Christina's World

"Christina's World" is a song by Scottish pop band The Big Dish, which was released in 1987 as the third and final single from their debut studio album Swimmer. The song was written by Steven Lindsay and produced by Ian Ritchie. "Christina's World" reached No. 84 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1987 and remained in the Top 100 for four weeks. Background The song references and is inspired by the 1948 painting of the same name by American painter Andrew Wyeth. In a 2021 interview with The Herald, Lindsay recalled, "'Christina's World' was named after Christina Olson, who was the subject of a painting by Andrew Wyeth. I was obsessed by her, so I wrote the song around it, to incorporate what I thought she might be thinking." Release The song's release as a single was influenced by comments made by Jonathan King. After the band's appearance on Simon Mayo's BBC Radio 1 show in late 1986, King called the presenter to voice his support and love for the band's work. At the time, the band were struggling to decide which song to lift as a next single from Swimmer, but following King's comments, "Christina's World" was chosen. Critical reception On its release as a single, Lesley O'Toole of Record Mirror wrote, "'Christina's World' is yet another leaf from their book of compulsive, enchanting pop. A swayer of a tune tinged with a romantic vision. If this fails, the only viable option is a name change." She described the Big Dish as a "wonderful group" despite what she considered to be a "dodgy" name. Gavin Martin of New Musical Express described the song as being about a "wondrous lass, untainted by the world outside her room". He wrote, "The sentiment may be overly wistful, the sound AOR-unfashionable but a better tune it would be hard to find this week. Delicately stitching the space between portent and pellucid this casts a radiant joy, the warm glow at the song's centre offset by a just out of reach yearning." Martin predicted the song would reach the top 10.