Discovered by British producer Ian Levine, who was in the US in 1975 scouting for gospel and soul singers he could promote in the UK, the two recorded several tracks which resulted in a contract with 20th Century Records. Evelyn Thomas scored a chart hit with her first single, reaching the UK Top 30 in 1976 with the single "Weak Spot," co-written by Levine and Paul David Wilson . A follow-up single, "Doomsday", entered the UK charts twice but each time floundered in the lower reaches, and sticky contract issues complicated her newfound success, though Levine and Thomas would continue their association for quite some time. She signed to US label Casablanca Records for her first album release I Wanna Make It On My Own, released 1978. With Casablanca doing little to promote the LP, she switched to AVI Records for the double A-side 12" single "Have a Little Faith in Me" / "No Time to Turn Around" which prompted the label to release it as an LP, backed with Rick Gianatos' extended remixes of her 1976 tracks "My Head's in the Stars" and "Love's Not Just an Illusion". For a follow-up, Evelyn Thomas re-recorded three tracks from an aborted project by Levine's group Moonstone, "Love in the First Degree", "Summer on the Beach" and "Sleaze" (originally entitled "Out of the Ball Game") but with the disco backlash in the US, the tracks were left unreleased.
Although disco music had been declared "dead" in the US in a backlash in 1979, several songs which continued and advanced the exuberant surge of uptempo dance music managed to scale the US pop charts in the intervening years, notably Blondie's "Call Me" in 1980, Laura Branigan's "Gloria" in 1982, and Irene Cara's "Flashdance (What A Feeling)" in 1983. Unwilling to use the term "disco", the phrase "High Energy" had come into usage, probably, begun in England in the early 1980s. By 1984, Ian Levine had re-established himself as a producer and asked Evelyn Thomas to come to London to record a new track "High Energy". Just few weeks after it was released, it zoomed up the charts all over Europe - peaking at No. 1 in Germany and No. 5 in the UK, selling a total of 7,000,000 copies worldwide. In the US it hit No. 1 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart, selling 250,000 copies. The song was her only Billboard Hot 100 entry, peaking at #85, although three additional songs hit the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. By 1984, the phrase had become embraced as a term by DJs across Europe and in the States, particularly in gay clubs where DJs who preferred to play records that surpassed a certain BPM (Beats Per Minute) threshold found many mainstream hits lagging in tempo. Evolving around that time to the abbreviated "Hi-Energy," the term soon became further shortened to "Hi-NRG", and was still widely in use more than three decades later to describe a certain genre of uptempo dance music
The follow-up single "Masquerade" was taken from her third album High Energy, released the same year. While it received heavy rotation in European clubs, it failed to break into the UK Top 40. In the US the song was a top-twenty Dance hit. The following year, "Heartless" became her only single other than "High Energy" to chart outside of the Club/Dance charts in the United States. "Heartless" peaked at #84 on the Black Singles chart (later renamed the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart) in 1985.
Though she would not return to the US pop or R&B charts, US dancefloors continued to move to the fast beat of Evelyn Thomas. With a cover of the Supremes' 1967 hit "Reflections", updated in her Hi-NRG style, Thomas peaked at #18 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 1986, the same year in which Kim Wilde had a similarly styled hit with the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On". A second Thomas release that summer fared even better on those charts, as "How Many Hearts" narrowly missed the top 10. The two songs would later appear on Thomas' fourth album release, Standing at the Crossroads, in 1987. In late 1987, the single "No Win Situation" shot to #1 on the now defunct UK Hi-NRG chart. After the singles "Only Once in a Lifetime" (1988) and "This Is Madness" (1989), both on Levine's Nightmare Records label, Thomas withdrew from the music business.
In spring 1997, Redemption featuring Evelyn Thomas had a minor US club hit with the track "Tell The World".
A new remix of her largest hit was released in 2004 as "High Energy 2004" and became a worldwide gay club hit. The remix was released on Dance Street/ZYX Records out of Germany in early 2005. The remix secured moderate radio and club play Stateside. This song was then ripped off by Daz Sampson in 2005 who tried to get it released in the UK before the Germans could release their remix.
In May 2008, Evelyn Thomas took part in the major RTL Disco Tour, performing in 15 cities throughout France. While in Europe, Thomas completed several new recordings in different countries with the aim of making a comeback. She has teamed up with Ian Levine for the first time in 20 years, recording the tracks "Pounding the Pavement", "One in a Million" and "I Can't Give You the World". She has recorded four tracks, "Stick to the Plan", "Missing the Target", "Infidelity" and the ballad "Why Must the Sunrise" for a diva album called The Plan for Night Dance Records, produced by Scandinavian songwriter Soren Jensen in collaboration with Clive Scott, formerly of Jigsaw. Thomas has also teamed up with French team Evolusound for a single release, "Prove It", written and produced by Frank Savannah and remixed by Laurent Schark.
