Posted on 06/25/2026 12:50:19 PM PDT by fidelis
David Clayton-Thomas, the Canadian singer and songwriter whose soulful voice was ubiquitous on American radio in the late 1960s and early ‘70s as lead singer of the brass-driven group Blood, Sweat & Tears, has died, according to his publicist. No cause of death was cited except that he died peacefully at a Toronto hospital on Wednesday evening; he was 84.
Clayton-Thomas wrote “Spinning Wheel,” the group’s most well-known original composition, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969, one of three songs by the band to reach that mark in that year; “When I Die” and the powerful ballad “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” also reached No. 2, powered by Clayton-Thomas’ unmistakable voice. The group won two Grammys in 1970, including best album....
(Excerpt) Read more at variety.com ...
“the ‘underground’ FM station that had no commercials, just music”
It is interesting to hear stories like that about early FM radio. It makes me think of early Genesis classics like “Supper’s Ready” and others from the Gabriel era that were played on such stations and that’s how that group (and others) found that popularity.
Two of their biggest hits were written by Laura Nyro who wrote an amazing number of hit songs - with little credit.
‘Eli’s Coming’ and, ‘And When I Die’ are the ones I immediately remembered.
https://www.song-list.net/lauranyro/songs
“Sometimes In Winter” is on my iTunes playlist...Listen to it all the time...
Absolutely fantastic talent, RIP David. He had to pull his own vocally with a huge horn section. There’s a great documentary floating around about the band...they were EPIC in the charts and then they bravely toured behind the Iron Curtain causing stupid hippies to hate on them because Nixon organized the trip. The band’s popularity cratered because of their protests. The Eastern Europeans practically risked their lives to attend their concerts, which were infiltrated all over with Stasi types.
That is a pretty one. I have BS&T Greatest Hits and listen to it a number of times a year. Old School - on CD, LOL!
CD is far superior quality to MP3 and even vinyl
My younger brother has that album on an even older, Old School format, reel to reel tape. It sounds fantastic!
RIP, I always thought Clayton-Thomas and Tom Jones sounded very much alike.
You actually got that many plays on your 8 track? Usually they were eaten up by the player within a dozen plays......LOL!
✝️✝️🙏🙏🛐🛐
I was thinking about him about a week ago
,,, sad, sad news. Thanks to him and his guys who lit up the 1960’s through to right now.
LOL! I could see that happening. That “underground” FM station was known to all of us kids but not to our parents. It was the coolest thing in the late 60s. I got exposed to all sorts of music that never got mainstream AM airtime - BS&T, Chicago Transit Authority, Fever Tree, Taj Mahal and many more.
Yeah, in that era, FM was hardly used at all. Everything was on AM. FM was the only place to get stereo radio reception. It was pretty amazing.
I remember before that listening to AM stations from far away late at night. When we lived in Ithaca, NY, I could get WBZ Boston at night and in St. Louis could get a WLS in Chicago. I actually ran a long copper wire across the backyard to create a huge antenna at one point! I knew nothing at the time about wavelengths or how to design and size an antenna, but I figured BIG had to be a lot better.
Wow. When I first heard him, I was 13. So Mr. Thomas must have been 27.
What an incredible revelation it was to hear BS&T’s music for the first time. I’ll never forget it. I couldn’t believe my ears.
RIP David Clayton-Thomas.
Always loved his voice, “God Bless the Child” one of my fav’s, RIP David......
I saw them on the “Woodstock Lost Performances” they were great!!!!!!
I thought When I Die was by Norman Greenbaum.
Memory Eternal!
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