Evelyn Thomas

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Evelyn Thomas


Img_capt = CD album re-issue of Standing at the Crossroads
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Evelyn Thomas
Alias =
Born = birth date|1953|8|22|mf=y
Died =
Origin = Chicago, Illinois
Instrument = vocals
Genre = Hi-NRG, Dance, Disco, House Music
Occupation = Singer
Years_active = 1976-present
Label = 20th Century, Casablanca Records, Record Shack, TSR
URL =
Notable_instruments =

Evelyn Thomas (born August 22 1953) is a singer from Chicago, Illinois, best known for the dance hit "High Energy".

Music career

Although best known worldwide for her '80s Hi-NRG 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 U.S. 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". 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 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 USA, 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 U.S. in a backlash in 1979, several songs which continued and advanced the exuberant surge of uptempo dance music managed to scale the U.S. 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, selling a total of 7,000,000 copies worldwide. In the U.S. 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.

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 U.S. 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 U.S. pop or R&B charts, U.S. 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 U.S. 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 Germany 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 took part in the major RTL Disco Tour in France, performing in 15 cities all over the country. While in Europe, Evelyn Thomas has completed several new recordings in several different countries in order to make 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 "All I Can Give You Is Me". 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, known for the million-selling "Sky High" (1975). Furthermore she has teamed up with French team Evolusound for forthcoming single release "Prove It", writen and produced by Frank Savannah and remixed by Laurent Schark.

Later in 2008 Evelyn will release a duet with fellow 80s Hi-NRG Diva and former Ian Levine stablemate Carol Jiani called "Are You Man Enough" produced by Australian team Peter Wilson/Chris Richards aka T1 Productions.

Discography

Albums

*"I Wanna Make It On My Own" (Casablanca Records 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

ingles

* "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 Energy" (#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

ee also

*List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart

External links

* [http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=81296256- Evelyn's Official Myspace]
* [http://www.rateyourmusic.com/artist/evelyn+thomas Bio and discography on Rateyourmusic]