The Road to Hell

The Road to Hell is a 1989 album by Chris Rea, and is one of Rea's most famous albums. The second part of the two part title track, "The Road to Hell (Pt. 2)," is also one of Rea's most famous songs. One track, "Texas," has been played through the years on Classic Rock/AOR radio stations in Texas, and is sometimes played as background music before Texas Rangers baseball games at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Another track, "Daytona", is about the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 "Daytona", in which he sings about the car metaphorically, with the engine and tyre noise from the car ringing out toward the end of the song.^[2]

The iconic album cover features art by the English commercial artist, Adrian Chesterman^[3] who was also responsible for creating cover art for, amongst others, Motörhead for their 1979 'Bomber' album.

Track listing

All songs by Chris Rea.

1. "The Road to Hell (Part 1)" - 4:52
2. "The Road to Hell (Part 2)" - 4:30
3. "You Must Be Evil" - 4:20
4. "Texas" - 5:09
5. "Looking for a Rainbow" - 8:00
6. "Your Warm and Tender Love" - 4:32
7. "Daytona" - 5:04
8. "That's What They Always Say" - 4:27
9. "I Just Wanna Be with You" - 3:39
10. "Tell Me There's a Heaven" - 6:00

(The 1989 US Geffen CD issue also included the 1988 re-recording of "Let's Dance", slotted between tracks 8 and 9 listed above.)

Personnel

• Chris Rea - vocals, guitar, keyboards, producer
• Robert Ahwai - guitar
• Eoghan O'Neill - bass
• Kevin Leach - keyboards
• Max Middleton - piano, string arrangements (cut 10)
• Martin Ditcham - drums, percussion
• Linda Taylor, Karen Boddington, Carol Kenyon - additional vocals
• Jon Kelly - producer
• Neil Amor (with Diane BJ Koné) - engineer

References