Evelyn Thomas
Encyclopedia
Evelyn Thomas is an American singer from Chicago
, Illinois
, best known for the dance hits "High Energy", "Masquerade", "Standing At The Crossroads", "Reflections", and "WeakSpot".
Thomas has an entertainment incorporated company,called Eljopan Entertainment Incorporated.
club hits, Thomas recorded and performed in disco
, jazz
, and gospel music
styles for a decade before her successful stint in the 1980s. Discovered by British producer Ian Levine
, who was in the US in 1975 scouting for gospel and soul singers he could promote in the UK, the two recorded several tracks which resulted in a contract with 20th Century Records. Evelyn Thomas scored a chart hit with her first single, reaching the UK Top 30 in 1976 with the single "Weak Spot," co-written by Levine and Paul David Wilson
. A follow-up single, "Doomsday", entered the UK charts twice but each time floundered in the lower reaches, and sticky contract issues complicated her newfound success, though Levine and Thomas would continue their association for quite some time. She signed to US label Casablanca Records
for her first album release "I Wanna Make It On My Own", released 1978. With Casablanca doing little to promote the LP, she switched to AVI Records for the double A-side 12" single "Have a Little Faith in Me" / "No Time to Turn Around" which prompted the label to release it as an LP, backed with Rick Gianatos' extended remixes of her 1976 tracks "My Head's in the Stars" and "Love's Not Just an Illusion". For a follow-up, Evelyn Thomas re-recorded three tracks from an aborted project by Levine's group Moonstone, "Love in the First Degree", "Summer on the Beach" and "Sleaze" (originally entitled "Out of the Ball Game") but with the disco backlash in the US, the tracks were left unreleased, and Levine and Thomas' careers stalled as the 1980s began.
's "Call Me
" in 1980, Laura Branigan
's "Gloria
" in 1982, and Irene Cara
's "Flashdance (What A Feeling)" in 1983. Unwilling to use the term "disco", the phrase "high energy" had come into usage, probably begun in England in the early 1980s. By 1984 Ian Levine had re-established himself as a producer and asked Evelyn Thomas to come to London to record a new track "High Energy
". Just few weeks after it was released, it zoomed up the charts all over Europe - peaking at No. 1 in Germany and No. 5 in the UK, selling a total of 7,000,000 copies worldwide. In the US it hit No. 1 on the Hot Dance Club Play
chart, selling 250,000 copies. The song was her only Billboard Hot 100
entry, peaking at #85, although three additional songs hit the Billboard dance chart.
However Thomas never got paid for the song. Ian Levine got paid, but he didn’t pay Fiachra Trench, or anybody, but Levine had received the money from the song.
By 1984, the phrase had become embraced as a term by DJs across Europe and in the States, particularly in gay clubs where DJs who preferred to play records that surpassed a certain BPM (Beats Per Minute) threshold found many mainstream hits lagging in tempo. Evolving around that time to the abbreviated "Hi-Energy," the term soon became further shortened to "Hi-NRG", and was still widely in use more than two decades later to describe a certain genre of uptempo dance music. Though it became a widely held myth that the Evelyn Thomas song was the etymological source of the phrase, Thomas' hit certainly captured the dance music zeitgeist, and through that classic club hit she became an ambassador for that wave of dance music at the time of its greatest international prominence.
Though she would not return to the US pop or R&B charts, US dancefloors continued to move to the fast beat of Evelyn Thomas. With a cover of the Supremes
' 1967 hit "Reflections", updated in her Hi-NRG style, Thomas peaked at #18 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 1986, the same year in which Kim Wilde
had a similarly styled hit with the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On
". A second Thomas release that summer fared even better on those charts, as "How Many Hearts" narrowly missed the top 10. The two songs would later appear on Thomas' fourth album release, "Standing at the Crossroads", in 1987. In late 1987, the single "No Win Situation" shot to #1 on the now defunct UK Hi-NRG
chart. After the singles "Only Once in a Lifetime" (1988) and "This Is Madness" (1989), both on Levine's Nightmare Records label, Thomas withdrew from the music business.
In spring 1997, Redemption featuring Evelyn Thomas had a minor US club hit with the track "Tell The World".
in early 2005. The remix secured moderate radio and club play Stateside. This song was then ripped off by Daz Sampson in 2005 who tried to get it released in the UK before the Germans could release their remix.
