Billy Joe Thomas

Billy Joe Thomas grew up in Houston, Texas, singing in church choirs and local clubs. In 1966, he achieved his first breakout hit with a cover of Hank Williams's "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." Two years later, he recorded the iconic original version of Mark James's "Hooked on a Feeling", which featured pioneering electric sitar riffs and reached the top ten.

Thomas achieved global fame in 1969 when Burt Bacharach and Hal David chose him to sing "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" for the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and spent four weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Overcoming severe substance addiction in the mid-1970s, he became a pioneer in contemporary Christian and gospel music, winning five Grammy Awards.