B.J. THOMAS

B.J. Thomas, born Billy Joe Thomas, moved fluidly between pop, rock, and country music, scoring major successes across both fields during the late 1960s and 1970s. Early recordings leaned toward rock & roll energy, yet by the middle of the 1970s he had shifted firmly into country, emerging as one of the decade’s leading country-pop vocalists.

As a youngster he first sang in church settings. During his teenage years he performed with the Houston group the Triumphs, whose independent singles attracted little notice. Their final release, “Billy and Sue,” was co-written by Thomas and bandmate Mark Charron and likewise failed to chart. Following that effort Thomas launched a solo career, cutting Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” under producer Huey P. Meaux. Issued by Scepter Records in early 1966, the track rose swiftly to number eight on the pop charts. A string of modest follow-ups, including a reissue of “Billy and Sue,” kept him visible, but he did not return to the Top Ten until 1968, when “Hooked on a Feeling” reached number five and earned gold status. The next year brought his biggest success yet: Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” featured in the film Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. Over the ensuing two years he notched additional soft-rock entries such as “Everybody’s Out of Town,” “I Just Can’t Help Believing,” “No Love at All,” and “Rock and Roll Lullaby,” the last of which included guitarist Duane Eddy and backing vocals from the Blossoms.

Once Scepter Records ceased operations, Thomas moved to Paramount, where no hits materialized. Seeking a fresh approach, he joined ABC Records and adopted a country-pop style. His debut single for the label, “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,” topped the pop charts and launched his enduring country career. Throughout the following decade he amassed further country-chart entries, several of which—most prominently “Don’t Worry Baby”—crossed over to the pop side. Frequent label changes never interrupted the flow of hits.

Thomas reached his commercial peak in country music during 1983 and 1984 with the number-one singles “Whatever Happened to Old Fashioned Love” and “New Looks from an Old Lover,” along with the Top Ten tracks “The Whole World’s in Love When You’re Lonely” and “Two Car Garage.” In the same period he recorded successful gospel material for Myrrh, while his most widely recognized theme, “As Long as We Got Each Other,” served as the opening song for the television series Growing Pains.

By the close of the 1980s chart momentum slowed, yet he maintained an active touring schedule and released occasional country and gospel albums through the 1990s. Entering the new century he focused chiefly on holiday and Christian projects until 2013, when he issued The Living Room Sessions, his first secular album in some time. The stripped-down set paired reinterpreted hits with duet partners including Lyle Lovett, Vince Gill, and Keb’ Mo’, and it debuted at number 39 on the Billboard country chart. That same year the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences inducted “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2017 Real Gone Music issued New Looks from an Old Lover: The Complete Columbia Singles, the first comprehensive anthology of his 1980s recordings. B.J. Thomas died at his Arlington, Texas home on May 29, 2021, at age 78 from complications of lung cancer.