LONDON — Chris Rea, an English singer-songwriter and guitarist best known for his festive hit “Driving Home For Christmas”, has died aged 74 ‌following a short illness, his family said yesterday. 

Hailing from Middlesbrough, a port town in northeast England, Rea’s song Fool (If ‍You Think It’s Over) from his debut studio album in 1978 ‌was his biggest chart hit, reaching the US billboard Hot 100 and earning him a Grammy nomination.

He released 25 studio albums and sold more than 40 million records ‍worldwide in a career spanning five decades, cementing his reputation as one of Britain’s most prominent pop artists.

Driving Home for Christmas, written during a snowy journey when he was unemployed and released in 1986, became a seasonal staple in Britain, re-entering UK charts annually and featuring in festive advertising campaigns.

“My manager had just left me, I’d just been banned from driving, my now wife, Joan, she had to drive down to London, pick ‍me up in ‍the mini and take me home, and that’s when I wrote it,” Rea said in a video clip posted on Instagram last week.