In 2009, Thomas released a duet with Carol Jiani, "Are You Man Enough", produced by the Australian team of Peter Wilson and Chris Richards aka T1 Productions
High-Energy
Evelyn Thomas Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Oh, high energy
Your love is lifing me
Lifting me high
It was only last week that we first met
When I was walking down the street
That our eyes were gonna meet
That's when I fell into your arms
Imagine my surprise
I thought this only happened in fairy tales
Love hit me right between the eyes
Oh yeah
High energy, your love is lifting me
Whoa-ooh high energy, yeah
Your love is lifting me
Lifting me high
When you call me on the phone you make my spirits rise
I'm glad the others didn't last
It's a blessing in disguise
Every time you're touching me
It gives me such a thrill
When I look deep into your eyes
My heart just can't keep still, oh no
High energy, your love is lifting me
Whoa-ooh high energy, yeah
Your love is lifting me
Lifting me high
All the gold that's in Fort Knox couldn't buy this happiness
With your love I don't need money
I don't need success
I became a victim of a sudden love attack, yeah
It happened in a blink of an eye
And there's no holding back, oh
High energy, yeah, your love is lifting me
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa-ooh high energy, ooh yeah
Your love is lifting me
Lifting me high (energy)
(Your love is lifting me
High energy)
The song "High Energy" by Evelyn Thomas is an upbeat disco track about the power of love. The song begins with the singer expressing how her lover's love is lifting her up higher and higher, bringing her to new heights. The chorus repeats the phrase "high energy" and emphasizes the singer's joy in being in love.
The first verse describes how the singer and her lover first met, and how they both knew it was meant to be. The second verse talks about how the lover's phone calls make the singer's day, and how she is grateful that past relationships didn't work out because it led her to her current lover. The final verse expresses how the love between the two is priceless and more valuable than anything else in the world.
Overall, the song is a celebration of the power of love, and how it can bring joy and happiness to anyone's life. The upbeat disco tempo and catchy chorus make it a classic dance floor filler that continues to be popular today.
Line by Line Meaning
High energy, your love is lifting me
I feel energized and empowered by your love
Oh, high energy
Expressing excitement and enthusiasm about the love
Your love is lifting me
Your love is making me feel uplifted and happy
Lifting me high
Taking me to a higher level of happiness
It was only last week that we first met
Recalling the start of the relationship
When I was walking down the street
Setting the scene of how they met
You came up from behind me and I knew
Feeling a connection with the person from the moment they met
That our eyes were gonna meet
Anticipating eye contact
That's when I fell into your arms
Falling in love and surrendering to the emotions
Imagine my surprise
Feeling unexpectedly pulled in by love
I thought this only happened in fairy tales
Feeling like love at first sight was something only in stories
Love hit me right between the eyes
Feeling love strongly and immediately
When you call me on the phone you make my spirits rise
Feeling happier just by hearing the person's voice
I'm glad the others didn't last
Feeling grateful that previous relationships didn't work out
It's a blessing in disguise
Seeing how things didn't work out for the better
Every time you're touching me
Feeling physically and emotionally connected to the person
It gives me such a thrill
Feeling excited and happy when touched by the person
When I look deep into your eyes
Feeling emotionally and deeply connected to the person
My heart just can't keep still, oh no
Feeling overwhelmed with emotions and happiness
All the gold that's in Fort Knox couldn't buy this happiness
Realizing that material things cannot compare to the happiness of being in love
With your love I don't need money
Understanding that love is more valuable than money
I don't need success
Feeling like the love is already a success in itself
I became a victim of a sudden love attack, yeah
Feeling like love caught them by surprise and they couldn't resist it
It happened in a blink of an eye
Feeling like love happened very quickly
And there's no holding back, oh
Being fully immersed in the love and unable to keep a distance
(Your love is lifting me
Repeating the theme of how love is making them feel
High energy)
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: FIACHRA TRENCH, IAN LEVINE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@davidw4639
I used to hear this blasting out of an apartment window as I walked past each day. It made me smile as I loved the song and wondered who had such good taste. One evening I met her, fell in love and 31 years later we are still together. Funny how things turn out!
@markjenner7199
Any one who don't feel like dancing when hearing this song has got no soul💃🕺🇬🇧
@anstonian
Wish I could wake up to find, today was just a bad dream, and it was still the 80's. amazing song.
@americomorales1772
The bigger and beauty time of music
@mrsunshineshines
Just another in an endless line of epic classics that came from the '80s. The greatest decade for music, PERIOD
@user-jw1cb5mn6s
why is 80's music 100,000,000x better than anything of todays tripe.
@nievesboada7571
+0?? YESSSS!!!!
@leopold7562
+0?? Because there were proper musicians with real talent, making decent music. Unlike today, where we have beautifully presented, attractive people who are hand picked and auto-tuned through some dreary cover or cliché filled drivel thrown together by some hack session writer. Or we have the latest version of rap where we're assaulted with various degrees of violence, misogyny, drug use and expletives, usually to a backdrop of something recorded in the 80s.
And to think people used to call 80s music for being style over substance!!
To be fair, there are still artists out there making decent music, but it's so hard to access them through the mire that's being forced into our ears.
@EvanderSmart
+0?? Because the 80's were EPIC, with awesome sprinkled on top
@Fenda68
+0?? The answer is simple. How old are you? ;-)