WHETHER WE GREW UP with his music or not, many of us probably recognize the chorus of “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.” First heard in the 1969 movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the song won an Oscar for Best Original Score, and topped Billboard‘s Hot 100 for four weeks in January 1970. B.J. Thomas, the vocalist chosen for the number, died in May 2021 from lung cancer. The Hugo, Oklahoma, native was 78.
An uplifting song about prevailing over life’s challenges, “Raindrops” may have reverberated with Thomas. Although the song was written about a duo of Wild West outlaws, the rainbows in Thomas’ life were sprinkled with storms.
Raised near Houston, Thomas joined a local pop band, the Triumphs, during high school. With Thomas on lead vocals, the group’s cover of Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” became a Top 10 pop hit in 1966. Two years later, Thomas made the Top Five with “Hooked on a Feeling.”
In 1975, Thomas’ “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song” topped the country and pop charts. During his rise to superstardom, he battled drugs and alcohol for the better part of it. After a spiritual awakening in 1976, Thomas got clean, reconciled with his wife, and went on to release three hit country singles and win five gospel Grammys.
“Mr. Thomas’s records helped introduce a smooth, down-home sensibility to the AM airwaves, an approach shaped by the fusion of country, gospel, rock and R&B in the music of Elvis Presley,” wrote Bill Friskics-Warren in a May 30, 2021, New York Times obituary. His love for Presley and Williams notwithstanding, the greatest inspirations for his rich, caramel voice came from Black R&B singers like Little Richard and Jackie Wilson.
Thomas continued to make albums and tour into the 2000s. In 2014, Thomas was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. He is survived by Gloria Richardson Thomas, his wife of fifty-three years; Thomas’ daughters Paige Thomas, Nora Cloud and Erin Moore; and four grandchildren.