Never Tell - B.J. Thomas

Never Tell

Artist: B.J. Thomas

Album: Only the Best, 2018

This one is posted for my friends AZ Joe and Glen Spreen (Glen was the arranger on this record).

I have always loved this record. I first discovered it when I was about 14 years old and just getting into record collecting. This was a time when I had only around 300 45 rpm records and had the time to play both sides of every record that came into my posession. I absolutely HATED the flipside -- the top 40 hit Billy and Sue. I still hate that side to this day. Now, some people out there love Billy and Sue, but this side is far better, people. Get over it.

I later picked up the stereo pressing of his Hickory "Very Best Of" LP to find this song in nice wide stereo -- and I got rid of my old Hickory 45 at that time, this copy is a recent purchase of mine. The song is great in mono or stereo.

First issued on the Bragg record label in 1963 or 1964 (this has been the cause of many debates between a friend and I), then picked up by Warner Brothers for release in 1964 (Warner simply leased the song, WMG holds no rights to the recording today), and then finally issued on Hickory records in 1966, after B.J. started having hit records for Scepter.

A "very best of" lp was rush released on Hickory containing many of his earliest recordings, most of which made it to 45 rpm releases from mostly small unknown labels (the 45 rpm release for Viet Nam is worth several hundred dollars and I do not have one, most price guides don't even acknowledge that it exists), and that LP contained only one top 40 record, the previously mentioned crap tune Billy and Sue.

This tune, like many of B.J.'s earliest recordings, was written by the late, great Mark Raymond Charron (1942-1994), who is certainly under appreciated these days for all of the great songs he wrote.

You can hear great records like this one live every night at www.topshelfoldies.com!

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