Evelyn Thomas - High Energy. Top Of The Pops 1984

Great quality, Great record, recorded live in the studio from Top Of The Pops 1984. Evelyn Thomas (born Ellen Lucille Thomas in August 1953) is an American singer from Chicago, Illinois, best known for the dance hits “High Energy“, “Masquerade“, “Standing At The Crossroads“, “Reflections“, and “WeakSpot“. Thomas has an entertainment incorporated company,called Eljopan Entertainment Incorporated. 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,“ co-written by Levine and Paul David Wilson . 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 Thomas 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. 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. 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 Thomas took part in the major RTL Disco Tour, performing in 15 cities throughout France. While in Europe, Thomas completed several new recordings in different countries with the aim of making 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 “I Can’t Give You the World“. 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 (1975’s “Sky High“). Thomas has also teamed up with French team Evolusound for a single release, “Prove It“, written and produced by Frank Savannah and remixed by Laurent Schark. In 2009 Thomas was to release a duet with fellow ’80s Hi-NRG diva Carol Jiani with the song “Are You Man Enough“ produced by Australian team Peter Wilson/Chris Richards aka T1 Productions. Please visit my other Channel. Keep Rockin!.