by Richard Skelly » Sat Dec 16, 2017 2:27 am
Ian Thomas had beginner’s luck as a solo artist, scoring a US Top 40 Hit with his debut single Painted Ladies. After that he became, like so many Canadian artists, solely dependent on airplay and sales north of the border. Unlike most CanCon peers, however, he obviously had a committed music publisher eager to pitch those Canadian-only hits to international acts.
Santana’s covered Hold On in 1982. The same year, America, scored by remaking Ian’s Right Before Your Eyes. (Coincidentally, both Ian and America owed their initial breaks to imitating Neil Young with, respectively, Painted Ladies and A Horse With No Name.) By 1984, it was Manfred Mann’s Earth Band getting a hit out of Thomas’s The Runner. Other songs were interpreted by a variety of artists, including Chicago and Bette Midler.
Back in the day, a songwriter could still earn decent money from royalties accrued through record sales and radio airplay. The cash flow undoubtedly helped Ian continue his own recording/performing activities in Canada. Recently, he performed some old hits within a quartet featuring Murray McLauchlan, Cindy Church and Marc Jordan.