In May 2008, Evelyn Thomas took part in the major RTL Disco Tour, performing in 15 cities throughout France. While in Europe, Thomas completed several new recordings in different countries with the aim of making a comeback. She has teamed up with Ian Levine for the first time in 20 years, recording the tracks "Pounding the Pavement", "One in a Million" and "I Can't Give You the World". She has recorded four tracks, "Stick to the Plan", "Missing the Target", "Infidelity" and the ballad "Why Must the Sunrise" for a diva album called The Plan for Night Dance Records, produced by Scandinavian songwriter Soren Jensen in collaboration with Clive Scott, formerly of Jigsaw
(1975's "Sky High"). Thomas has also teamed up with French team Evolusound for a single release, "Prove It", written and produced by Frank Savannah and remixed by Laurent Schark.
In 2009 Thomas was to release a duet with fellow '80s Hi-NRG diva Carol Jiani
with the song "Are You Man Enough" produced by Australian team Peter Wilson/Chris Richards aka T1 Productions.
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, best known for the dance hits "High Energy", "Masquerade", "Standing At The Crossroads", "Reflections", and "WeakSpot".
Thomas has an entertainment incorporated company,called Eljopan Entertainment Incorporated.
Music career
Although best known worldwide for her '80s Hi-NRGHi-NRG
Hi-NRG describes a form of high-tempo disco music as well as a genre of electronic dance music originating in the United States during the late 1970s...
club hits, Thomas recorded and performed in disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, and gospel music
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
styles for a decade before her successful stint in the 1980s. Discovered by British producer Ian Levine
Ian Levine
Ian Levine is an English songwriter, producer, and DJ. He is also a well-known fan of the long-running television show Doctor Who.Levine attended Arnold School in Blackpool from 1963 to 1970...
, who was in the US in 1975 scouting for gospel and soul singers he could promote in the UK, the two recorded several tracks which resulted in a contract with 20th Century Records. Evelyn Thomas scored a chart hit with her first single, reaching the UK Top 30 in 1976 with the single "Weak Spot," co-written by Levine and Paul David Wilson
Paul David Wilson
Paul David Wilson is a songwriter, composer, conductor, and music producer. Most of his professional life has been devoted to music, including composing for radio and TV commercials, he was became the president of a start-up record label begun by Frank Thomas, who was then the starring player on...
. A follow-up single, "Doomsday", entered the UK charts twice but each time floundered in the lower reaches, and sticky contract issues complicated her newfound success, though Levine and Thomas would continue their association for quite some time. She signed to US label Casablanca Records
Casablanca Records
Casablanca Records was an American record label started by Neil Bogart, who partnered with Cecil Holmes, Larry Harris, and Buck Reingold in 1973, and based in Los Angeles. The label was formed after all of them had left Buddah Records and secured financing by Warner Bros. Records to start the venture...
for her first album release "I Wanna Make It On My Own", released 1978. With Casablanca doing little to promote the LP, she switched to AVI Records for the double A-side 12" single "Have a Little Faith in Me" / "No Time to Turn Around" which prompted the label to release it as an LP, backed with Rick Gianatos' extended remixes of her 1976 tracks "My Head's in the Stars" and "Love's Not Just an Illusion". For a follow-up, Evelyn Thomas re-recorded three tracks from an aborted project by Levine's group Moonstone, "Love in the First Degree", "Summer on the Beach" and "Sleaze" (originally entitled "Out of the Ball Game") but with the disco backlash in the US, the tracks were left unreleased, and Levine and Thomas' careers stalled as the 1980s began.
Capturing the zeitgeist
Although disco music had been declared "dead" in the US in a backlash in 1979, several songs which continued and advanced the exuberant surge of uptempo dance music managed to scale the US pop charts in the intervening years, notably BlondieBlondie (band)
Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...
's "Call Me
Call Me (Blondie song)
"Call Me" is a song by the American new wave band Blondie. Released in 1980, "Call Me" topped the singles charts in both the US and the UK ....
" in 1980, Laura Branigan
Laura Branigan
Laura Ann Branigan was an American singer-songwriter and actress of Italian and Irish ancestry. She is best known in the United States for her 1982 Platinum-certified hit "Gloria" and in Europe for the number-one single "Self Control"...
's "Gloria
Gloria (Laura Branigan song)
"Gloria" is a pop song originally written and composed in Italian by Umberto Tozzi and Giancarlo Bigazzi, which -with English lyrics written by Trevor Veitch- became an international hit for Laura Branigan in 1982-83, selling more than two million singles in the US alone.-Origins:Umberto Tozzi...
" in 1982, and Irene Cara
Irene Cara
Irene Cara is an American singer and actress. Cara won an Academy Award in 1984 in the category of Best Original Song for co-writing "Flashdance... What a Feeling." She is also known for her recording of the song "Fame", and she also starred in the 1980 film Fame.She married Hollywood stuntman...
