“I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”

I think I was at a “sock-hop” after another Forney High School Jackrabbit victory in about 1966 or 1967 when I first heard this song played over the loudspeaker. I don’t remember with whom I was dancing, but I remember I was a little self-conscious with girls in those days and was always glad for the times that one of the dance chaperones (parents and/or teachers) would announce that the next dance would be a “John Paul Jones,” during which boys in an outer circle would go around in one direction, and girls in an inner circle would go in the opposite. At a pause-in-the-song signal the circling stopped, and “you would dance with whoever was immediately across from you in the other circle.” If you were fortunate, it would be someone you considered GREAT and vice-versa, and if you were not so lucky, well, you both still danced and “made the best of it!”

As I remember things from more than 50 years ago, I was a really lucky freshman or sophomore boy and danced with a really popular, beautiful, wonderful SENIOR girl, and the song was “I’M SO LONESOME I COULD CRY”—not the Hank Williams version, but the one by B. J. THOMAS, the one that made girls “tear up and melt!” Elvis, himself, once announced this song by saying, “I’d like to sing a song that is probably the saddest song I have ever heard.” (written and recorded in 1949 by Hank Williams)

In 1942, he was born Billy Joe Thomas in Hugo, Oklahoma, grew up in Houston, Texas, and was well-known for his variety of Christian, pop, and country hits of the ‘60s and ‘70s—good enough that he won 5 Grammy Awards.

As a child, Thomas loved baseball and began calling himself, “B. J.,” because so many teammates were also named Billy Joe. Reaching his teens, he was a regular “singer” in Church and was a member of a “rock band” (The Triumphs) with whom he remained until sometime in his 20s.

He enjoyed Country Music but says he was inspired more by the singers of the BLUES—especially Jackie Wilson, whose hit, “To Be Loved,” became a sort of “guide” to his life!

In 1976, he made it to #1 with listeners from various genres with his hit song, “Hey, Won’t You Play, Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,” and, the same year, his gospel album, Home Where I Belong, became a certified “PLATINUM” for selling more than one million copies! The same title was used for his bestselling book in 1978.

And much earlier, in 1969, “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” moved to a #1 pop hit about the same time it was an Oscar Winner for “Best Original Song” as part of the soundtrack of one of the biggest movies of that day—Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, making its mark when Butch (Paul Newman) shows off on his new bicycle for Etta Place (Katharine Ross), the girlfriend of the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford). (Man, oh, man, 1969 was a great year, and that was the year that Lawrence Higgins, Warren Hatley, Harry Power, Deborah Novak, Mary Adams, Shane Evans, Linda Wade, Marsha Eudy, Ernest Baptist, Rod Stark, Pat Kelly, Jess Moore, and other “mentions” in my articles graduated from high school and headed off to college!)

After the mid-1970s Thomas had very few “pop” hits but continued to “score” on the Country Charts with #1 songs—“Whatever Happened to Old-Fashioned Love?” and “New Looks from an Old Lover”—both #1s!

And in 1979, he received a Grammy for Best Gospel Performance with his rendition of “The Lord’s Prayer.”

But back to “RAIN-DROPS!” It was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2013, because it had also been used in so many other productions, Forrest Gump to name one!

Mr. Thomas suffered from addictions during his early career, brought on when a producer suggested he take amphetamines to keep his energy up for long periods of time. However, he cites a SPIRITUAL AWAKENING along with his wife (Gloria Richardson) for helping him to get and stay clean! “I Just Can’t Help Believing,” “Hooked On a Feeling,” “Don’t Worry, Baby,” “Still the Lovin’ is Fun,” “Two-Car Garage,” “As Long As We Got Each Other,” “Happy Man,” “You Gave Me Love, When Nobody Gave Me a Prayer,” “Amazing Grace”—These also won honors and awards for him and his work, which continued on into the 2000s.

“Did you hear that lonesome whippoorwill? He sounds too blue to fly. The midnight train is whining low, and I’m so lonesome I could cry.”

“I’ve never seen a night so long, when time goes crawling by. The moon just went behind the clouds to hide its face and cry.”

“Did you ever see a robin weep, when leaves begin to die? That means he’s lost the will to live, and I’m so lonesome I could cry.”

“The silence of a falling star lights up a purple sky, and as I wonder where you are, I’m so lonesome I could cry.”

No one did it like B. J. Thomas, proud resident of Arlington, Texas. Complications of lung cancer took his life too soon, and he will be missed!