Tony Christie years earlier. The single was credited as "featuring Peter Kay", though Kay only appeared in the video; the audio track was the original 1971 issue. His album "The Definitive Collection" also climbed to the Number 1 spot the following week in the UK Albums Chart, breaking records when it also came in at Number 1 on the downloads chart. In 2005, the Dutch singer Albert West covered the same song. This release reached Number 25 in the Dutch record chart. The same year Christie re-recorded "Amarillo" together with the Hermes House Band for the German market, reaching Number 25 in
(Is This the Way to) Amarillo 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