B.J. Thomas - The Scepter Hits And More 1964-1973 '2004

Tracks list

 B.J. Thomas was one of the most consistent - and consistently good! -
purveyors of American pop for more than a decade. A major chart star for most of
the second half of the 1960s and through to the mid 70s, B.J.seemed to always be
able to anticipate the needs of the US Top 40 at every career twist and turn,
and his great records like Hooked On A Feeling and Mighty Clouds Of Joy were
ever a positive enhancement to the AM radio waves of their time (as they are to
oldies FM radio stations across the USA in the 21st Century). For around eight
of those years, B.J. recorded exclusively for the go-ahead, New York-based
independent Scepter Records, and its his best recordings for Scepter that are
the subject of Aces first-ever UK anthology to seriously appraise, and afford
historical significance to, Billy Joe Thomas.

Born in Oklahoma and raised near Houston, B.J. had been a local East Texas
phenomenon for a few years when Scepter picked up his locally-released,
blue-eyed soul revival of Hank Williams, Srs Im So Lonesome I Could Cry and
turned it into a national Top 10 hit. From then on in he was the worlds
property, scoring again and again on the national and international charts with
the tracks that form the bulk of this compilation. (Rather strangely, the
majority of his Scepter 45s did not make the UK charts. This is not a comment on
their quality - as youll hear, they have quality in abundance! - but rather on
the restrictive nature of UK radio in the late 60s and early 70s. That, and the
taste of a public that could regularly chart Des OConnor and Val Doonican in
1967 and 1968 but that could seemingly find no room for Hooked On A Feeling
until it was massacred a few years later by Jonathan King.)

This is the most comprehensive collection of B.J. Thomas Scepter hits and
significant sides to be released on CD to date. Its the only one that
encompasses his first success for the label and his final ones. The track
selection serves to remind the listener that he might just have been the most
versatile pop singer of his generation, able to move, seemingly effortlessly,
from blue-eyed Texas soul to Bacharach-David singalong to Memphis pop with
country overtones and make it all sound great.

Highlights of this CD include a trilogy of Memphis-recorded songs that tend to
be associated with the late Elvis Presley, but it was B.J. Thomas who cut the
original, and in every way superior, versions of Its Only Love and I Just Cant
Help Believing. Had things gone his way, B.J. might also have been the
originator of Suspicious Minds, but his regular writer Mark James had already
given The King first refusal - and the rest you know. As youll hear, though,
B.J.s own version (with its suspicious-ly similar backing track!) is no mere
make do. Scepter would regularly send B.J. to Memphis or Muscle Shoals in his
hitmaking heyday, and the presence of some great Southern musicians make these,
and great recordings like The Eyes Of A New York Woman and Most Of All, even
greater than they would have been if cut elsewhere.

More great stuff can be found in the first section of this CD, recorded when
B.J.was still working out of and around Houston and still infusing his sessions
with a mixture of the sounds and styles he heard while growing up in East Texas.
Among these tracks youll find bluesy workouts of country classics (Tomorrow
Never Comes and I Cant Help It), pacey Northern Soul-style pop (I Dont Have A
Mind Of My Own) and two of the more interesting death discs youll ever hear,
Billy And Sue and Plain Jane - the latter of which surely influenced Stephen
Kings Carrie in many ways!

Further highlights here include another unofficial trilogy, this time of
Bacharach and David songs. Everyone surely knows Raindrops Keep Falling On My
Head and here it is, on this CD, in its definitive B.J.Thomas version. Even
better, though, are the ambitious Long Ago Tomorrow and the quite wonderful, and
brilliantly scored, Everybodys Out Of Town. Collectively they are three of the
best late-period B & D songs, and its hard to imagine anyone putting them over
better than B.J. Thomas does.

Much the same could be said about any of these songs, and BJs performances
thereof. Whether dipping back into vintage country via Hank Williams and Ernest
Tubb, putting his own spin on a then-unreleased Stevie Wonder masterpiece or
dipping into the stellar catalogue of Brill Building giants Barry Mann and
Cynthia Weil, B.J.Thomas makes his versions count in a way that lesser singers
could only dream of doing. Thats why these recordings sound as vital today as
they did more than 30 years ago. Thats why any serious connoisseur of American
Popular music will need to find space on their shelf for this must-have CD. And
thats something Id be prepared to say regardless of whether or not I compiled
and/or wrote the notes for it (which I did).

If you know the name, but not the music, theres never been a better time to get
Hooked on B.J. Thomas than now - and here!

By Rob Finnis
:: TRACKLIST ::

1 Im So Lonesome I Could Cry 3:08
2 Billy And Sue 3:11
3 Treasure Of Love 2:13
4 Plain Jane 2:40
5 Tomorrow Never Comes 2:46
6 Mama 2:46
7 Wisdom Of A Fool 2:32
8 I Dont Have A Mind Of My Own 2:07
9 I Cant Help It 2:46
10 Hooked On A Feeling 2:45
11 Its Only Love 2:54
12 The Eyes Of A New York Woman 3:00
13 Most Of All 2:52
14 I Just Cant Help Believing 2:54
15 Skip A Rope 2:57
16 No Love At All 2:52
17 Suspicious Minds 5:39
18 Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head 3:12
19 Mighty Clouds Of Joy 3:12
20 Everybodys Out Of Town 2:39
21 Sweet Cherry Wine 2:54
22 Long Ago Tomorrow 3:57
23 Happier Than The Morning Sun 3:22
24 Thats What Friends Are For 3:53
25 Rock And Roll Lullaby 4:12

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