BJ Thomas poses for a portrait in circa 1975.
Forever No. 1 is a Billboard
series that pays special tribute to the recently deceased artists who achieved the highest honor our charts have to offer -- a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single -- by taking an extended look back at the chart-topping songs that made them part of this exclusive club. Here, we honor the late B.J. Thomas with a look at his second and final Hot 100 No. 1, the 1975 country meta-weeper "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song."
Listeners mostly familiar with B.J. Thomas as the performer of the better-remembered No. 1 hit "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" -- or as the original singer of the breezy pop culture staple "Hooked on a Feeling" -- might be surprised to hear that his second No. 1 came with a country song. But Thomas' roots in the genre ran deep, dating back to an early love of Hank Williams growing up in Texas that eventually led to a cover of the country legend's signature ballad "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" with his mid-'60s group B.J. Thomas and the Triumphs. Their cover climbed to No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966, becoming Thomas' breakthrough hit.