David Clayton-Thomas, the lead singer of Blood, Sweat & Tears whose husky, high-strung tenor on “Spinning Wheel,” “And When I Die” and other hits helped make the so-called “brass rock” band among the most popular acts of the late 1960s, has died at age 84.

Axar.az reports, citing NBC News, spokesperson Eric Alper said that Clayton-Thomas died “peacefully” Wednesday at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. Alper did not cite a specific cause.

Clayton-Thomas was a onetime street fighter and petty thief from Canada who briefly became a rock superstar, the frontman of a nine-member group that sold millions of records and won two Grammys for “Blood, Sweat & Tears,” which beat out the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” for best album of 1969.