Italian American Lou Christie, born Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco, the singer-songwriter who reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966 with the lush “Lightnin’ Strikes” and had another top 20 hit that year with the (for its time) sexually explicit “Rhapsody in the Rain,” died Wednesday. He was 82.

Christie died at his home in his native Pittsburgh after a short illness, his wife, Francesca, told. With his signature falsetto, Christie broke out with two songs in 1963 that he penned with longtime collaborator Twyla Herbert — “The Gypsy Cried” and “Two Faces Have I” — and he made it into the top 10 again with “I’m Gonna Make You Mine” in 1969.