Evelyn Thomas
Ellen Lucille “Evelyn” Thomas is an American singer from Chicago, Illinois, best known for the Hi-NRG dance hits “High Energy”, “Masquerade”, “Standing At The Crossroads”, “Reflections”, and “Weak Spot”.
Thomas has an entertainment incorporated company, called Eljopan Entertainment Incorporated.
Although best known worldwide for her 1980s 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 US 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”.