Evelyn Thomas

Ellen Lucille "Evelyn" Thomas (born 22 August 1953) is an American singer from Chicago, Illinois, best known for the Hi-NRG dance hits "High Energy", "Masquerade", "Standing at the Crossroads", "Reflections", and "Weak Spot".

For the civil rights activist, see Evelyn Thomas Butts.

Evelyn Thomas
Birth nameEllen Lucille Thomas
Born (1953-08-22) 22 August 1953
OriginChicago, Illinois
GenresHi-NRG, disco
Occupation(s)Singer
InstrumentsVocals
Years active1976–present
Labels20th Century, Casablanca Records, Record Shack, TSR

Thomas has an entertainment incorporated company, called Eljopan Entertainment Incorporated.[1]

Music career

Although best known worldwide for her 1980s Hi-NRG,techno club hits,[2] Thomas recorded and performed disco, Eurobeat, R&B, and dance music songs 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.[3] 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, and 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.

High-NRG

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 up-tempo dance music managed to scale the US pop charts in the intervening years, notably Blondie'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. 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 No. 85, although three additional songs hit the Billboard dance chart. 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.

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 No. 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' 1967 hit "Reflections", updated in her Hi-NRG style, Thomas peaked at No. 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 No. 1 on the now defunct UK Hi-NRG Charts. late 80s she released dance singles such as "Only Once in a Lifetime" (1988) and "This Is Madness" (1989).

In spring 1997, Redemption featuring Evelyn Thomas had a minor US club hit with the track "Tell The World".

Comeback in the 2000s

The remix was released on Dance Street/ZYX Records out of Germany in early 2005. The remix secured moderate radio and club play on the Stateside.

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 Søren Jensen in collaboration with Clive Scott, formerly of Jigsaw. 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 released a duet with Carol Jiani, "Are You Man Enough".

Discography

Albums
  • I Wanna Make It on My Own (Casablanca Records, 1978)
  • Have a Little Faith in Me (AVI Records, 1979)
  • High Energy (Record Shack, 1984)
  • Standing at the Crossroads (Record Shack, 1986)

Compilations
  • The Best of Evelyn Thomas (Hot Productions, 1991)
  • High Energy: The Best of Evelyn Thomas (Hallmark, 2000)

Singles
Year Single Peak chart positions
US Dance
[4]		 US R&B
[4]		 US Pop
[4]		 UK
[5]
1976 "Weak Spot" — — ― 26
"Doomsday" — — ― 41
"Love's Not Just an Illusion" ― — ― —
1977 "My Head's in the Stars" ― ― ― ―
1978 "Thanks for Being There" — — ― —
1979 "Have a Little Faith in Me" — — ― —
1984 "High Energy" 1 — 85 5
"Masquerade" ― — — 60
"Heartless" ― 84 — 95
1985 "Sorry Wrong Number" ― — ― 100
"Cold Shoulder" ― — ― 81
"Reflections" 18 ― ― —
1986 "How Many Hearts" 11 — ― ―
"Tightrope" ― ― ― —
1987 "Standing at the Crossroads" ― ― ― —
"No Win Situation" ― — ― ―
"Summer on the Beach" ― ― ― —
"High Voltage" ― ― ― —
1988 "Only Once in a Lifetime" ― — ― ―
"Sleaze" ― ― ― —
1989 "This Is Madness" ― — ― ―
1993 "Move Your Body" ― — ― ―
1994 "One World" ― — ― ―
1998 "Please Don't Let Me Go" ― — — ―
2008 "Stick to the Plan" ― — ― ―
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.

See also

References
  1. "SoulMusic.com". SoulMusic.com. 29 June 2009. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  2. AllMusic about Hi-NRG influence on techno music: "techno expanded with the mechanical beats of Hi-NRG."
  3. Hamilton, Andrew. "Biography: Evelyn Thomas". AMG. Retrieved 9 May 2010.
  4. "Evelyn Thomas Top Songs / Chart Singles Discography". Music VF. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
  5. "EVELYN THOMAS - full Official Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
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