Goodbye to B.J. Thomas, who has died at the age of 78.
It seems that every headline about his death identifies him as either the "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" singer or the "Hooked on a Feeling" singer.
ADDED: A reader named Christopher emails:
I don't know how rough a time he had recently--it sounds pretty rough--but a scant four years ago, he was still able to sing like this.
Also of some note, key lyrics are a changed from what I recall of the original, replacing the doomed drag racer with perhaps a simpler portrait of a man beautifully in love.
Beautiful song and performance. He sounds — and looks — great there. And I love the Larry's Diner set.
I love the original Beach Boys song, but here at Meadhouse, we have a special love for the Ronnie Spector version. She goes ahead and sings those drag racing lines, without changing them at all, so that the woman is the drag racer.
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1 comment:
A reader named Glenn writes:
Ann: My wife passed in February after 48 years of marriage, and our first date was to be to a B. J. Thomas concert at Iowa State in March 1971, which turned into a John Denver concert (as described in the attached Iowa State Daily story from 1997). As I recall the story, Thomas’ toddler was quite ill with nicotine poisoning after eating some cigarettes. At the time Thomas was a big star after Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, and Denver was completely unknown to us. We did not know of the switch in performers until we arrived, and we decided to stay (my memory is that many accepted the offered refund, and left). I also remember his line “a medley of my hit” referring to Jetplane, and it was astonishing how he could hold the audience’s attention in a 2800 seat auditorium on stage by himself with only a guitar. I am about 4 months older than you, Ann, and was reflecting on Susan Vass’ line @ Powerline on Friday about “late, late middle age or early geezerhood”, and the news of Thomas’ passing brought to mind that of the 4 principals in my story, I am the last one living (other than B. J.’s child, who to the best of my knowledge recovered from the nicotine poisoning).
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