Grammy winner B.J. Thomas dies
The singer, known for “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” and “Hooked on a Feeling,” was 78.
B.J. Thomas, the Grammy-winning singer who enjoyed success on the pop, country and gospel charts with such hits as “I Just Can’t Help Believing,” “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” and “Hooked on a Feeling,” has died. He was 78.
Thomas, who announced in March that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer, died from complications of the disease Saturday at his home in Arlington, Texas, a statement released by his representatives said.
A Hugo, Okla., native who grew up in Houston, Billy Joe Thomas broke through in 1966 with a gospel-styled cover of Hank
Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” and went on to sell millions of records and have dozens of hits across several genres. He reached No. 1 with pop, adult contemporary and country listeners in 1976 with “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song.” The same year, his “Home Where I Belong” became one of the first gospel albums to be certified platinum for selling more than 1 million copies.
His signature recording was “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” a No. 1 pop hit and an Oscar winner for best original song as part of the soundtrack to the irreverent 1969 western “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” which starred Paul Newman, Robert Redford and
Katharine Ross.
“Raindrops” has since been heard everywhere from “The Simpsons” to “Forrest Gump” and was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2013.
Redford doubted the song belonged in the film.
“When the film was released, I was highly critical — how did the song fit with the film? There was no rain,” Redford told USA Today in 2019. “At the time, it seemed like a dumb idea. How wrong I was.”
Thomas would later say the phenomenon of “Raindrops” exacerbated an addiction to pills and alcohol that dated to his teens, when a record producer suggested he take amphetamines to keep his energy up.
He was touring and recording constantly, and taking dozens of pills a day. By 1976, while “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song” was hitting No. 1, he felt like he was “No. 1,000.”
“I was at the bottom with my addictions and my problems,” he said in 2020 on “The Debby Campbell Goodtime Show.” He cited a “spiritual awakening,” shared with his wife, Gloria Richardson, with helping him to get sober.
Thomas had few pop hits after the mid-1970s, but he continued to score on the country charts with such No. 1 songs as “Whatever Happened to Old-Fashioned Love” and “New Looks from an Old Lover.” In the late 1970s and early ’80s, he was also a top gospel and inspirational singer, winning two Dove Awards and five Grammys, including a Grammy in 1979 for best gospel performance for “The Lord’s Prayer.” He sang the theme song from the 1980s sitcom “The Facts of Life.”
Thomas married Richardson in 1968 and had three daughters: Paige, Nora and Erin. He and his wife worked on the 1982 memoir “In Tune: Finding How Good Life Can Be.” His book “Home Where I Belong,” which he co-wrote with Jerry B. Jenkins, came out in 1978.
In his teens, Thomas was singing in church and had joined a local rock band, the Triumphs, which he would stay with into his 20s.
He enjoyed Ernest Tubbs, Hank Williams and other country performers, but he was inspired by the soul and rhythm and blues singers, notably Jackie Wilson, whose hit ballad “To Be Loved” Thomas later covered and adopted as a kind of guide to his life.
“I was raised in a fairly dysfunctional situation, and I went through years of intense alcoholism and drug addiction so the song was always a touchstone for me,” he told the Huffington Post in 2014. “What a roadblock and heartbreak and times of failure these addictions have caused me. But I had that little piece of lightning from that song. That’s the essence of the whole thing. To love and be loved. And that takes a lifetime to accomplish. It’s always been an important part of my emotions.”