“Whatever Happened to Old Fashioned Love?”

By Bud Elder

I can see it clearly now … It’s a bright, bright sunshiny day in 1969. School’s out for summer and you’ve got a brand new pair of roller skates … What to hear – lies and pain and sorrow or c’mon, get happy? When you were young, you listened to the radio and the radio played like a carnival tune, but now it’s time to put on the old 45s.

When your mama didn’t dance and your daddy didn’t rock and roll, the record player was all yours. So you fired it up all by yourself and took your single record – the first one you every purchased with your own money – and put the little yellow adapter in the center and touched needle to vinyl, but it sounded too draggy. What’s the problem? Oh, yes, you forgot to change the speed from 33 to 45.

And your favorite song is on Scepter records, with a “B” side called “Never Had It So Good.” The “A” side, the reason you even bought the record at TG&Y is, however, two minutes and 18 seconds long and makes absolutely no sense – “a guy whose feet are too big for his bed”? But after the first pops and hisses come those four ukulele chords, and all else is forgotten.

Get this – your parents, even your grandparents, like it. Who doesn’t?

“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.” From the 20^th Century Fox film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” Written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and performed by …  who was that? Oh, yes – B.J. Thomas.

Billy Joe Thomas, born in Hugo, Oklahoma, owned this song, even though others, from Johnny Mathis to Perry Como and Bacharach interpreter extraordinaire Dionne Warwick, gave it the old college try. It would reign on top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in January 1970 for four weeks and was the first number one single of the entire decade. It is listed at #12 on Billboard’s Greatest Songs of All Time. Welcome to the ‘70s.

Some singers would take a hit like this and ride off into the sunset, with royalties and acclaim packed into their saddlebags. Not this cowboy. Over the next 40 years, Thomas would expand his repertoire and enhance his reputation as one of America’s leading balladeers. With unmistakable interpretation, a style that defies mimicry and, perhaps most of all, uncommonly good taste, he has survived and thrived; any performance of his contains enough certified, honest-to-goodness hits to keep some ten singers in front of a band and behind a microphone for decades.

Actually, “Raindrops” was not Thomas’ first gold record. In 1966, B.J. Thomas and the Triumphs released, on the Pacemaker label, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” So soulful and heartfelt was this recording that there are those who still think his was the only version, never realizing it was penned by country legend Hank Williams. It sold over one million copies.

“I recorded that song for my dad,” Thomas said. “He was a Hank Williams fan of the first order – in fact, the first concert I ever attended was one of those Grand Ole Opry tours in which Hank was featured. In truth, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” was the “B” side of our recording.” An album of the same name would soon follow on Scepter featuring Thomas as its solo artist.

His next hit single, the Mark James penned “Hooked on a Feeling,” used the sound of an electric sitar to propel Thomas’ strong vocals. It also sold over one million copies and became his second gold record.

Then came the hurricane that resulted from “Raindrops.”

Other hits followed – “I Just Can’t Help Believing,” “(Deep in the Eyes) of a New York Woman,” “Rock and Roll Lullaby,” “Most of All,” and two gems again written by Bacharach and David, “Long Ago Tomorrow” and “Everybody’s Out of Town.”

Anyone who then and now doubts the scope and breadth of B.J. Thomas’ extraordinary talent should give “Everybody’s Out of Town” a spin…

“Everyone’s moved out

From the ghetto

Lots of space

Empty apartments

No more pollution

Plenty of classrooms everyplace …”

These lyrics are performed with an actor’s versatility, proving Thomas not only has an uncompromised voice, but also an interpretive skill rarely employed in popular music.

“My singing idol was always Jackie Wilson,” Thomas said. “What I learned from him was to sing every song like you mean every word you’re saying. I call it ‘emotional soul.’

Halfway through the ‘70s, Thomas found gold again, with the number one single “(Hey, Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,” written by Larry Butler and Chips Moman. Again, a number one smash. Again, a gold record.

His hits kept on playing.

“Don’t Worry Baby.” “Whatever Happened to Old Fashioned Love?”

“As Long As We’ve Got Each Other” was heard weekly as the theme from the popular television series “Growing Pains.”

It has been argued that, upon reflection, there was no time like the 1970s for the creative growth of American popular music. Bubblegum pop of the ‘60s was replaced with a new level of tuneful, intelligent radio play. It was a time of singer/songwriters Elton John, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Neil Sedaka, Carly Simon and Carole King; of vocal groups such as the Fifth Dimension and the Stylistics, and traditional rock bands like the Eagles and Led Zeppelin. And through this unprecedented explosion of talent and media, very few artists were able to maintain their hold on the American imagination as did B.J. Thomas.

“I never really thought at the time that we were all competing,” Thomas said. “When I think about it now, I realize we were all doing our part to help American music find its voice.”

Thomas’ next conquest of recorded music was most certainly inspired from a higher power.

“I had grown up going to tent revival meetings, where there were enthusiastic outcries of faith – nothing was held back,” he said. “I was also a huge fan of the great southern gospel groups such as the Blackwood Brothers.”

It was with this in mind that Thomas enjoyed a run of four platinum selling Christian albums that resulted in the singer becoming the number one artist in the genre.

That Thomas remains vital is proven by his latest recording output.

Eight of Thomas’ classic Scepter albums have been digitally restored and made available on CD in four different packages: “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry/Tomorrow Never Comes;” “On My Way/Love and In Love;” “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head/Everybody’s Out of Town;” and “Most of All/Billy Joe Thomas,” an album that many, including Thomas himself, consider one of the singer’s best.

Then there’s “Once I Loved,” Thomas’ latest release. A Brazilian themed musical carnivàle, the album shows a mature artist at the peak of his artistic powers. In fact, so expressive and musical is the record that it compares very favorably to the recently re-released Sinatra/Jobim session of the late ‘60s. Classic tunes such as “The Girl from Ipanema” and the title track share space with a stirring re-imagining of “Rock and Roll Lullaby.”

While many think of Thomas as a product of that minor, insignificant state located south of the Red River, he himself both recognizes and embraces his Oklahoma heritage, learned at the feet of another Sooner state expatriate.

“I’ve been dear friends with Darrel Royal for many years,” he said. “He and I have taken many trips together into Oklahoma to trace our roots.

Perhaps the only thing more impressive than Thomas’ awards and achievements – 70 million albums sold, 2 platinum records, 11 gold records, 5 Grammy awards, 2 Dove awards, 15 Top Forty pop/rock hits and 10 Top Forty country hits – is that his personal life is devoid of tabloid fodder. Thomas and his wife of some 40 years, Gloria, are both proud parents and grandparents.

No matter what form your music takes, from Eight Tracks to Cassettes, CDs or musical downloads, there have been few constants. Today’s one-hit-wonder is tomorrow’s has-been. However, B.J. Thomas continues to take his song stylings from pop to country to gospel and, heck, even Brazilian music. He is an American original who will continue to both challenge and please audiences for years to come.

To paraphrase his signature song, “… everything seems to fit B.J. Thomas.”