June 7, 2010. Copyright 2010, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Sir Tom Jones, Welsh-born singer nicknamed The Voice, turns 70
By Susan Shepherd

LONDON, June 7, Graphic News:  Legend has it that Tom Jones was almost dropped from his school choir, back in the small South Wales mining town of Trefforest, for drowning out everyone else. Frank Sinatra once warned him he would wear his voice out if he didn’t tone it down. And when managers at the BBC first heard his 1965 release, It’s Not Unusual, they decided his powerful, raunchy style was too risque to broadcast. None of it made any difference. In a reference to one of his most popular hits, Jones reportedly replied to Ol’ Blue Eyes: “I’ll be around until the green, green grass is turned into a car park”.

This summer, at the age of 70, and four decades since he first played there, Jones will be back in Las Vegas for a series of concerts at the MGM Grand. It was in Vegas, at the Flamingo in 1967, that the former teenage tearaway, who’d married his pregnant girlfriend at 16 and who grew up listening to rock ‘n’ roll on his radio back in the Rhondda, first met Elvis Presley. “The King” saw similarities between Jones’ performance and his own which, according to Jones, inspired Presley to launch a comeback, centred on live shows in the casino capital. Later, Presley would say he used to warm up his voice by singing Jones’ 1968 chart-topper Delilah, a dark tale of revenge and jealousy, and a perfect example of Jones’ big, trademark delivery.

By 1969, just six years on from playing the pubs and working men’s clubs of his homeland, Jones was headlining at Caesar’s Palace, driving his mostly female audiences wild with his overtly sexy routines. This was his unbuttoned-shirt and gold medallion period, when fans would famously throw their underwear on to the stage and Jones would promptly send them into an even greater frenzy by mopping his brow with the garments. The television network ABC signed him up, giving Jones his own prime time show on which the great artists of the day -- from Aretha Franklin to Burt Bacharach -- clamoured to appear. Bacharach had written the film theme which provided Jones with one of his signature tunes, What’s New Pussycat?, in 1965.

By the mid-1970s, the collier’s son appeared to have left his roots far behind him. A virtual tax exile from Britain, he bought the Bel Air mansion once owned by Dean Martin, in 1974. He and Melinda -- the couple remain together to this day, 53 years after their teenage wedding -- moved in and, for a few years, it seemed Jones’ career had peaked. In 1986 his manager, Gordon Mills, who had guided him from Pontypridd to London and the record deal with Decca that had launched him, died. It was Jones’ son, Mark, who decided a revamp was in order. He persuaded his father to update his look and tackle fresh material. In 1987, Jones had a number 2 hit in the UK charts with A Boy From Nowhere. A new generation of fans demanded the re-release of It’s Not Unusual, which became a hit on the London club scene. A collaboration with the New Wave group, The Art of Noise, sealed Jones’ comeback with their version of the Prince song, Kiss. His new, contemporary image, combined with nostalgia for his earlier popularity, gave Jones almost universal appeal. In the 1990s, he had a six-part series on British TV, played the world famous Glastonbury music festival and enjoyed huge success with his album, Reload. In 2006, Jones was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for services to the music industry. Of his return to the culture and country of his birth, he has said: “I never really left.”
/ENDS