|
David Clayton-Thomas (b Thomsett). Singer, songwriter, producer, b Surrey, England, of British-Canadian parents, 13 Sep 1941. Clayton-Thomas and his family moved to Canada when he was four and settled near Toronto. After taking up the guitar in his late teens during a series of terms in Ontario prisons, he began performing in Toronto nightclubs in the early 1960s, and developed a reputation as a tough, brawling blues singer. As Sonny Thomas (later David Clayton-Thomas) he led the Fabulous Shays, an R&B band that recorded the local hits "Walk That Walk" (1965, Red Leaf) and "Out of the Sunshine" (1965, Roman). He then formed the Bossmen, one of the first rock bands to incorporate jazz elements, eg, "'Brainwashed" (1966), written by Clayton-Thomas and the jazz pianist and band member Tony Collacott.
Clayton-Thomas moved to the U.S. in 1966 and became the lead singer for the New York jazz-rock group Blood, Sweat & Tears (1968-72). The group's debut album, Blood, Sweat & Tears (1968), sold 10 million copies worldwide and won five Grammy awards including album of the year and best performance by a male vocalist. The group worked with Columbia Records (see Sony Music Entertainment) to produce international hits such as his own songs "Spinning Wheel" (1969) and "Lucretia MacEvil" (1970), as well as "And When I Die" and "You Make Me So Very Happy" (1969), and "Hi-De-Ho" (1970). The band recorded several LPs for Columbia and toured widely in North America, Asia, South America, and Europe, including performances in Romania, Poland, Russia, and Yugoslavia in 1970 to 1971. From 1972 to 1974 Clayton-Thomas worked as a solo artist and recorded the LPs David Clayton-Thomas and the Magnificent Sanctuary Band (Col KC-31000), Tequila Sunrise (Col KC-31700), and David Clayton-Thomas (RCA APL1-0173) and worked often in Las Vegas. He returned to Blood, Sweat & Tears in 1974 and worked with the band, through several changes in membership, until 1981. Clayton-Thomas worked with musicians such as Rob and Dave Piltch and the trumpeter Bruce Cassidy to make Nuclear Blues (MCA 3227) in 1979, and toured Europe in 1980. During the 1980s Clayton-Thomas pursued a solo career based in the US and performed with the re-formed Blood, Sweat & Tears until he moved back to Canada in 2004. In 1996, Clayton-Thomas was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. As a solo artist Clayton-Thomas has released Blue Plate Special (1998), The Christmas Album (2001) and Aurora (2005). In 2006 David Clayton-Thomas in Concert: A Musical Biography was recorded live at the Opera House in Toronto, and was released through Justin Time Records. In the same year Clayton-Thomas released his memoirs and an accompanying solo CD, both entitled The Evergreens. The album Blood, Sweat & Tears, which sold 1 million copies within three months of its original release in 1969, was awarded the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2002, and the song "Spinning Wheel" was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2008 he was inducted into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
Author
Peter Goddard
Bibliography
Brown, Dick. "The respectable Mr. David Clayton-Thomas," Weekend Magazine, 17 Aug 1974 Gormely, Sheila. "Gone nice," The Canadian, 31 Jul 1976 Goddard, Peter. "David Clayton-Thomas sings the blues," Toronto Star, 21 Aug 1982 Jennings, Nicholas. "Blasts from the past: five veteran Canadian rockers recall their glory days," Maclean's, vol 109 no 11. 11 Mar 1996 "Singer documents life through music, words," Mississauga News, 26 Sep 2008
Links to Other Sites
David Clayton-Thomas
The official David Clayton-Thomas website offers a biography, discography, reviews, and audio clips of his music.
CBC Concerts on Demand
From country to calypso and the classics, the “Concerts on Demand” website offers hundreds of online recordings of outstanding concerts originally broadcast on CBC Radio 2. Search this site to find and listen to recordings of your favourite musician, group, or music genre.
Blood, Sweat & Tears
The website for the legendary rock band Blood Sweat & Tears.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| Joseph-Elzéar Bernier was Canada's greatest seaman, a man of strong will and extraordinary ingenuity. It is largely due to him that the Canadian flag now flies over the Arctic Archipelago... |
|
| Pierre Elliott Trudeau, politician, writer, constitutional lawyer, prime minister of Canada 1968-79 and 1980-84 (b at ... |
|
|
| Few countries were affected as severely as Canada by the worldwide Depression of the 1930s. It is estimated that ... |
|
|
| Louis Riel, Métis leader, founder of Manitoba, central figure in the NORTH-WEST REBELLION (b at Red River ... |
|
|
| Evangelical Christian Church, often called the Christian Church (Christian Disciples), is a denomination stemming from ... |
|
|
| Few countries were affected as severely as Canada by the worldwide Depression of the 1930s. It is estimated that ... |
|
|
| The Toronto Maple Leafs are a HOCKEY team, was formed in 1927 when Conn SMYTHE purchased and renamed the Toronto St ... |
|
|
| Sears Canada Inc, headquartered in Toronto, is a Canadian retailer incorporated in 1952. In 1953 operating under the ... |
|
|
| John Ware, "Nigger John," horseman, rancher (b near Georgetown, SC 1845; d near Brooks, Alta 11 Sept 1905). ... |
|
|
| Land claims are dealt with by a process established by the federal government to enable INDIANS, INUIT and ... |
|
Browse the rich visual resources of The Canadian Encyclopedia through thematic galleries of Canadian Art, History, Nature, People, and Science and Technology.
Illustrations, lively text, animations, sounds and games help make learning about Canadian history, art, geography, architecture and other topics entertaining as well as informative.
The ultimate test of your knowledge of Canada, trivial and otherwise. You can choose from more than 60 dynamic quizzes with visual or text clues. Your scores depend on the speed with which you answer and the number of clues you need. Results are sent to you by email and high scores are posted on the site.
This unique resource includes more than 6000 events from Canadian and world history. It can be searched by era, subject, keyword or date. To find out what happened on your birthday, select the month and day of your birth.
This selection of the 100 "greatest" events in Canadian history was made by editor in chief James H. Marsh to draw attention to events that have left an indelible memory in the minds of later generations.
| THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MUSIC IN CANADA |
|
| The Honourable Tommy (Thomas Benjamin) Banks. Pianist, conductor, arranger, composer, TV personality, actor, producer, politician, b Calgary 17 Dec 1936; honorary diploma of music (Grant MacEwan College) 1979, honorary LLD ... |
|
|
