Xentel - B.J. Thomas



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B.J. Thomas

B.J. has won five (5) Grammy Awards and has earned eleven (11) Gold and two (2) Platinum records.
B.J.'s version of the Hank Williams classic "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" was his first million seller.
B.J.'s million sellers include "Hooked On A Feeling", "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" and "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song".
B.J. has achieved #1 status on the pop, easy listening, country and gospel record charts.
B.J. had the #1 Coca Cola commercial in Japan.
B.J. was the first singer to be signed simultaneously to two and then to three recording contracts.
Both B.J. and his wife, Gloria, are lifetime members of the Nashville Songwriters Association.
B.J. and Gloria have two autobiographies: "Home Where I Belong" and "In Tune".
"Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" has sold more records than any other Burt Bacharach — Hal David composition. (It was also the late President Lyndon Johnson's favorite song and presently plays in his museum.)
Jimmy and Rosalind Carter, when President and First Lady, joined B.J. and Willie Nelson on stage in Atlanta to sing "Amazing Grace".
B.J. performed at the White House on July 4, 1983, for passholders including Cabinet members, White House staff and their families.
"Whatever Happened To Old Fashioned Love" and "New Looks From An Old Lover" joined the 1975 classic "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song" as #1 country singles for B.J.

There aren't areas of popular music B.J. Thomas hasn't impacted. Since the mid-1960's, when he became one of the most successful artists on the American musical landscape, he has recorded an incredible string of successes in several genres-15 Top 40 pop hits, 10 Top 40 country hits, five Grammys, two Dove awards, two platinum and 11 gold records, and chart-toppers on the pop, country, gospel and adult contemporary charts. Along the way, his has become one of the most recognized and respected voices of his generation.
Almost 50 million records after his initial successes, B.J.'s versatility is still as much of his approach as his wonderfully expressive voice.
"I love singing all of it," he says with the same enthusiasm he brings to his high-voltage stage show. I've always enjoyed singing country- my first hit was country—gospel and old hymns mean a lot to me, and I still really enjoy doing rock and roll. I really don't think it's that important what kind of song you sing as long as the attitude that comes through is good."
In fact, B.J. Thomas has always chosen to present positive, uplifting material, no matter what genre he's been working in.
"As a singer," he says, "you've got the chance to make people's spirits—and their lives—a little better."
It's an attitude people have noticed. Fans and concertgoers frequently approach B.J. to thank him for the impact of songs ranging from his megahit "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" to country smashes like "New Looks From An Old Lover."
That fact is testimony not only to B.J.'s talent and believability, but also to the fact that he is a survivor, someone who has overcome adversity and addiction, who has weathered personal and professional storms to emerge, if anything, stronger than ever both personally and musically. He is still recording records at a time when most of his contemporaries have long since passed from the scene, and his newest release, "B.J. Thomas ... Still Standing Here," featuring the self-penned "Back Against The Wall," is yet another strong addition to his recorded legacy.
Billy Joe Thomas (he chose B.J. at 10 because there were five Billys on his Little league baseball team) was born in Hugo, Oklahoma, and grew up in Houston. He moved with his family to Rosenberg, Texas, at 15 and was, according to friends, a "charming, energetic cut-up." He picked up an interest in country music from his father and developed a passion for R&B on his own. He was influenced by artists ranging from Ernest Tubb to Jackie Wilson and Little Richard, and though he was a member of both his high school and church choirs as a teenager, he'd also sneak into night clubs to hear blues great Bobby "Blue" Band.
One major turning point came at a concert he attended as a boy. "I remember seeing Hank Williams with my father," he says. "He was unbelievable that night. He came out on stage and was really feeling good. I remember him getting on his knees and playing that guitar. And I'll never forget the look on my daddy's face at that show. I guess that's the night I decided I was going to communicate with my daddy through the music he loved. It was the only way I could communicate with him."
Indeed, his relationship with his father was always a stormy one, leaving scars that would haunt B.J. for many years. Music became a highly important outlet.
B.J. made his biggest local splash as lead singer for the Triumphs, a six-piece rock and roll band that started out playing dances and a Saturday morning radio show, and wound up becoming one of the biggest acts in Texas, opening at the Houston Coliseum for headliners like Roy Orbison, the Dave Clark Five and the Four Tops.