's "Flashdance (What A Feeling)" in 1983. Unwilling to use the term "disco", the phrase "high energy" had come into usage, probably begun in England in the early 1980s. By 1984 Ian Levine had re-established himself as a producer and asked Evelyn Thomas to come to London to record a new track "High Energy
High Energy (Evelyn Thomas song)
"High Energy" is the title of a 1984 song by American dance singer Evelyn Thomas. The song was very popular in dance clubs around the world, and it topped the American dance chart in September of that year. It also spent four weeks atop the pop chart in Germany, and peaked at #5 on the UK singles...
". Just few weeks after it was released, it zoomed up the charts all over Europe - peaking at No. 1 in Germany and No. 5 in the UK, selling a total of 7,000,000 copies worldwide. In the US it hit No. 1 on the Hot Dance Club Play
Hot Dance Club Play
The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs...
chart, selling 250,000 copies. The song was her only Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
entry, peaking at #85, although three additional songs hit the Billboard dance chart.
However Thomas never got paid for the song. Ian Levine got paid, but he didn’t pay Fiachra Trench, or anybody, but Levine had received the money from the song.
By 1984, the phrase had become embraced as a term by DJs across Europe and in the States, particularly in gay clubs where DJs who preferred to play records that surpassed a certain BPM (Beats Per Minute) threshold found many mainstream hits lagging in tempo. Evolving around that time to the abbreviated "Hi-Energy," the term soon became further shortened to "Hi-NRG", and was still widely in use more than two decades later to describe a certain genre of uptempo dance music. Though it became a widely held myth that the Evelyn Thomas song was the etymological source of the phrase, Thomas' hit certainly captured the dance music zeitgeist, and through that classic club hit she became an ambassador for that wave of dance music at the time of its greatest international prominence.
Later career
The follow-up single "Masquerade" was taken from her third album "High Energy", released the same year. While it received heavy rotation in European clubs, it failed to break into the UK Top 40. In the US the song was a top-twenty Dance hit. The following year, "Heartless" became her only single other than "High Energy" to chart outside of the Club/Dance charts in the United States. "Heartless" peaked at #84 on the Black Singles chart (later renamed the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart) in 1985.Though she would not return to the US pop or R&B charts, US dancefloors continued to move to the fast beat of Evelyn Thomas. With a cover of the Supremes
The Supremes
The Supremes, an American female singing group, were the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s.Originally founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, The Supremes' repertoire included doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes, psychedelic soul, and disco...
' 1967 hit "Reflections", updated in her Hi-NRG style, Thomas peaked at #18 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 1986, the same year in which Kim Wilde
Kim Wilde
Kim Wilde is an English pop singer, author and television presenter who burst onto the music scene in 1981 with the number 2 UK Singles Chart new wave classic "Kids in America". In 1987 she had a major hit in the United States when her version of The Supremes' classic "You Keep Me Hangin' On"...
had a similarly styled hit with the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On
You Keep Me Hangin' On
Vanilla Fudge's 1967 psychedelic/hard rock remake of "You Keep Me Hangin' On" reached #6 on the Hot 100 chart two years after the release of the Supremes' recording. While the version released on 45 RPM single was under three minutes long, the album version was extended to six minutes and...
". A second Thomas release that summer fared even better on those charts, as "How Many Hearts" narrowly missed the top 10. The two songs would later appear on Thomas' fourth album release, "Standing at the Crossroads", in 1987. In late 1987, the single "No Win Situation" shot to #1 on the now defunct UK Hi-NRG
Hi-NRG
Hi-NRG describes a form of high-tempo disco music as well as a genre of electronic dance music originating in the United States during the late 1970s...
chart. After the singles "Only Once in a Lifetime" (1988) and "This Is Madness" (1989), both on Levine's Nightmare Records label, Thomas withdrew from the music business.
In spring 1997, Redemption featuring Evelyn Thomas had a minor US club hit with the track "Tell The World".
Comeback in the 00s
A new remix of her largest hit was released in 2004 as "High Energy 2004" and became a worldwide gay club hit. The remix was released on Dance Street/ZYX Records out of GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in early 2005. The remix secured moderate radio and club play Stateside. This song was then ripped off by Daz Sampson in 2005 who tried to get it released in the UK before the Germans could release their remix.
