A bit of Blue Eyed Soul for the 'Boys From Brazil'. Poor old Kenny Thomas never got taken seriously in the UK. A North London lad with a good pair of tonsils and pretty good taste in music, He hooked up with Cooltempo Records. They had him singing a whole heap of cover songs and shipped him out to the clubs for PA's at every opportunity. He became an adopted 'Son of Essex' in 1990 because he appeared so regularly in the Essex Clubs we thought he was one of ours.
Despite his cracking voice he was always seen as a 'White boy' singing 'Black music'. He was further hampered by the fact that his marketing tried to cash in on his 'pretty boy' looks. As has generally been the case with that scenario, Kenny ended up too Pop for Soul and yet too good for Pop.
Fair enough, at the time I, personally, was not overly impressed with Thinking About Your Love. I done my 'soul apprenticeship' in South London and we gave no quarter to anything less than original quality product. Tim Percy & Mike Lever with their One World production still hadn't proved themselves worthy. I still have trouble getting my head around the Dead Or Alive connection. How can anything connected to Pete Burns be considered soulful. They provided all the mixes on this 12" unlike Best Of You, which came equipped with a Simon Dunmore 'Touchdown Mix' to die for.
Having said that, many of you guys out there love this track and hey, it ain't a bad track at all. In fact, its really catchy and has a nice groove to it. OK, I admit it, I'm just a music snob? Enjoy!
Despite his cracking voice he was always seen as a 'White boy' singing 'Black music'. He was further hampered by the fact that his marketing tried to cash in on his 'pretty boy' looks. As has generally been the case with that scenario, Kenny ended up too Pop for Soul and yet too good for Pop.
"I wrote Thinking About Your Love when I was an in-house writer for Cooltempo Records. The song was about my then girlfriend who was American. I had a great feeling about it when I wrote it and I think Kenny made the song his own."OK, when all's said and done, he was quite successful. This, his second release, was written for him and was also his most successful, recording reaching #4 in the summer of 1991.
Mike Ward
Fair enough, at the time I, personally, was not overly impressed with Thinking About Your Love. I done my 'soul apprenticeship' in South London and we gave no quarter to anything less than original quality product. Tim Percy & Mike Lever with their One World production still hadn't proved themselves worthy. I still have trouble getting my head around the Dead Or Alive connection. How can anything connected to Pete Burns be considered soulful. They provided all the mixes on this 12" unlike Best Of You, which came equipped with a Simon Dunmore 'Touchdown Mix' to die for.
Having said that, many of you guys out there love this track and hey, it ain't a bad track at all. In fact, its really catchy and has a nice groove to it. OK, I admit it, I'm just a music snob? Enjoy!
- One World Mix
- Lonsdale Mix
- 7" Edit
Filename: Kenny Thomas.rar Filesize: 27.06 MB
Kenny Thomas useless fact #1
ReplyDeleteKenny is infact the uncle of Kiss FM (East) breakfast show producer Nathan "Thomsta" Thomas, who is also a good lil singer!
I think the music snobbery about poor Kenny was all about the production. My mates went to see him at a Blues & Soul party & with a live band completely changed their minds about him.
Tune!
ReplyDeleteI'll hold my hand up to it - loved it then, still love it now.
There's soul-bounce in every ounce of this!
I'll fight your corner, Kenny. Poor bastard... still having to prove his worth 18 years later! LOL
Been diggin' Kenny Thomas for years, unknown in the US other then some remixes on compilations - Any chance I could get the Touchdown Mix of Best Of You that you mentioned?
ReplyDeleteTim
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kenny thomas is played in clubs by few djs in morroco ,but thinking about your love,best of you were big hits in morroco during the early 90's,and for me till now i play them from time to time in my club ,it's still the same pleasure
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