David Clayton-Thomas, Voice of Blood, Sweat & Tears, Dies at 84

David Clayton-Thomas, the singer and songwriter best known as the iconic frontman of Blood, Sweat & Tears and one of the leading figures in the late 1960s jazz-rock wave, has died at 84. According to his spokesman, he died peacefully in a hospital in Toronto, Canada. No cause of death was released.

Clayton-Thomas was born in England in 1941 as David Henry Thomsett and moved with his family to Canada as a child. His youth was marked by hardship, including periods of homelessness and run-ins with the law, but by the 1960s he had begun building a music career and emerged as a familiar name in the Canadian scene.

His breakthrough came when he joined Blood, Sweat & Tears after lead singer Al Kooper left. The group had effectively fallen apart, but Clayton-Thomas helped revive it. The first album he recorded with the band, the self-titled Blood, Sweat & Tears, reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard chart and won five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. It included the band's best-known songs, among them You've Made Me So Very Happy and And When I Die, as well as Spinning Wheel, which he wrote. That song also hit No. 1 on Billboard and won a Grammy. The album sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.

He left the band in the early 1970s to pursue a solo career, later returned, and continued performing under his own name for decades. Over his career, he was widely honored in Canada, where he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame. A tribute concert is planned in his memory, with proceeds to be donated to charity, a cause that was close to his heart in recent years.