Tom Jones (singer)

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Image:Tom jones.jpg Sir Thomas Jones Woodward, Kt, OBE (born 7 June 1940), known as Tom Jones, is a Welsh pop singer. He was born in Treforest, near Pontypridd in Wales.

1 Musical career
2 Personal life
3 Discography
- 3.1 Singles
- 3.2 Albums
4 See also
5 External links

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Musical career

He rose to fame in the mid-1960s, with an exuberant live act which included wearing tight breeches and billowing shirts, in an Edwardian style popular amongst his peers at the time. Jones was awarded the Grammy Award for Best New Artist for 1965.

Following several hits in the UK, he moved to the US and appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. He was known for his overt sexuality in the 1960s, before this was as common as it became in subsequent years. Women would swoon and scream, and in 1968, starting at New York's Copacabana night club, some would throw their panties on stage. Soon after, he began to play Las Vegas, where he still plays today for 10 to 12 weeks each year. There, they started throwing hotel room keys.

Jones had an internationally successful television variety show from 1969-1971 titled This Is Tom Jones.

His early hits include:

"It's Not Unusual" (1965), Jones' signature song.
"What's New Pussycat?", written by Burt Bacharach for Woody Allen's What's New, Pussycat? (1965)
"Thunderball", the theme for the James Bond film (1965) - an urban legend states that when he hit the final high note of this song, Jones actually passed out. According to the legend, the take was so good, this is the one that was released.
"The Green, Green Grass of Home" (1966), his most successful single, which became associated with his native Wales, despite being written about the USA
"I'll Never Fall In Love Again" (1967)
"Delilah" (1968), the usual choice of song for impressionists "doing" Tom Jones
"Help Yourself" (1968)
"Without Love" (1969)
"She's A Lady" (1971), his highest charting US single, peaking at #2

Jones's recording career slumped on the pop charts during the seventies and eighties, although he placed sixteen singles on the Billboard Country Music charts between 1976 and 1985, and his touring continued successfully. When his son Mark became his manager in 1987, a change of image followed, and he is now highly respected by other singers and, today, attracts new audiences of all ages.

His recording career was revived in 1987 with his first major hit single in over a decade, "A Boy From Nowhere'", taken from the musical Matador. Following this, he started to record with a younger generation of musicians. These recordings included:

Prince's song "Kiss" (1988, with The Art of Noise)
EMF's "Unbelievable" – a staple of his 1990s live shows
Talking Heads' song "Burning Down The House" (1999, with The Cardigans)
"Baby, It's Cold Outside" (1999, with Cerys Matthews of Catatonia)
Iggy Pop's song "Lust for Life" (1999, with The Pretenders)
Randy Newman's song "Mama Told Me Not To Come" (2000, with Kelly Jones of the Stereophonics)
Sex Bomb (From 1999's "Reload", with Mousse T)
"You Need Love Like I Do" (2000, with Heather Small of M People)
"Tom Jones International" (2003)

His Reload album, released in 2000, became the biggest hit of his career. An album of cover versions recorded as duets with contemporary artists, using their record producers, and utilizing their recording methods, it reached number one in the United Kingdom, and sold over 5 million copies worldwide.[1] In 2002, he released the album Mr. Jones, which was produced by Wyclef Jean and included the singles "Tom Jones International" and "Black Betty". In 2003, he was honoured with a Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2004, his "Sex Bomb" single became a major US club hit.

For his contribution to the recording industry, Tom Jones has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6608 Hollywood Blvd.

He continues to tour and record. His most recent album is called Together In Concert, which was recorded live with John Farnham and his band.

He has collaborated with Chicane for Stoned in Love, a dance track that is due to be released in late April 2006.

The singer was awarded an OBE in 1999 and a knighthood in the 2006 New Years Honours list for his services to music, and was subsequently knighted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, London on March 29, 2006.