In May 2008, Evelyn Thomas took part in the major RTL Disco Tour, performing in 15 cities throughout France. While in Europe, Thomas completed several new recordings in different countries with the aim of making a comeback. She has teamed up with Ian Levine for the first time in 20 years, recording the tracks "Pounding the Pavement", "One in a Million" and "I Can't Give You the World". She has recorded four tracks, "Stick to the Plan", "Missing the Target", "Infidelity" and the ballad "Why Must the Sunrise" for a diva album called The Plan for Night Dance Records, produced by Scandinavian songwriter Soren Jensen in collaboration with Clive Scott, formerly of Jigsaw
Jigsaw (band)
Jigsaw were an English pop music group, fronted by the singer-songwriter duo of Clive Scott and Des Dyer. In Australia the group was called "British Jigsaw" due to the existence of a local band of the same name.-Overview:...
(1975's "Sky High"). Thomas has also teamed up with French team Evolusound for a single release, "Prove It", written and produced by Frank Savannah and remixed by Laurent Schark.
In 2009 Thomas was to release a duet with fellow '80s Hi-NRG diva Carol Jiani
Carol Jiani
-Singles:* 1981: "Hit N' Run Lover"* 1981: "The Woman In Me" / "Mercy"* 1982: "Ask Me"* 1982 "You're Gonna Lose My Love"* 1982: "X-Rated"* 1984: "Dancing In The Rain"* 1984: "Touch and Go Lover"* 1984: "Love Now Pay Later"...
with the song "Are You Man Enough" produced by Australian team Peter Wilson/Chris Richards aka T1 Productions.
Albums
- I Wanna Make It On My Own (Casablanca RecordsCasablanca RecordsCasablanca Records was an American record label started by Neil Bogart, who partnered with Cecil Holmes, Larry Harris, and Buck Reingold in 1973, and based in Los Angeles. The label was formed after all of them had left Buddah Records and secured financing by Warner Bros. Records to start the venture...
NBLP 7107, 1978)- "I Wanna Make It on My Own"
- "It's the Magic of Your Touch"
- "Look No Further"
- "Thanks for Being There"
- "Back to Reality"
- Have a Little Faith in Me (AVI Records AVI-6069, 1979)
- "Have a Little Faith in Me"
- "No Time to Turn Around"
- "My Head's in the Stars"
- "Love's Not Just an Illusion"
- High Energy (Record Shack SOHOLP-4, 1984)
- "Masquerade"
- "Heartless"
- "Running Wild in the Night"
- "High Energy"
- "Second Best"
- "Chalk It Up to Experience"
- "Shy Guy"
- Standing at the Crossroads (Record Shack SOHOLP-10, 1986)
- "Standing at the Crossroads"
- "How Many Hearts"
- "Cold Shoulder"
- "Sorry Wrong Number"
- "Reflections (Suite)"
- "Number One Lover"
- "Tightrope"
- "Reflections"
Compilations
- The Best of Evelyn Thomas Hot Productions 1991
- High Energy: The Best of Evelyn Thomas Hallmark 2000
Singles
- "Weak Spot" (20th Century, 1976)
- "Doomsday" (20th Century, 1976)
- "Love's Not Just an Illusion" (20th Century, 1976)
- "My Head's in the Stars" (20th Century, 1977)
- "Thanks for Being There" (Casablanca UK, 1978)
- "Have A Little Faith In Me" / "No Time to Turn Around"(AVI, 1979)
- "High EnergyHigh Energy (Evelyn Thomas song)"High Energy" is the title of a 1984 song by American dance singer Evelyn Thomas. The song was very popular in dance clubs around the world, and it topped the American dance chart in September of that year. It also spent four weeks atop the pop chart in Germany, and peaked at #5 on the UK singles...
" (#1 US Dance, #5 UK) (Record Shack, 1984) - "Masquerade" (Record Shack, 1984)
- "Heartless" (Record Shack, 1984)
- "Sorry Wrong Number" (Record Shack, 1985)
- "Reflections" (Record Shack, 1985)
- "How Many Hearts" (Record Shack, 1986)
- "Cold Shoulder" (Record Shack, 1986)
- "Tightrope" (Nightmare, 1987)
- "Standing at the Crossroads" (Nightmare, 1987)
- "No Win Situation" (Nightmare, 1987)
- "High Voltage" (Paris International, 1987)
- "Only Once in a Lifetime" (Nightmare, 1988)
- "This Is Madness" (Nightmare, 1989)
- "Move Your Body" (1993)
- "Tell the World" (1997)
- "High Energy 2004" (2004)
- "Stick to the Plan" (Night Dance Records, 2008)
- "Prove It" TBA
- "Are You Man Enough" (duet with Carol Jiani) TBA