His time in Memphis in the late 1960s was a huge success for B.J. Thomas (here, performing in the Bluff City in 1970), as he notched a series of big hits with Chips Moman producing.The Commercial Appeal files
B.J. Thomas has a rather gaudy collection of numbers on his résumé: 70 million albums sold, 15 Top 40 hits, 13 gold and platinum albums, five Grammys and a pair of Dove awards. And a lot of it, he'll tell you, had to do with Memphis.
His time in Memphis in the late 1960s was a huge success for B.J. Thomas (here, performing in the Bluff City in 1970), as he notched a series of big hits with Chips Moman producing.The Commercial Appeal files
Born in Oklahoma, raised in Houston and now based in Arlington, Texas, Thomas enjoyed some of his greatest success while he lived in the Bluff City during the late '60s.
Working with producer Chips Moman and the band at American Sound Studios, Thomas voiced a succession of pop radio staples, including "Hooked on a Feeling" and "I Just Can't Help Believing."
"Some of my most important and lasting musical ties were there in Memphis, with the American group and Chips," enthuses Thomas, who has continued to perform with the American Band live on occasion.
The 66-year-old Thomas has enjoyed an unusually varied career, scoring hits as a pop, country and gospel artist. He remains active, performing about 75 to 80 shows this year -- including a concert at the Mid-South Fair tonight with fellow '60s traveler Billy Joe Royal -- and promoting an independent film called "Jake's Corner," in which he stars.
Calling from his office in Texas, Thomas talks about his days in Memphis, his success in multiple genres, and how he's big in Brazil.
Q: Back in 1967 you were a Texas guy recording for a New York label and you'd had a couple hits with "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" and "Mama." How did you end up in Memphis?
A: Well, I'd put out four singles off my first record, which was kinda unheard of -- you had to stop at two or three at the most. But I'd worked and toured so much off "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" and "Mama" that I hadn't kept up with my recording. So by the end of '67 I was sitting there, without any songs, wondering "What am I gonna do?"
Q: Is that when you got together with Chips Moman and began working at American Studios?
A: Yeah, a friend of mine that I'd known for years and years in Houston, Mark James (writer of Elvis' "Suspicious Minds"), had gone to Memphis because it had such a great music industry, and was working out of American. He called me up and said, "They're doing some great music here. You need to come up."
I came into Memphis and we did a few songs, just demo things. Me and the band, the American Studios group, we just clicked right off -- it was like they were my band and I was their singer; we just loved each other. And so Chips told me "If you move up and if you're here round the clock, we'll find a hit on you real quick."
I'd had three hit records in '66 and didn't have anything in '67, so I moved up. Before long we had "The Eyes of a New York Woman" and "Hooked on a Feeling" in '68 and then I moved on to "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head," which I did with Burt Bacharach and Hal David. But after that, I came back to Memphis, and we did a lot of other good stuff, "Just Can't Help Believing" and some other things.
Q: What was the atmosphere like working at American?
A: It was real relaxed. A lot of work was getting done, but it wasn't something where it felt like we were punching the clock. Most of the time we'd come in the evening, and we wouldn't leave until 7 or 8 the next morning. We'd listen to songs and go through songs. We didn't go by charts; we just learned the songs and we'd play 'em over and over while Chips was getting the mixes down and getting the sounds and guys were figuring out what licks they were going to do.
Everything was very creative; everybody was free to figure their parts out for themselves. Sometimes we'd get three, four, five songs down, sometimes we'd get one. But it was a great way to record. There was a lot of time to talk and tell stories and tell lies and have fun (laughs).
Q: Do you have a favorite style or period of music that you've done?
A: I really liked the gospel thing -- I had the first four platinum albums in gospel music history. But I really liked that pop thing we had going back in the '60s. I know pop is supposed to be a bad word nowadays, but that whole era where I had "Hooked on a Feeling" and "Just Can't Help Believing" -- that kind of pop music doesn't even exist anymore really. There's maybe one singer out there doing that, and that's Justin Timberlake -- and he's had to augment his stuff with a lot of hip-hop, which I'm sure he wants to do and it's who he is. But that true pop thing is not really there anymore
Q: Your upcoming show at the Mid-South Fair is with another Southern pop singer, Billy Joe Royal. You're also a Billy Joe -- did you end up using B.J. professionally because of him?
A: Yeah, he was first. He had "Down in the Boondocks" in '65, so that kind of made the decision for me to go by B.J. -- I always say Billy Joe is bizarro B.J. (laughs). But we did some package shows and the odd Dick Clark thing in the '60s, so we've always been connected, but we've become really good friends now and work a lot together now.
Q: I noticed that you've got a bunch of appearances scheduled in Brazil next month. Is that a regular tour stop for you?
A: I get down there every four or five years. It's strange, I actually had more hits in Brazil than I had here. They pulled out obscure, mellow, romantic things off my albums and made them (radio hits). First time I went down in '74, I had almost every song in the top 10. I had a song in one of their soap operas, their novellas, which ran for something like 20 years.
Actually, I'm in the process of recording an album of classic Brazilian songs that I'm almost finished with. We cut it for the South American audience. It's a lot of Jobim stuff, and we did it old school, very traditional.
There's some duets on there with people like Ivete Sangalo, Leila Pinheiro and João Bosco -- I even sing a few lines in Portuguese. So I'm primarily going there to promote that album -- doing some TV appearances -- and then going back next year and do a bunch of shows. I'm big in Brazil. It's kinda weird, isn't it? Music's taken me a lot places.
B.J. Thomas and Billy Joe Royal
8 tonight at the Mid-South Fair
General admission to the fair is $5, VIP concert tickets are available for $30. For more information or to purchase, log on to MidSouthFair.com or call 274-8800.
TICKET INFO
MUSIC AT THE FAIR
MONDAY
James Otto with Candy Coburn, 8 p.m.
TUESDAY
Trey Songz, 8 p.m.
WEDNESDAY
Lee Greenwood, 8 p.m.
THURSDAY
Rick Springfield, 8 p.m.
SEPT. 26
Route South, 5-6:30 p.m.
Mojo Possum Revue, 7-8:30 p.m.
Super T, 9-11 p.m.
SEPT. 27
Overbearing, 3 p.m.
The Warble, 7 p.m.
Pat Green, 8 p.m.
SEPT. 28
Boyz II Men, 8 p.m.
- |
Comments » 0
Be the first to post a comment!
Share your thoughts
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.