«Hooked on a Feeling» singer BJ Thomas dies

• BJ Thomas dies and leaves an eternal legacy.
• The cause of his death was lung cancer.
• The singer faced a tough fight against drugs.

BJ Thomas, the singer who hit the pop, country and gospel charts with hits like «I Just Can’t Help Believing,» «Raindrops Keep Fallin ‘On My Head» and «Hooked on a Feeling,» has passed away. He was 78 years old. Thomas, who announced in March that he had lung cancer, died on Saturday of complications from the disease at his home in Arlington, Texas, according to a statement from his publicist, Jeremy Westby.

Billy Joe Thomas, born in Hugo, Oklahoma, rose to fame in 1966 with a gospel-style version of the Hank Williams song “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” and went on to sell millions of records and have dozens of hits songs in different genres. In 1976 he reached number one for pop and country fans with «(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song.»

More than a million copies sold by the singer

The same year, the singer, with his album «Home Where I Belong» became one of the first gospel albums that certified more than a million copies sold, which earned him a platinum record. His most iconic recording was «Raindrops Keep Fallin ‘On My Head,» a pop hit and Oscar winner for best original song, on the soundtrack of the irreverent 1969 western «Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.»

Thomas married Gloria Richardson in 1968 and they had three daughters: Paige, Nora, and Erin. In addition to music, Thomas loved basketball as a kid, and he started calling himself BJ because there were so many teammates named Billy Joe on his kids’ team. By the time he was a teenager he was singing in church and had joined a local rock band, the Triumphs, with whom he was in his early twenties.

BJ Thomas and his fight

The singer liked Ernest Tubbs, Hank Williams, and other country artists his parents liked, although he was also inspired by the soul and rhythm and blues singers he heard on the radio or saw on stage, especially Jackie Wilson. , whose ballad «To Be Loved» later made Thomas a vital guide.

“I grew up in a very dysfunctional situation and went through years of intense alcoholism and drug addiction, so the song was always an anchor for me. When you open up to drugs and alcohol so young, it becomes something you have to deal with for the rest of your life, «Thomas told the Huffington Post in 2014.» How many blocks and pain and times of failure have these caused me? addictions. But he had that flash of light with that song. That is the basis of everything. Love and be loved. And achieving it takes a life. It has always been an important part of my emotions ”.

German architect Helmut Jahn dies at 81 in an accident in the US

Chicago (USA), May 9 (EFE) .- Unfortunately, like the singer, the renowned German architect Helmut Jahn, 81, died this Saturday, although unlike BJ Thomas, in an accident when he he traveled on his bicycle in the state of Illinois, where he resided. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot extended her condolences to the architect’s family, responsible for some of the city’s most impressive buildings, on Sunday.

Lightfoot praised the creativity and mark on the city of Nuremberg-born Jahn, and «one of the most inventive architects who will never be forgotten.» Jahn’s projects were some of the most impressive buildings in Chicago, including the Thompson Center, which is the seat of state government in the heart of Chicago, which he designed at the age of 39.

A tragic accident

Other high-profile works that bear his signature include the elegant Xerox Center on Monroe Street; an Art Deco revival annex to the Chicago Stock Exchange and the modern United Airlines terminal at O’Hare International Airport. Jahn was also behind the Sony Center in Berlin, One Liberty Place in Philadelphia and the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, among other works.

The architect died after being hit by two vehicles while riding his bicycle on Saturday afternoon, according to police in Campton Hills, a town near the city of St. Charles. Local media reported that Jahn apparently failed to stop at a stop sign in the western suburbs of Kane County and was struck by two vehicles. The world famous architect was pronounced dead at the site of the accident.

Facts about him

Jahn studied architecture at the Technical University of Munich, where he graduated in 1965, and the following year he emigrated to the United States, where he studied at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. At this school he came into contact with the structural engineer Fazlur Khan, from Bangladesh, who would be an influence on the way of working with the structure and design of the skyscrapers that made him famous.

Jahn was a visiting professor of architecture at the universities of Illinois, Harvard, and Yale. Between 1989 and 1993 he was a full professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology. The Thompson Center was built in 1985 and originally called the Illinois State Center. He was later renamed Republican Governor James Thompson Jr., also known as Big Jim Thompson. His most recent design in Chicago was in 2016, a 74-story residential tower on Michigan Ave., which was to be complete in 2022, but has been delayed by the Chicago pandemic. coronavirus. EFE

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