B.J. Thomas, the Grammy-winning singer behind 'Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head' and other hits, has died at age 78
Billy Joe Thomas was born in Hugo, Oklahoma, and grew up in Houston, Texas, where he first sang in public at the Temple Oaks Baptist Church before moving with his family to nearby Rosenberg when he was 15. At Lamar Consolidated High School, he played baseball and picked up the nickname “B.J.” because there were already several Billys in the league.
Thomas was often booked on package tours, playing on the same shows with artists including Gene Pitney, Bobby Goldsboro, and the McCoys. The road to the multimillion-selling “Raindrops” was similarly packed with various artists vying to record the track. In 2013, Thomas toldthat Bacharach wrote the melody to fit Bob Dylan. “In subsequent years Burt has denied it, but this is what I understood at the time,” Thomas said. “Burt really admired Bob Dylan and the way he phrased.
Thomas met his future wife Gloria Richardson at Van’s Ballroom in Houston in 1967. The couple wed in December 1968 in Las Vegas and their oldest daughter, Paige, was born in 1970. The couple would adopt their middle daughter, Nora, in 1978; third daughter, Erin, was born in 1979.