Pop Icon BJ Thomas Begins Recording Project for Wrinkled Records

NASHVILLE, Tennessee — Legendary pop icon BJ Thomas is heading back into the studio on the new Wrinkled Records label to record acoustic versions of his hits with guest artists.

Among the artists that will be recording with Thomas are Vince Gill, Keb Mo and Steve Tyrell.

One of the most recognizable voices to grace the American Music Landscape, Thomas has had huge hits including “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head,” “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,” “Hooked On A Feeling”, “I Just Can’t Help Believin’”  and the Hank Williams classic, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.”

Thomas’ album is  slated for released later this year.

Wrinkled Records is a privately held, innovative record label that strives to create and distribute high quality music with a heartbeat, providing a creative outlet for a diverse group of independent songwriters and artists. “Just as the name suggests, we represent the latest wrinkle in an ever-evolving music business paradigm,” says President Sandy Knox. “Unlike other labels, we champion the song before the single, art before commerce and unabashed artistic idealism in all its magnificent glory.” 

BJ and Gloria Thomas meet with Wrinkled Records and Producer Kyle Lehning to discuss BJ's new project.

Front Row: Kyle Lehning, BJ Thomas
Back Row: Stephen McCord, Sandy Knox, Katie Gillion and Gloria Thomas

 

The Hyundai Sun Bowlhas announced Grammy Award winning artist B.J. Thomas as the performer for the Dec. 31st game at Sun Bowl Stadium.

Thomas has impacted many areas of popular music with 15 Top 40 pop hits, 10 Top 40 country hits, five Grammys, two Dove awards and 15 Gold and Platinum Records.

He is the only artist to successfully move to the top of three music genres not as a crossover and also have crossover success. Thomas will sing the national anthem prior to kick-off and continue at halftime with three of his own ballads.

The Hyundai Sun Bowl, sponsored by Hyundai Motor America, will feature the Atlantic Coast Conference against the Pacific-12 Conference.

This marks the eighth consecutive year the Hyundai Sun Bowl has featured the a halftime show. Previous performers have included Los Lonely Boys, Diamond Rio, Baby Bash, Rihanna, The Village People, David Archuleta and Lee Greenwood.

The Hyundai Sun Bowl is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 31 at noon at Sun Bowl Stadium. The game will be broadcast live nationally in high definition on CBS for the 44th consecutive year. Tickets for the Hyundai Sun Bowl range in price from $17 to $62 and can be purchased by calling (915) 533-4416 or (800) 915-BOWL or go on-line at www.ticketmaster.com.

 

BJ’s Album cover “On My Way” will be featured in the exhibition “Vogue: the adventure of a record label” Celebrating the centenary of the birth of Charles Delaunay at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (The National Library of France) in Paris France from September 18^th through November 13^th.

 

 

 

World renowned Cuban artist Rolando Diaz will be painting live on stage with B.J. at his July 22 Franklin, NC date at the Smokey Mountain Center for the Arts. You might recognize Rolando from B.J.'s live "Hooked on a Feeling" video recorded at his 2009 Arlington, TX date. See you at the show!

Click here to visit Diaz's official website.

 

Make sure you catch BJ Thomas out on the road on his current bus tour through SC, VA and AL where you can see him perform live! Just take a look at the tour schedule on the home page for more details.

Be sure to look out for an original literary work by BJ which will appear in an upcoming issue of Rosebud Magazine . Click here to visit their webpage.

 

He’s garnered two Platinum and 11 Gold records, won five Grammy Awards, and has earned 15 Top 40 Pop/Rock hits. After four decades in the music business and selling more than 70 million albums, B.J. Thomas (born Billy Joe Thomas) continues to sell out club venues across the country and around the world...

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A warm welcome to the Official BJ Thomas website.

 During the four decades B.J. Thomas has performed, he has sold more than 70 million records, earned 2 Platinum records, had 11 Gold records, won 5 Grammy Awards, 2 Dove Awards for Gospel Recordings and 15 Top 40 Pop/Rock Hits, including:

 

THE ORIGINAL SCEPTER RECORDINGS OF B.J. THOMAS, PRODUCED BY THE LIKES OF HUEY P. MEAUX, CHIPS MOMAN, BUDDY BUIE, STEVE TYRELL AND BURT BACHARACH & HAL DAVID, TO BE REISSUED ON COLLECTORS' CHOICE ON NOVEMBER 10

Eight LPs to be reissued on four individual CDs with rare bonus tracks. Including such hits as "Hooked on a Feeling, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head," and "Rock 'n' Roll Lullaby"

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- B.J. Thomas is best known for his huge pop hits like "Hooked on a Feeling" and "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head." But few realize that his support network during his years on Scepter Records (1966-'73) included legendary writers and producers - people like Huey P. Meaux in Houston, Chips Moman and the American Studios session team in Memphis, Buddy Buie and the future Atlanta Rhythm Section in Alabama and Burt Bacharach and Hal David in Los Angeles/New York. The result of this journey - eight albums on Florence Greenberg's legendary Scepter label - will be reissued on November 10, 2009 as four individual re-mastered CDs with liner notes by music journalist Michael Ragogna.

