DESCRIPTION:
Anthony (Tony) C. Thomas is the youngest of three children of the comic, Danny Thomas and his wife Rose Marie. Gregory Maxwell Gilford is the son of actress Anne Gwynne.
The Thomas Group met, according to the liner notes of the single "I've Got No More To Say", at Beverly Hills High School. During their senior year, they were all enthusiastic basketball players, and thus got to know each other on the school's court. Tony, Greg, Marty and David were all native Californians, while Robert originated from Kentucky. David had studied the trumpet prior to joining the group. Marty apparently had "a wealth of professional experience".

Dunhill Records discovered them, and signed them to Trousdale Music as writers with a 5-year contract. P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri were apparently impressed with their "happy sound and fresh look". They assembled their standard team of studio musicians to work with the band, namely P.F. Sloan on guitars, Joe Osborne (bass), Larry Knechtel (keyboards), and Hal Blaine (drums).The following table provides a brief summary of some of the other people behind the group.

They were allegedly acclaimed as "the fastest rising rock'n' roll group" of 1966. An article in 'KRLA Beat' in late 1966 featured an article about them. Even before their third single had been issued, however, they found themselves back in various colleges in Southern California, beginning their Freshman year, in September 1966.

Steve Barri said the following about them: "At that time, again we always seemed to jump on what craze was happening at the time and at that time there was a lot of success by artists who were sons of stars, and Tony Thomas was the son of Danny Thomas, and a very good drummer as well. It was just this little band that he had that we heard and again, it was an opportunity for us to have someone do our material and the songs which we were writing, and we felt we had a good shot with them. They did do an Ed Sullivan show and one of the songs we had out with them, "Autumn", got on the charts here, but it was never that successful." (Taken from an interview with Glenn A. Baker in 1983.02, courtesy of California Music)

Steve Barri told The Thomas Group that "I've Got No More To Say" was the number one record in South Africa of 1967. (If true, Dunhill must have enjoyed an inordinate amount of success there, what with the South African Fantastic Baggys!). However it had little success in the USA, which raised eyebrows at their record company. Despite having had top quality material and staff to work with, none of their first three singles had made much impact saleswise. Jay Lasker (the president of Dunhill after Lou Adler sold it to ABC) decided that the problem was the lead vocal; hence Steve Barri's vocal being prominent in the mix of their 4th single.

Marty Howard was severly injured in a single engine plane crash on a trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. David Goldsmith suggested a friend of his, the rest of the band agreed, and so Marty was replaced on lead guitar by Steven Gaines in late 1967.

The group would use a room at Tony Thomas' home for rehearsal. It was here that Jimmy Haskell helped them work on one of his songs for the "Riot On Sunset Strip" movie, although is uncertain whether this recording was ever finished. The group's participation in the movie was probably due to David Goldsmith having a connection with its producers. This movie itself was a teen drama dealing with the problems innocent flower children had in dealing with society's "squares" (police, parents, storekeepers...). Greg Gilford played a bad guy who was holding a school building hostage, although it is uncertain whether this short scene made it to the final cut of the movie.

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