It was thanks to the folk singer Judy Collins that David Clayton-Thomas, who has died aged 84, joined Blood, Sweat & Tears and helped to drive the band to the forefront of the exploding late 1960s rock scene. Clayton-Thomas, a singer and songwriter, had been performing in Toronto with his own groups, the Shays and the Bossmen, and had scored a hit with the latter band on the Canadian chart in 1966 with his anti-Vietnam war song Brain Washed.
Collins was a friend of the drummer Bobby Colomby, one of the founders of Blood, Sweat & Tears, and knew they had just lost their vocalist and keyboard player, Al Kooper. When she heard Clayton-Thomas sing at a gig in New York, she suggested him as a replacement, an inspired notion that helped to power Blood, Sweat & Tears into the big time.
