If Anything Keeps Falling On His Head, It’s Hit Records

If you’re like most people, when you think B.J. Thomas you think two songs.

You think “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.”

And you think “Hooked On A Feeling.”

But with a little prompting, you might be able to think of a few more. You should, because B.J. Thomas has had - get this - 15 Top-40 pop hits and 10 Top-40 country hits.

He even charted a few gospel tunes once upon a time - and won two Dove awards in the process - but got out of that racket when he discovered his gospel fans didn’t want to hear his pop hits.

Thomas has won five Grammys - lots more than many stars whose names are better known than his - and sold more than 50 million records over the course of a career that began in the mid-‘60s, back when the British Invasion threatened to obliterate American pop music.

Thomas hasn’t had a bona fide hit for several years - although he’s now recording for Warner Brothers, which says a lot about his staying power - but he’s still out on the road, applying that rich baritone to a truckload of popular tunes.

And according to his advance press notices, he still does a first-rate show.

“One might have expected him to sound a bit craggy and frail … or, more likely, to be as jaded and mechanical as so many other long-touring club acts with no payday in sight,” the Los Angeles Times opined in January.

“Instead, his voice was in top form, and his spirits were contagiously high, in a pleasantly addled sort of way.”

“Pleasantly addled,” it appears, because in addition to not being jaded and mechanical, Thomas is also not slick.

“Instead of relying on a tightly run set list and pre-programmed stage banter,” the Times continued, “he often seemed to be at a loss for what to do or say between songs.”

He’s even managed to hold his 25-year marriage together through it all, no mean feat under the best of circumstances.

This fall, he will open the B.J. Thomas Celebrity Theater in the heart of Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains.

All this is not bad for a guy who started out covering Hank Williams songs, then did his level best to take the same pill-strewn path Willliams followed to an early grave.

Thomas was born in Hugo, Okla., and grew up in Houston and Rosenberg, Texas. In high school, he fronted a band that cut a rock ‘n’ roll record that included a version of Williams’ “I’m So Lonely I Could Cry.” That song became a regional hit in 1965 and when Scepter Records picked it up, it went all the way to No. 4 on the national charts. It sold a million copies, more than any other version of that song.

He had three more gold records by ‘68 - “The Eyes Of A New York Woman,” “Hooked On A Feeling” and “It’s Only Love” and then he cut the Bert Bacharach and Hal David song, “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head,” which they had written for the “Butch Cassiday & The Sundance Kid” soundtrack.

“I was in the right place at the right time and probably got their best song ever,” Thomas said.

Thomas stayed on the charts throughout the ‘70s thanks to such hits as “I Just Can’t Help Believin’,” “No Love At All” and “Rock and Roll Lullaby.”

In 1976, he released the first of several gospel LPs, the million selling “Home Where I Belong.”

Dissatisfied by the restrictive gospel scene, he turned to country and scored with hits like “What Ever Happened To Old Fashioned Love,” “New Looks From An Old Lover” and “The Whole World’s In Love When You’re Lonely.”

Topping of a long list of awards and honors, Thomas was named to the Grand Ole Opry on his 39th birthday.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: B.J. THOMAS Location and time: The Met, Wednesday, 8 p.m. Tickets: $15 By Don Adair Correspondent