David Clayton-Thomas, the Toronto-born singer who fronted Blood, Sweat & Tears through their commercial peak and put his voice on “Spinning Wheel,” “And When I Die,” and “You've Made Me So Very Happy,” died at 84, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed.
Clayton-Thomas had served time in a Canadian prison before making his way to New York, where he joined the brassy rock outfit and became its most recognizable presence. The band's 1969 self-titled second album won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
Blood, Sweat & Tears occupied an unusual corner of late-1960s rock — a large ensemble built around horns, blues phrasing, and a front man whose biography did not fit the standard conservatory pipeline. Clayton-Thomas had no conservatory. He had a record, in the other sense of the word.
No cause of death had been publicly reported at time of filing.
He is survived, at minimum, by three songs that still turn up in the background of scenes where a director needs the audience to understand it is 1969.