Richard Sanderson

Richard Sanderson (born 5 March 1953 in Taplow) is an English singer, best known for his hit songs "Reality", "So Many Ways" and "She's a Lady".

Born in England to a Scottish drum-playing father and a French accordionist mother, Sanderson was instilled with a love of music at a young age, and soon become a musician himself.

He started playing classical music on the piano at five years of age. At 15, he studied guitar and two years later became the organ player of a local rock band, Lover's Love. The band released four singles, one of them being "Youth Has Gone (Amour De Papier)", a song that he would revisit years later, "Find a Reason Why". Three years later he became the official pianist of Nancy Hollaway and David Christie. At 21 he formed his own band and played in hotels all around the world. He then left for the United States and played with different bands while studying harmony and orchestration at the Berklee College of Music.

At 25, Sanderson returned to England and was hired at the famous Trident recording studio. Under Vogue Records he released his first solo single "Un Vent de Folie" under the name Richard Lory. Then he released No Stickers Please in 1979, his first album. At Trident studio, he met famous film composer Vladimir Cosma and was selected to perform the main theme of the hit movie La Boum starring Sophie Marceau. He is the voice of the songs "Reality", "Murky Turkey", and "Go on Forever". The songs appeared on the film soundtrack album and as singles with other songs of the film.

The song "Reality" became a number one hit in 15 countries, including France, Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland, and sold eight million copies all around Europe and Asia. "Reality" is well known in Germany and it has been covered multiple times on DSDS, the German version of American Idol.

In 1982 Polygram released Sanderson's new studio album, I'm in Love. The German version is different in two tracks from the French version ("Not Made for Me" and "Reality"). The single "She's a Lady" became number one in Italy and number four in Europe and Asia, selling more than three million copies. The album Surprise was released in 1984 with songs from La Boum 2, sung by him instead of Cook da Books or Freddie Meyer. Surprise is now a rare LP.