Musical Memories Down

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Courtesy of bbc.co.uk

Billy Joe "B. J." Thomas, reared in and around Houston, Texas, Thomas sang in
a church choir as a teenager then joined the musical group The Triumphs. During
his senior year he made friends with Roy Head of Roy Head and The Traits. The
Traits and the Triumphs held several Battle of the Bands events in
the early 1960s featuring Head and Thomas.

In 1966, B. J. Thomas and The Triumphs released the album, "I'm So Lonesome
I Could Cry" (Pacemaker Records). The album covered the 1949 hit of the Hank
Williams song, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." Thomas achieved mainstream
success again in 1968, with the single "Hooked on a Feeling", which featured
the sound of an electric sitar, first released on the album 'On My Way' (Scepter
Records). The single, "Hooked on a Feeling", was the 'B' side of the 45 rpm
record released as "The Eyes of a New York Woman". The 1969 film
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, featured Thomas performing the Burt
Bacharach and Hal David song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head", which
became the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1970, the
first #1 song for the year as well as the decade. The song
was also released on an album of the same name.

Other Trivia
After failing to gain any attention with singles released with the group
Triumph, he went solo and recorded "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"
which started his singing career.

Straddling the line between pop/rock and country, and achieving success
in both genres in the late '60s. B. J. Thomas was actually a country singer
when "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" was released. At the beginning of his
career, he leaned more heavily on rock & roll, but by the mid-'70s, he had
turned to country music, becoming one of the most successful
country-pop stars of the decade.

Source: discogs, wilki, songfacts

Some of these historical facts and trivia may seem "overextended" in some areas but, hey, I tried to make a short synopsis and sometimes that was hard to do. You will find that most of these artist(s), bands, groups has a lot of history than you realize. You also keep finding items to add or you had to leave data there because the next paragraph might refer back to the previous, etc, etc...catch my drift?

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