Though perhaps best known for the skeletal organ groove of his 1972 hit "Why Can't We Live Together," R&B vocalist, keyboardist, songwriter, and producer Timmy Thomas enjoyed a long and storied career in various sectors of the music industry. After making solo albums throughout the '70s and into the '80s, Thomas transitioned into a production role in the '90s, though he continued releasing singles and one-off records like the 1993 compilation With Heat & Soul. Thomas' music was still being discovered well into the 2000s and beyond, when artists like Drake and Darren Espanto covered his songs or sampled them for new hits. Thomas was born in Evansville, Indiana in 1944. In the '60s he started working as a session musician in the studios in Memphis, Tennessee, and was releasing singles of his own by the end of the decade. Thomas left Memphis for Miami at the beginning of the '70s, and there he recorded his 1972 debut long-player Why Can't We Live Together. The album's spare instrumentation of rudimentary rhythm box drum machine, ghostly funk organ, and Thomas' patient but passionate vocals stood out from the busy psychedelic soul of the era, but the open arrangements were just as trippy. The album's title track became Thomas' first and biggest hit, climbing to the upper reaches of the charts in several countries and selling over two million copies worldwide. He filled out his sound considerably for 1974's You're the Song I've Always Wanted to Sing and spent the rest of the '70s releasing singles that got deeper into a disco sound, as well as issuing several more records under his own name such as 1977's Touch to Touch and a 1979 live album recorded at a concert in South Africa. Thomas continued working as a studio player on sessions with Gwen McCrae and Blowfly and moved into production in the '90s working for LaFace Records. He scored a hit in the Philippines with his 1990 song "(Dying Inside) To Hold You" and sporadically released new music of his own. Thomas' best-loved hit endured and was given a boost in recognition when global pop phenomenon Drake sampled "Why Can't We Live Together?" as the backbone of his 2015 hit "Hotline Bling." The song became ubiquitously popular worldwide, hitting the upper reaches of the charts and eventually being streamed over a billion times. In 2017 singer/actor Darren Espanto covered "(Dying Inside) To Hold You" for the film Philippine romantic comedy All of You, furthering the interest in Thomas' back catalog. Thomas was 77 years old and still living in Miami when he died of cancer on March 11, 2022. ~ Fred Thomas, Rovi

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Timmy Thomas

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