WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Evelyn Thomas

Evelyn Thomas’ career reached a high in 1984 with “High Energy”. So where is this hi-NRG Queen now?

Ellen Thomas was born in Chicago in 1953 and performed as a gospel and soul singer from a young age. But it was a British producer, Ian Levine, who ‘discovered’ her talent and brought her to the UK to develop her commercially. She recorded her debut single, “Weak Spot”, co-written by Levine, in 1976 and it made the UK top thirty (No.26). The follow up, “Dooms Day” just missed the top 40 but yo-yo’d up and down for a number of weeks. Evelyn released two albums before the decade was out, “I Wanna Make It On My Own” and “Have A Little Faith In Me”, although neither were a success and subsequent singles also failed to chart.

Evelyn put her career on hold for some time until she reunited with Ian Levine in 1984 and signed with him to TSR Records They began work on a new album together with an 80’s disco-dance flavour to it. The lead single and ultimately the title track of the album was “High Energy” and with plenty of promotion in the clubs, the song became a huge hit for her topping the US dance chart and reaching No.1 in Germany and Spain, No.85 on the US singles chart and No.5 in the UK. Evely would achieve three more US dance chart hits with “Masquerade”, “Heartless” and “Sorry Wrong Number”, all of which made the UK top 100 along with the album later in 1984. The dance and club hits continued into 1985 and 1986 with a cover of The Supremes’ “Reflections” and “How Many Hearts?”.

Although commercial chart success ended here, Evelyn continued to record and perform to the end of the decade, releasing the album “Standing At The Crossroads” in 1986 and the club hits “High Voltage” in 1987 and “Only Once In A Lifetime” in 1988. She released her greatest hits in 1991 and half a dozen standalone singles throughout the 1990’s. An expanded best of, “High Energy: The Best of Evelyn Thomas”, came out in 2000, while in 2008, Evelyn released a brand new recording, “Stick To The Plan”, her first for over a decade. These days, Evelyn promotes up and coming artists and singers through her company Eljopan Entertainment Incorporated and occasionally pops up on 80’s music shows for interviews as well as performing her own hits, always with high energy!