The eight albums come formatted as four twofers:

I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry/Tomorrow Never Comes
On My Way/Young and in Love
Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head/Everybody's Out of Town
Most of All/Billy Joe Thomas

Each twofer also crams on rare single b-sides and unissued masters to create four 26 song CDs.

The story starts with the Houston-based Thomas and his band, the Triumphs, heading to Huey P. Meaux's studio in Pasadena, Texas. Their first single A-side, "Hey Judy," initially released on Meaux's regional label, did nothing on the charts, but its flipside, a cover of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonely I Could Cry," scored #10 in Thomas' hometown. Thomas' longtime friend and producer Steve Tyrell took the song to nationally distributed Scepter Records, where it was included in the album I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, released in 1966, and would chart #8 on the pop charts. Along with "Lonesome" the LP contained other charting singles: "Mama" and "Bring Back the Time." Meaux also produced the 1966 follow-up Tomorrow Never Comes, using Houston session players in place of the Triumphs. A stint on Dick Clark's tours with James Brown, Gene Pitney and Chad & Jeremy won Thomas an audience outside of Texas and poised him for future success.

One of the best career moves Thomas ever made was his fateful trip from Texas to Tennessee -- specifically to Chips Moman's storied American Studios in Memphis, around the corner from Sun Studios. Moman convinced Thomas that if he moved to Memphis, Moman would keep him in mind for hit songs. Thomas soon sported a 901 area code, and recorded with the Memphis A-team: Reggie Young and Tommy Cogbill on guitars; Bobby Woods, piano; Mike Leech, bass; and Buddy Emmons, drums.  Among the contributing songwriters was Wayne Carson ("The Letter"), who co-wrote "You Were Always On My Mind" for Thomas with Mark James. From the sessions for the 1968 album On My Way came more Mark James compositions: "Eyes of a New York Woman" and Thomas' career-defining "Hooked On a Feeling." Its CD twofer partner, the 1969 album Young and in Love, contained three more James compositions: "It's Only Love," "Living Again" and "Pass the Apple Eve." The album also includes the Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson song "Never Had It So Good."

Soon after the Memphis sessions, Scepter Records' Paul Cantor called Thomas and announced, "You're goin' to L.A. We got your ticket." Thomas would find himself in the company of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, who co-wrote and were about to produce what would become the artist's biggest single ever, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head," featured in the film Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. Thomas came to L.A. with laryngitis but recorded anyway. Eight weeks later, it was re-cut with new vocals and the signature horn solo ending. The single was an amalgam of three different studio takes. The title track of Thomas' fifth album, the song charted #1 and went on to win an Academy Award. Much of the rest of the album was cut in Memphis and included a notable version of "Suspicious Minds," intended for Elvis Presley, which Thomas was initially angry he couldn't record first. The Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head album is bundled on CD with Everybody's Out of Town, which features Brill Building denizens Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil's "I Just Can't Help Believing," another classic B.J. Thomas hit.

Having recorded in Houston, Memphis and Los Angeles, Thomas recorded the Most of All album at Studio One in Doraville, Alabama, home to recordings by the Classics IV and, later, Lynyrd Skynyrd. His new musical team was headed by Buddy Buie whose house band - guitarist J.R. Cobb and drummer Robert Nix - went on to become the Atlanta Rhythm Section. Buie wrote "Most of All," and they recorded the Wayne Carson-penned "No Love At All," a #16 hit for Thomas.

On CD, Most of All cohabitates with the 1972 album Billy Joe Thomas - the artist's final Scepter release and recorded in New York. The album's concept is that contributing songwriters would appear on the album; they included Stevie Wonder, Carole King, Jimmy Webb, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil and Paul Williams. Featured was the song of which Thomas is most proud: Mann and Weil's "Rock 'n' Roll Lullaby." To get a guitarist who "sounded like Duane Eddy," Thomas and his producers summoned the real Duane Eddy. Famed backing group the Blossoms also appeared on the track, which charted #15. Among the bonus tracks are Thomas' 1971 hit "Mighty Clouds of Joy" and a previously unissued Mann & Weil composition, "There's No Holding You."

1972 marked the end of Thomas' Scepter era, but the B.J. Thomas saga continued with more hits ("Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song," "Don't Worry Baby," "Whatever Happened To Old Fashioned Love") on the pop, country, adult contemporary and gospel charts. Most recently, B.J. has recorded an album of Brazilian music.