Simultaneously, he experienced a resurgence in country music with the Number One hits “Whatever Happened to Old-Fashioned Love” and “New Looks From an Old Lover.” Invited to join the Grand Ole Opry in 1981, Thomas became a member on his 39th birthday. Also titled Home Where I Belong, it was the first of four consecutive Grammy winners for him in the Best Inspirational Performance category. Later that year, the singer, who as a child would rush home from school to watch Mahalia Jackson sing on television, recorded his first gospel-centered album for Christian label Myrrh Records. As chronicled in startling detail in the 1978 autobiography Home Where I Belong, Thomas was spending a fortune on pills, cocaine, and other substances, and was perilously close to divorce before finally kicking his drug habit in early 1976.
#Bj thomas raindrops professional#
Thomas would act onscreen in only one other film in the 2008 comedy-drama Jake’s Corner.īut while his professional life was flourishing, Thomas’ drug addiction was spiraling out of control. He briefly capitalized on his fame and blue-eyed matinee idol looks, playing a doomed gunslinger in the 1973 Western Jory. Thomas, who moved from Texas to Memphis and then to New York City before settling into a home in the Connecticut countryside, continued to score hit singles while frequently touring the world. Thomas performed the song at the 1970 Academy Awards, a segment that was followed by a choreographed homage to the film’s iconic Newman-Katherine Ross bicycle scene. Nonetheless, after several takes, Bacharach was satisfied and an exec from 20th Century Fox hailed the singer for performing with a rasp that sounded similar to the film’s costar Paul Newman. Whatever the circumstances, when Thomas went in to record the song, he did so against his doctor’s orders - he was besieged by laryngitis. Yet, according to Steve Tyrell, a Scepter Records A&R executive at the time and the singer’s future manager, Ray Stevens was offered “Raindrops” but passed. When Bob, for whatever reason, didn’t do it, I was his second choice.” “Burt really admired Bob Dylan and the way he phrased. “In subsequent years Burt has denied it, but this is what I understood at the time,” Thomas said. In 2013, Thomas told Performing Songwriter that Bacharach wrote the melody to fit Bob Dylan. The road to the multimillion-selling “Raindrops” was similarly packed with various artists vying to record the track. Thomas was often booked on package tours, playing on the same shows with artists including Gene Pitney, Bobby Goldsboro, and the McCoys. Despite the song’s success, Thomas’ crossover appeal wasn’t fully reached until 1975 with the release of Larry Butler and Chips Moman’s “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,” which hit Number One on the pop chart before duplicating the feat on Billboard’s country survey. Written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for the 1969 Paul Newman/Robert Redford Western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Thomas’ rendition would log four weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and win the Oscar for Best Original Song. But the singer is arguably best remembered for the breezy pop classic “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” one of the most successful singles of all time and a 2014 inductee into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Thomas’ multi-genre success included major hits on the adult contemporary and Christian music charts, the latter of which would earn him five Grammy Awards and two Gospel Music Association Dove awards. The cause of death was lung cancer, which Thomas had publicly revealed he had in March. A rep for Thomas confirmed the singer’s death. Thomas, the vocalist who mixed the stylish sophistication of a pop crooner and the down-home soul of a country singer on songs like the 1969 smash “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” died Saturday in his Arlington, Texas home at the age of 78.
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