 B.J. Thomas (born Billy Joe Thomas) straddled the line between pop/rock and
country, achieving success in both genres in the late '60s and '70s. At the
beginning of his career, he leaned more heavily on rock & roll, but by the
mid-'70s, he had turned to country music, becoming one of the most successful
country-pop stars of the decade.
B.J. Thomas began singing while he was a child, performing in church. In his
teens, he joined the Houston-based band the Triumphs, who released a number of
independent singles that failed to gain any attention. For the group's last
single, B.J. Thomas and fellow Triumph member Mark Charron wrote "Billy and Sue,"
which was another flop. After "Billy and Sue," Thomas began a solo career,
recording a version of Hank Williams' standard "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"
with producer Huey P. Meaux. Released by Scepter Records in early 1966, the
single became an immediate hit, catapulting to number eight on the pop charts.
Although he had a series of moderate follow-up hits, including a re-release of
"Billy and Sue," B.J. Thomas failed to reenter the Top Ten until 1968, when "Hooked
on a Feeling" became a number-five, gold single. The following year, he scored
his biggest hit with Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on
My Head," taken from the hit film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It was
followed by a string of soft rock hits in the next two years, including
"Everybody's Out of Town," "I Just Can't Help Believing," "No Love at All," and
"Rock and Roll Lullaby," which featured guitarist Duane Eddy and the vocal group
the Blossoms.
After "Rock and Roll Lullaby," Scepter Records went out of business and B.J.
Thomas headed to Paramount Records. At Paramount, B.J. Thomas had no hits, prompting
the singer to pursue a new country-pop direction at ABC Records. "(Hey Won't You
Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song," his first single for ABC,
became his second number-one record on the pop charts, as well as establishing a
country career for the vocalist. For the next decade, he continued to have hits
on the country charts, with a couple of songs -- most notably "Don't Worry Baby"
-- crossing over into the pop charts. During this period, he switched record
companies at a rapid pace, but it did nothing to slow the pace of his hits.
B.J. Thomas hit his country peak in 1983 and 1984, when he had the number-one hits
"Whatever Happened to Old Fashioned Love" and "New Looks From an Old Lover," as
well as the Top Ten hits "The Whole World's in Love When You're Lonely" and "Two
Car Garage." Throughout the '80s, B.J. Thomas recorded a number of hit gospel
records for Myrrh concurrently with his country hits.
At the end of the '80s, the hits began to dry up for B.J.
Thomas, but he continued
to tour, and put out the occasional country and gospel record in the '90s. ~
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
Contact Grabow for more information or to book B.J. Thomas
for your next corporate or private event.
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