Born Thomas Jones Woodward, who later under advise from manager Gordon Mills changed his name to Tom Jones, was born in Wales and had a rough time getting his raunchy, sexy voice heard over the British airwaves in his early career. Before Gordon Mills, while being managed by Joe Meeks, Jones sang and fronted the group Tony Scott and the Senators and they had a sound that was influenced more by early American rock bands than anything else. The senators would became the Playboys and then the Squires before Mills would captain him into a solo career that made his name a household word by the late sixties. I remember watching the This Is Tom Jones TV show when I was a wee lad with my mom and he had all these strange stars from the time like Joel Gray and Petula Clark on there doing the variety stuff they all did back then. He always opened the show with his break through hot song It’s Not Unusual and the gals in the audience just went nuts. In the late 60’s he recorded less and performed more and his shows in Las Vegas were famous for having hotel keys and panties thrown up on the stage. He made friends with Elvis while there and the friendship lasted until the King’s death.

Like Nancy Sinatra (see a previous post) he also did a great Bond score for Thunderball. It is my 2nd favorite Bond score after You Only Live Twice. There is no doubt that Jone’s act was ahead of its time in the sexual tension department, but he retained some style and class in his tuxedo’s and short curly hair style. I recall reading about his studio and TV show guitarist Jim Sullivan. Seems there were two Jims in the mid-sixties doing all the studio work in London really, Big Jim Sullivan and another chap nick named Little Jim to distinguish the two. Little Jimmy Page would give up the safe world of the studio and join The Yardbirds and later form Led Zeppelin. Page was supposed to have sat in some Tom Jones sessions and maybe did some tracks for Its Not Unusual but I am not sure how accurate this is. Jone’s charisma is still alive and in 2000 released the album Reload, and it became the biggest seller of his career to date. His continuing popularity even into latter years just goes to show a hairy chest will never be out of style with women who like a man who is a real man and doesn’t mind flaunting his seething virility. Sigh.

I attached two video samples of Jones from his Las Vegas period during the early 70’s. I could have slipped in something from the mid sixties when he was wearing his fluffy sleeved white Edwardian shirts and tight black pants but I decided to go with the period he is most remembered for. He does a fine parody of himself in Tim Burton’s Mars Attack.

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