Rock and Roll Lullaby, a B.J. Thomas and Steve Tyrell duet from The Living Room Sessions

Track Seven—"Rock and Roll Lullaby"—unplugged "Living Room Sessions" 2013 version featuring a guest vocal courtesy of Steve Tyrell

"Rock and Roll Lullaby" belongs to the songwriting desk of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, whose "I Just Can't Help Believing" and "Songs" were also earmarked as A-sides by B.J. Thomas. Thomas' intoxicating pop take of "Rock and Roll Lullaby" finds him navigating his upper vocal register, perhaps his highest notes ever on a record. Originally produced by Steve Tyrell and Al Gorgoni as the second cut on "Billy Joe Thomas," "Rock and Roll Lullaby" notched a respectable No. 15 POP, No. 1 Adult Contemporary Billboard placement in January 1972 during the waning days of Scepter Records. Tyrell, a fellow Houstonian, worked his way up the ladder, starting as a promotions man for Scepter. He convinced the New York label to sign Thomas to his first major record deal in 1966. Obviously, Thomas and Tyrell go way back.

Decades later Sandy Knox, Katie Gillon, and Stephen McCord signed Thomas to Wrinkled Records in Nashville. Produced by Waylon Jennings-Randy Travis collaborator Kyle Lehning, "The Living Room Sessions" [2013] found Thomas reimagining 12 of his greatest hits in intimate, stripped back arrangements tracked at Sound Stage Studio in Music City USA, often with guest artists on duet vocals.

"The Living Room Sessions" earned Thomas his first Billboard chart placement [No. 39 C&W] since the "Shining" LP [No. 40 C&W, 1984]. In 2014 Thomas dropped a second Wrinkled Records project—the acoustic six-song "O Holy Night" Christmas EP—the final studio recordings released prior to his passing on May 29, 2021. The pop-soul song interpreter succumbed to advanced lung cancer at age 78.

With the collapse of the independent Wrinkled Records and no streaming, CD, or LP options in sight for "The Living Room Sessions," here's the seventh track—"Rock and Roll Lullaby." This nearly identical version was appended two years later to Tyrell's "That Lovin' Feeling" on Concord, another LP chockful of special guests. The accompaniment track is the same, except Tyrell sings the first verse on his "That Lovin' Feeling" 2015 take (also available on YouTube), whereas Thomas navigates the opening lyrics on the original "Living Room Sessions" rendition heard here. Who could have imagined that a promo man such as Tyrell would reinvent himself as a Grammy-winning jazz crooner?

Musicians:
Steve Tyrell—Duet Vocal
Tania Hanscheroff—Background Vocals
Steve Brewster—Drums and Percussion
Viktor Krauss—Upright Bass
Bryan Sutton—Acoustic Guitar, Mandolin, Banjo, Gut String Guitar, Dobro
John Willis—Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Gut String Guitar, Dobro

* Produced by Kyle Lehning
** Basic Tracks recorded by Casey Wood at Sound Stage Studio, Nashville, TN
***Overdubs recorded by Jordan Lehning, Jason Lehning, Ryan Carr, and Kevin Sokolnicki at The Compound, Nashville, TN

The Living Room Sessions: Track Listing
1. "Don't Worry Baby"
2. "I Just Can't Help Believing" [feat. Vince Gill]
3. "Most of All" [feat. Keb' Mo']
4. "Eyes of a New York Woman"
5. ("Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song" [feat. Richard Marx]
6. "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" [feat. Isaac Slade of the Fray]
7. "Rock and Roll Lullaby" [feat. Steve Tyrell]
8. "New Looks from an Old Lover" [feat. Etta Britt]
9. "Whatever Happened to Old Fashioned Love"
10. "Hooked on a Feeling" [feat. Sara Niemietz]
11. "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" [feat. Lyle Lovett]
12. "Everybody's Out of Town"

Exclusive Interview: "Grammy Winner B.J. Thomas Reimagines 'The Living Room Sessions'"

"Just a Regular Guy with a Burning Desire to Sing: The B.J. Thomas Interview"

"Back When Memphis Was Electric: B.J. Thomas on Chips Moman and the Memphis Boys"


"Without a Doubt, the Essential B.J. Thomas Songwriting Tally" [Thomas composed 21 documented songs]


Disclaimer: Please note no copyright infringement is intended. I do not own nor claim to own the original B.J. Thomas recording included in this video. Wrinkled Records holds the copyright, but the Nashville-based indie label was discontinued in December 2019.