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Personal life

Tom is the son of Thomas Woodward and Freda Jones of Pontypridd, South Wales, Great Britain. Tom quit school with no qualifications and took a variety of jobs including a builder's labourer and a door to door vacuum salesman. Jones married Linda Trenchard in 1957 and had a son named Mark, at the age of sixteen, long before becoming a pop idol. Mark Woodward eventually became and is currently today Tom's manager. The first band he formed in the early 60's was The Senators, where he taught himself how to play drums. Despite frequent and much publicised infidelities, including an affair with the dethroned Miss World of 1973, USA's Marjorie Wallace, and a one night stand with Elvira in which he claimed her virginity, he has remained married and a family man. One of his dalliances with a fan produced a love child, Jonathan Berkery born June 27th, 1988. He lost a paternity suit when DNA testing proved to be positive. His grandson, Alexander Woodward, competed in the 2006 Commonwealth Games, representing Wales as a Full-Bore marksman. Jones lives in Beverly Hills, California and tours through most of the year.

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Discography

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Singles

"Chills & Fever" b/w "Breathless" (August 1964)
"It's Not Unusual" b/w "To Wait For Love" (January 1965)
"Chills & Fever" b/w "Baby, I'm In Love" (April 1965, Tower 190, USA only, produced by Joe Meek)
"Once Upon A Time" b/w "I Tell The Sea" (April 1965)
"Little Lonely One" b/w "That's We'll All Do" (May 1965, produced by Joe Meek)
"With These Hands" b/w "Untrue" (July 1965)
"What's New Pussycat?" b/w "Rose" (August 1965)
"Lonely Joe" b/w "I Was A Fool" (October 1965, produced by Joe Meek)
"Thunderball" b/w "Key To My Heart" (1966)
"To Make A Big Man Cry" b/w "I'll Never Give Away Love" (1966)
"Once There Was A Time" b/w "Not Responsible" (1966)
"This And That" b/w "City Girl" (1966)
"The Green, Green Grass of Home" b/w "If I Had You" (1966)
- "The Green, Green Grass Of Home" is his biggest-selling single. In the all-time UK best-sellers list published in 2002, it came 47th with an audited sale of 1.2 million copies.
"Detroit City" b/w "If I Had You" (1967)
"Funny Familiar Forgotten Feelings" (1967)
"I'll Never Fall In Love Again" b/w "Things I Wanna Do" (1967)
"I'm Coming Home" b/w "The Lonely One" (1967)
"Delilah" b/w "Smile" (1968)
"Help Yourself" b/w "Day By Day" (1968)
"A Minute Of Your Time" b/w "Looking Out Of My Window" (1968)
"Love Me Tonight" b/w "Hide And Seek" (1969)
"Without Love" b/w "The Man Who Knows Too Much" (1969)
"Daughter Of Darkness" (1970)
"I (Who Have Nothing)" (1970)
"She's A Lady" (1971)
"My Way" (1971)
"Puppet Man" (1971)
"Till" (1971)
"The Young New Mexican Puppeteer" (1972)
"Golden Days" (1973)
"Letter To Lucille" (1973)
"Today I Started Loving You Again" (1973)
"La La La" (1973)
"Something 'Bout You Baby I Like" (1974)
"Ain't no Love" (1975)
"I Got Your Number" (1975)
"Memories Don't Leave But people Do" (1975)
"Baby as You Turn Away" 1976)
"Say You'll Stay Until Tomorrow" (1977)
"No One Gave me Love" (1977)
"Have You Ever Been Lonely?" (1977)
"Do You Take This Man" (1979)
"A Boy From Nowhere" (1987)
"It's Not Unusual" (1987, re-issue)
"I Was Born To Be Me" (1987)
"Kiss" (1988, a cover of Prince's song with The Art of Noise)
"Move Closer" (1989)
"Couldn't Say Goodbye" (1991)
"Carrying A Torch" (1991, with Van Morrison)
"Delilah" (1992, re-issue)
"All You Need Is Love" (1993)
"If I Only Knew" (1994)
"I Wanna Get Back With You" (1994, with Tori Amos)
"Burning Down The House" (1999, with The Cardigans)
"Baby, It's Cold Outside" (1999, with Cerys Matthews of Catatonia)
"Mama Told Me Not To Come" (2000, with Kelly Jones of the Stereophonics)
"Sex Bomb" (2000, with Mousse T)
"You Need Love Like I Do (Don't You)" (2000, with Heather Small of M People, cover of a Gladys Knight & the Pips song)
"Tom Jones International" (2002)
"Black Betty" (2003)
"Hold On I'm Coming" (2005, with John Farnham)
"Stoned in Love" (2006, with Chicane)