David Clayton Thomas

David Clayton-Thomas (born David Henry Thomsett, 13 September 1941 – 24 June 2026) was a British-Canadian musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the American band Blood, Sweat & Tears (commonly abbreviated as "BS&T"). He joined in 1968 and stayed through 1972, but later returned and departed the group again several times. With BS&T he won five Grammy Awards in 1970, including Album of the Year and Best Performance by a Male Vocalist.

Clayton-Thomas began his music career in the early 1960s, working the clubs on Toronto's Yonge Street, where he discovered his love of singing and playing the blues. Before moving to New York City in 1967, Clayton-Thomas fronted a couple of local bands, first The Shays and then The Bossmen, one of the earliest rock bands with jazz influences.

He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and in 2007 his composition "Spinning Wheel" was enshrined in the Canadian Songwriter's Hall of Fame. In 2010, Clayton-Thomas received his star on Canada's Walk of Fame.

Clayton-Thomas was born in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England, the son of Fred Thomsett, a decorated Canadian soldier of World War II. His mother, Freda May (née Smith), played the piano and met Thomsett when she came to entertain the troops at a London hospital. After the war, the family settled in Willowdale, Toronto.

Clayton-Thomas inherited a love for music from his mother. His father was an abusive alcoholic who beat him. By the time he was fourteen, he had left home and was sleeping in parked cars and abandoned buildings and stealing food and clothing to survive. He was arrested several times for vagrancy, petty theft, and street brawls and spent much of his teens in various jails and reformatories, including the Burwash Industrial Farm.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.