In fact, B.J. has always chosen to present positive, uplifting material – no matter what genre he's been working in. "As a singer," he says, "you've got the chance to make people's spirits, and their lives, a little better."

Fans and concert-goers frequently approach B.J. to thank him for the impact of songs ranging from his megahit "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" to country smashes like "New Looks From An Old Lover." He is still recording records at a time when most of his contemporaries have long since passed from the scene.

By 1968, he'd had four gold records – "The Eyes Of A New York Woman," "Hooked On A Feeling" and "It's Only Love" being the other three – and label-mate Dionne Warwick, who'd been working with the Burt Bacharach/Hal David songwriting team, recommended him for "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head," which was written for the motion picture "Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid."

"I was in the right place at the right time," B.J. says, "and probably got their best song ever." "Raindrops" was Bacharach/David's first million-seller; it won an Academy Award and B.J. sang the song on the 1970 Academy Awards telecast.

B. J. Thomas would go on during the early 1970's to record hits like "I Just Can't Help Believin'," "No Love At All" and "Rock And Roll Lullaby," scoring a dozen gold records. Throughout the period, he sold tens of millions of records and appeared regularly on TV programs like the Ed Sullivan Show and in top nightclubs and concert halls. In 1976, he released the first of several gospel albums, "Home Where I Belong," which went platinum, making him the biggest contemporary Christian artist of the period. Over the next several years, he received a couple of Dove awards.

B. J. Thomas has had 10 Top 40 hits on the country charts with hits like "What Ever Happened To Old Fashioned Love" and "New Looks From An Old Lover."  His country music success led him to become, on his 39th birthday, the 60th member of the Grand Ole Opry.

"Singing has always been something I do," he says. "It's not who I am. I realized a long time ago that I was a guy who loved his wife and his kids, so it's not always been real important for me to be number one." And yet he's never far from that drive that has helped pull him from one bit of success to the next. "When I do music," he says "I do so with everything I can give it. And I'm sure I always will."