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
Reflections
Evelyn Thomas Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Time after time
I see reflections of you and me
Reflections of
The way life used to be
Reflections of
The love you took from me
Oh, I'm all alone now
No love to shield me
Trapped in a world
That's a distorted reality
Happiness you took from me
And left me all alone
With only memories
Through the mirror of my mind
Through all these tears that I'm crying
Reflects a hurt I can't control
Although you're gone
I keep holding on
To those happy times
Oh, girl when you were mine
As I peer through the windows
Of lost time
Keeping looking over my yesterdays
And all the love I gave all in vain
(All the love) All the love
That I've wasted
(All the tears) All the tears
That I've tasted
All in vain
Through the hollow of my tears
I see a dream that's lost
From the hurt baby
That you have caused
Everywhere I turn
Seems like everything I see
Reflects a hurt I can't control
In you I put
All my hope and trust
Right before my eyes
My whole world has turned to dust
Reflections of
The love you took from
Reflections of
The way life used to be
In you I put
All my hope and trust
Right before my eyes
My whole world has turned to dust
Now baby, why did you do it?
Reflections
in this song represents the memories of a lost love that the singer can't seem to let go of. The lyrics are a reflective look at a bygone relationship that brought immense happiness to the singer's life, but now that the relationship is over, everything in the world appears distorted, and the happiness has been replaced by sadness and sorrow. The singer is trapped in a world that is no longer the way it used to be, and she sees reflections of herself with her lover. The singer is lamenting over the shattered love between her and her lover, and the memories keep flooding back, reminding her of the happy times she spent with her lover under the light of the sun.
The chorus further depicts the singer's pain and longing for her past love. She's all alone and vulnerable, and there's no love to shield her. She can't control the hurt that she feels, even after all this time. She tries to hold on to the happy memories of the past when her lover was hers, but now she's alone and left with only the memories of the happy times.
Line by Line Meaning
Through the mirror of my mind
The singer is reflecting on memories of the past.
Time after time
The singer repeatedly thinks back to these memories.
I see reflections of you and me
The memories bring up thoughts of the singer and their past lover.
Reflections of
The artist is still pondering on the past.
The way life used to be
The artist is reminiscing about the past.
Reflections of
The singer is still reflecting on past events.
The love you took from me
The singer is referring to the heartbreak caused by their past lover.
Oh, I'm all alone now
The artist is presently alone in their life.
No love to shield me
The artist does not have anyone to protect them from hurt anymore.
Trapped in a world
The artist feels stuck in an unhappy place.
That's a distorted reality
The singer's view of their current world is twisted due to their past heartbreak.
Happiness you took from me
The artist's past lover took away their happiness.
And left me all alone
The past lover left the singer feeling isolated.
With only memories
The singer is left with memories of the past.
Through the mirror of my mind
The singer is still reflecting on the past.
Through all these tears that I'm crying
The artist is still upset and emotional over the past.
Reflects a hurt I can't control
The artist's hurt from the past still affects them deeply.
Although you're gone
The past lover is no longer in the singer's life.
I keep holding on
The singer is still holding onto past memories and feelings.
To those happy times
The artist remembers the happier moments of the past.
Oh, girl when you were mine
The artist is specifically thinking of their past lover, who was female.
As I peer through the windows
The artist is still looking back at the past.
Of lost time
The singer is reminiscing about a time that is now gone.
Keeping looking over my yesterdays
The artist is still thinking about past events.
And all the love I gave all in vain
The singer feels like all the love they gave to their past lover was wasted.
(All the love) All the love
The singer still feels the pain of lost love.
(All the tears) All the tears
The singer is still mourning the loss of their past lover.
That I've tasted
The artist has experienced a lot of pain from the loss of their past lover.
All in vain
The artist feels like all their efforts to make the past relationship work was for nothing.
Through the hollow of my tears
The singer is crying tears of sadness.
I see a dream that's lost
The singer's dream of having a happy relationship has been shattered.
From the hurt baby
The artist is deeply hurt by their past lover.
That you have caused
The artist blames their past lover for their current pain.
Everywhere I turn
The artist feels like their past is always present in their life.
Seems like everything I see
The singer's perception of reality is still tainted by their past hurt.
Reflects a hurt I can't control
The artist's pain from the past still affects them deeply.
In you I put
The singer trusted their past lover.
All my hope and trust
The singer gave all their hope and trust to their past lover.
Right before my eyes
The singer was blindsided by their past lover's betrayal.
My whole world has turned to dust
The artist's world was shattered by the loss of their past lover.
Now baby, why did you do it?
The artist is directly addressing their past lover and questioning why they caused them so much pain.
Reflections
The title of the song refers to the singer's reflection on their past hurt.
Lyrics © Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Edward Jr. Holland, Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@fernandopadilla9315
muy buna canción me acurdo de aquellos tiempos.
@raulantonio65
Great song.
@fluff96
OMG ! This takes me to when I was 17 years old ..... was a long time ago ! :-(
@dpalaoro
wow that motown influence is a trip
@charmeurlover9655
BONNE ELECTRODISCO
@francorossville7359
Great cover taken from Diana Ross & The Supremes repertoire .