Tom Jones

TOM JONES
 
 
Tom Jones  (born Thomas John Woodward; 7 June 1940) is a Welsh singer.  His career has spanned six decades, from his emergence as a vocalist in the mid-1960s with a string of top hits, regular touring, appearances in Las Vegas (1967–2011), and career comebacks — to coaching on The Voice UK from 2012 (with the exception of 2016).  Jones’s powerful voice has been described as a “full-throated, robust baritone”.  In 2008, the New York Times called Jones a musical “shape shifter”, who could “slide from soulful rasp to pop croon, with a voice as husky as it was pretty”.  Jones has sold over 100 million records with thirty-six Top 40 hits in the United Kingdom and nineteen in the United States, including “It’s Not Unusual”, “What’s New Pussycat”, “Delilah”, “Green, Green Grass of Home”, “She’s a Lady”, “Kiss”, and “Sex Bomb”.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

Mal Ryder and the Spirits made three singles from 1963 to 1965; a fourth single came out in Mal Ryder’s name individually.  The first two 45’s, “Cry Baby” b/w “Take Over”, and the Bobby Goldsboro song “See the Funny Little Clown” b/w “Slow Down” were both produced by Peter Sullivan, who was also Tom Jones’ producer in that time period.  The song that Greg Shaw thought was the strongest of these songs, “Forget It” (from November 1964) is included on two CD’s that I have, English Freakbeat, Volume 1 and English Freakbeat, Volume 4.  As far as I am concerned, this bouncy R&B song with gruff, throaty vocals stacks up well with all of the Primitives material that I have heard. 

 

(May 2015)

 

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Over the past few years, I have found the first two albums by Country Dick Montana’s best known band, the Beat Farmers, Tales of the New West and Van Go; under his real name Dan McLain, he was the drummer for the Crawdaddys. The Beat Farmers are known as one of the best country-punk bands, and it is easy to see why. Then I noticed on Amazon.com an even better album by another Country Dick Montana band, the Pleasure Barons, called Live in Las Vegas.  
The Pleasure Barons could be described I guess as a super-group, composed of Country Dick MontanaDave Alvin of the Blasters, and psychobilly legend Mojo Nixon. Besides three Mojo Nixon classics – somewhat toned down from the original recordings and illustrating how well crafted Nixon’s music actually is – the other songs are mostly over-the-top covers of a wide variety of numbers, ranging from Mickey Gilley’s “Closing Time”, to R. B. Greaves’s “Take a Letter, Maria”, to Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love?”, to Joe South’s “Games People Play”, to Jerry Reed’s “Amos Moses”, and finally to “The Definitive Tom Jones Medley”: “It’s Not Unusual”, “Delilah” and “What’s New Pussycat?”. That album is more fun than any record that I have bought in a long, long time.
 
(Year 10 Review)
Last edited: March 22, 2021