Born in 1938, her real name was Patricia Thomas. She appeared on the scene in 1961 when she was just 24 with the recording of “Desafinado” (Slightly Out of Tune) for Verve Records. It was the first vocal English version of the new bossa nova hit by Antonio Carlos Jobim. The tune came out on a single with 'One Note Samba,' her debut as Verve’s bright, new recording star.

The seventh of eight children, her talent is inherited from her parents, both of whom sang in church choirs. Pat’s sister Mildred is a singer, and her brother Earl Teddy sings and plays drums with Dakota Staton and Carmen McRae. Pat attended Dunbar Vocational in Chicago where she had decided to become a dress designer. She summered as a Red Cross swimming instructor, and her athletic ability spread to baseball and basketball as well. But dress designing and sports have gone a-glimmering. Pat’s a singer.

Pat Thomas began her career in Chicago, where she was born and raised. She won a TV Talent Show for amateurs tourning professional. By this time she was the hometown singer, most sought after by local groups and by visiting musicians. She raised a few eyebrows when she sang with Norman Simmons’ highly successful “Experimental Jazz Band.” When she moved to New York, she made friendship with singer Ernestine Anderson who helped to get connections. Pat Thomas sang with Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Persip, Gigi Gryce and Art Blakey in venues like the Metropole, Birdland, the Basie's Bar and Small's.

The success of “Desafinado” lend to a second album, Moody’s Mood, with orchestras arranged by Claus Ogerman and several others. Featuring altoist Johnny Hodges and pianist Hank Jones in some tracks it showed her range was much greater than her ready mastery of the Brazilian idiom and confirmed the further qualities of an artist hailed as “a good singer on her way to becoming a great one”. Somehow, that never materialised; she died, unheralded, in March 1992.