- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- B. J. Thomas had many hit records over an extended period of time, beginning with the opening cut on Side 2 of Country, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”.
The Greatest Music
Ever Recorded!
B. J. Thomas – Country (1972): B. J. Thomas is a country-pop musician who made many hit records over an extended period of time, beginning with the opening cut on Side 2 of Country, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”, a beautiful rendition of the Hank Williams Sr. classic that was a #8 single in 1966. The success of this single led to a re-release of the original song “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” in the same year that just missed the Top 40. While I was in Nashville on a business trip once, I saw a musical play called Hank Williams: The Lost Highway that featured Jason Petty in the title role – he both looked and sounded like the man. The play was staged at the legendary Ryman Auditorium, the home of The Grand Ole Opry from 1943 through 1974.
Much of the story turned on what Hank Williams should do with his masterpiece “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” that didn’t fit in well with his other work. Ultimately the song was released in 1949 as the B-side of his #2 hit “My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It”. As stated in Wikipedia: “Rolling Stone magazine ranked ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’ #111 on their list of the ‘500 Greatest Songs of All Time’, the oldest song on the list.” Other songs on Country are B. J. Thomas’ minor hit “Billy and Sue”, plus “Everybody’s Talkin’ ”, “Little Green Apples”, “Skip a Rope”, “Four Walls”, and another Hank Williams song, “Cold, Cold Heart”. Two of the songs were previously released by Elvis Presley, “Suspicious Minds” (Elvis’s 18th and last #1 single in the U.S.) and his first major hit record “I Forgot to Remember to Forget” that was co-written by one of my favorite rockabilly musicians, the rather eccentric Charlie Feathers. B. J. Thomas had many other hit songs over nearly a 20-year period, such as “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”, “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song” (both #1 pop hits), “Don’t Worry Baby”, “Whatever Happened to Old-Fashioned Love” (both #1 country hits), and the #5 hit “Hooked on a Feeling”.