong car enthusiast, Rea invested heavily in vintage Ferraris and Lotuses, later selling them after suffering a stroke in 2016.
He died after years of serious illnessincluding pancreatic cancer and diabetes.
In a family statement, Joan and daughters Josie and Julia said: “It is with enormous sadness that we announce the death of our beloved Chris. He passed away peacefully in hospital earlier today after a short illness, surrounded by his family.”
