Tom Jones

Tom Jones ranks among the foremost singers to arise during the British Invasion era. Beginning in the mid-1960s, he tackled virtually every variety of mainstream music, encompassing pop, rock, Broadway numbers, country, dance, and electronic styles, yet his signature approach—a bold, resonant baritone that favored power over delicacy—stayed consistent throughout. Tracks such as the 1965 chart successes “It’s Not Unusual” and “What’s New Pussycat?” alongside his distinctive interpretations of country standards like “Green, Green Grass of Home” later in the decade helped sustain his visibility. Over subsequent years Jones established a strong presence in Las Vegas, scored a 1988 hit with the Art of Noise’s electronic reworking of Prince’s “Kiss,” and issued recordings that spanned the polished dance-pop of The Lead and How to Swing It to the 2010 collection Praise & Blame, whose American Songbook covers opened the door for further projects exploring contemporary material. His willingness to explore led him to interpret songs by lesser-known writers including Billy Joe Shaver and the Milk Carton Kids, while the 2021 album Surrounded by Time reflected the imprint of Radiohead. Across every genre and selection, his distinctive, commanding voice remains unmistakable, and his commitment to live performance has stayed undiminished.

Born Thomas John Woodward in Wales, Jones launched his professional career in 1963 as Tommy Scott with the local beat group the Senators. In 1964 he cut several solo sides under producer Joe Meek that failed to attract label interest. Later that year Decca’s Peter Sullivan heard him perform in a club and referred him to manager Phil Solomon, though the association proved brief and Jones returned to Wales to continue singing in neighborhood venues. There he caught the ear of former Viscounts vocalist Gordon Mills, who had moved into artist management.

Mills took the singer on, rechristened him Tom Jones, and arranged his debut Decca single “Chills and Fever,” issued late in 1964. Although that release made no chart impression, the early 1965 follow-up “It’s Not Unusual” reached number one in Britain and cracked the U.S. Top Ten. Its lavish, dramatic pop settings complemented Jones’s charismatic, flirtatious persona, generating publicity that fueled further successes such as “Once Upon a Time,” “Little Lonely One,” and “With These Hands.” Mills also obtained film themes for him that year, yielding the Top Ten entry “What’s New Pussycat?” in June and “Thunderball” in December.

By mid-1966 Jones’s momentum had eased, prompting Mills to recast him as a polished, tuxedo-clad crooner suited to broader tastes. Country material including “Green, Green Grass of Home” and “Detroit City” formed part of this shift, restoring him to the British summit and returning him to the American Top 40. He maintained a steady run of hits on both sides of the Atlantic through the rest of the decade. At its close he relocated to the United States and hosted the variety series This Is Tom Jones, which aired from 1969 to 1971 and prepared the ground for his move to Las Vegas residencies in the early 1970s. There he reduced his recording activity in favor of high-earning club dates. After Mills’s death in the late 1970s, Jones’s son Mark Woodward assumed management duties and encouraged a return to the studio, this time targeting the country audience with a run of sleek Nashville-flavored pop albums that produced several chart entries in the early 1980s.

A fresh reinvention arrived in 1988 when Jones teamed with the Art of Noise for a version of Prince’s “Kiss” that reached the British Top Ten and the U.S. Top 40, leading to an extensive tour and a role in a recorded presentation of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood. He subsequently resumed the club circuit for several years. A 1993 appearance at England’s Glastonbury Festival drew an avid response from younger listeners and reignited his profile, culminating in the 1994 release of the alternative dance-pop album The Lead and How to Swing It, which found modest success in clubs. An even stronger commercial rebound came with 1999’s Reload, built around collaborations with both peers and artists he had influenced.

Three years afterward he partnered with Wyclef Jean on Mr. Jones, followed in 2004 by Tom Jones and Jools Holland. In 2006 the Queen bestowed a knighthood upon him. The 2008 album 24 Hours, featuring his classic style supported by modern productions from Future Cut, Nellee Hooper, and Betty Wright, earned both sales and critical praise. Praise & Blame, released in 2010, took a starkly different route, offering stripped-back arrangements from producer Ethan Johns and Songbook material drawn from Bob Dylan, John Lee Hooker, Billy Joe Shaver, plus traditional gospel and blues pieces. Johns returned for 2012’s Spirit in the Room, whose selections leaned contemporary and included songs by Tom Waits, Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen, Paul McCartney, and the Low Anthem.

Both Praise & Blame and Spirit in the Room received some of the strongest notices of Jones’s career, which in turn opened a period of regular prime-time British television work. He served as a judge alongside will.i.am, Jessie J, and Danny O’Donoghue on the first season of The Voice UK in 2012 and remained through season four in 2015. That October, Michael Joseph published his autobiography Over the Top and Back in the U.K., with Blue Rider Press issuing the U.S. edition the following month. A companion album, Long Lost Suitcase, appeared the same autumn; again produced by Johns, it continued the pattern of drawing on varied influences with songs by Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, the Rolling Stones, and the Milk Carton Kids.

After a five-year recording hiatus following the death of his wife Linda, to whom he had been married for fifty-nine years, Jones found fresh avenues of expression upon returning to the studio. The resulting 2021 album Surrounded by Time, co-produced by Johns and Woodward, included compositions by Bob Dylan and Yusuf, a collaboration with Michael Kiwanuka, and a Radiohead-inflected reading of Todd Snider’s “Talking Reality Television Blues.” It also featured a cover of Bobby Cole’s 1967 ballad “I’m Growing Old,” which the composer had given Jones in 1972. Although Jones had admired the song, he felt he was then too young to record it and promised Cole he would cut it upon reaching eighty.