The group released a couple of well-received local singles and then, in 1965, went into the studio to record an album of vintage rock and roll. The band needed one song to finish the project and B.J., whose father had told him, "Don't come back unless you record something country," suggest Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." It was recorded at 5 a.m. after an all-night session.
The bank took the album to Houston DJ's who picked up on "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" and made it a regional hit. The record's producer leased the master tape of the single to New York's Scepter Records, which had success with acts like The Shirelles and the Isley Brothers. It went to number four on the national pop charts and sold more than a million copies, something none of the other four or five dozen covers of the song have ever done.
Several of the other band members were married or in college, and unable to begin touring, so B.J. took off by himself, doing the grueling "Dick Clark Caravan of Stars" bus tour and signing with Scepter.
By '68, he'd had four gold records — "The Eyes Of A New York Woman," "Hooked On A Feeling" and "It's Only Love" being the other three — and labelmate Dionne Warwick, who'd been working with the Burt Bacharach/Hal David songwriting team, recommended him for "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" which was written for the motion picture Butch Cassidy & Sundance Kid.
"I was in the right place at the right time," B.J. says, "and probably got their best song ever." "Raindrops" was Bacharach/David's first million-seller; it won an Academy Award and B.J. sang the song on the 1970 Academy Awards telecast.
B.J. would go on during the early ‘70's to record hits like "I Just Can't Help Believin'," "No Love At All" and "Rock and Roll Lullaby," scoring a dozen gold records. Throughout this period, he sold tens of millions of records and appeared regularly on TV programs like the Ed Sullivan Show and in top nightclubs and concert halls. The period was a rough one for him, though, on a personal level. An open, spirited young man whose abusive upbringing left him plagued by good measures of self-doubt, he reacted to fame and success with a self-destructive spiral of drugs and fiscal and personal problems.
"It was stressful and very tense," he says, "to come out of working a dance in the country for a bunch of kids to playing the Copacabana in New York. It's real hard to keep your roots down and your foundation steady when you get out into the feast lane. All of a sudden you've got a lot of money, a lot of people wanting to advise you — people you admire. So if you don't have a real strong foundation, you make decisions that are wrong for you."
In 1976, he released the first of several gospel albums, "Home Where I Belong," which went platinum, making him the biggest contemporary Christian artist of the period. Over the next several years, he received a couple of Dove awards. Gospel fans, though, sometimes reacted badly to the fact that he sang his older pop hits as well, and he moved to the friendlier confines of country music, where he hit the Top 40 ten times with hits like "What Ever Happened To Old Fashioned Love," "New Looks From An Old Lover" (which Gloria wrote with Red Lane) and "The Whole World's In Love When You're Lonely."
His country success led him to become, on his 39^th birthday, the 60^th member of the Grand Ole Opry.
B.J. has also been active in work for various causes. In particular, his song, "Broken Toys," written by his wife Gloria and Nashville writers J.D. Martin and Gary Harrison, has been adopted by child abuse agencies throughout the country as their theme song. From the same album on which that song appeared, "Throwin' Rocks At The Moon," came "As Long As We Got Each Other," the theme song for the ABC sitcom "Growing Pains." A later version of that song, recorded with Dusty Springfield, hit #5 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
As the tours and records keep coming, B.J. maintains his reputation as a singer at the peak of his craft — "one of the greatest all-time singers of today," according to Nashville songwriter, Mark James, who wrote "Hooked On A Feeling" and Elvis' "Suspicious Mnds," among others.
B.J. has always given a great deal of the credit to the writers he's worked with.
"The songs still stand up," he says. "That's a sign of a great writer. I'm like the mailman. I deliver what the guys write and hope it has a lasting effect when I get it there."
As a man who has seen both the good and the bad that life and career have to offer, B.J. places more importance than ever on his marriage of 25 years and his family life.
"The real answer for me," he says, "lies in trying to be a good husband to my wife and a good father to my kids (he has three daughters — Paige, Nora and Erin) and live up to my responsibilities. That's the bottom line right there. I really believe that just being a regular guy and tryin' to do the best you can is the essence of having peace of mind in this life."
It's an attitude that helps him keep his storied career in perspective.
"Singing has always been something I do," he says. "It's not who I am. I realized a long time ago that I was a guy who loved his wife and his kids, so it's not always been real important for me to be number one.
And yet he's never far from that drive that has helped pull him from one bit of success to the next.
"I'll be honest with you," he adds conspiratorially, "when I do music, I do so with everything I can give it. And I'm sure I always will."

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