91热爆

by Bob Stanley

Never afraid to send himself up, there was no ballad more overwrought than Delilah

He's been knighted, sits in judgment each Saturday on , and has been the perennial housewives' choice for five decades now. Yet 's career might have been quite different if his initial recording sessions had borne fruit.

These were on Holloway Road, London, with in 1963. The producer didn't seem to know quite what to do with Tom's extraordinarily powerful voice, being more used to the light tones of Heinz or late period British rock 'n' rollers like Mike Berry, Michael Cox and Danny Rivers. Jones and Meek recorded four songs together, including a telltale song called Lonely Joe - it wasn't a career highlight for either man, either the lonely studio-bound producer or the thrusting Welshman, yet when Jones had his breakthrough in 1965 Meek dusted the tapes down and sold them to EMI. Two singles - Little Lonely One and Lonely Joe - were released to general apathy, as was a rare EP of all four songs.

The breakthrough hit, of course, was the 1965 number one It's Not Unusual. Recorded for Decca, it was Tom's second single for the label, and was written by his manager Gordon Mills. The first release had been a cover of Chills And Fever, a 1960 R&B single credited to either Johnny Love or Ronnie Love, depending which pressing you owned! The song - a ratcheted-up variation on Little Willie John and Peggy Lee's Fever - had been covered by former Shadow Jet Harris in 1962, also on Decca. If Tom's version had been a hit then he'd most likely have been steered towards the R&B and soul material he loved. Instead, covers of songs like Dr John's Right Place Wrong Time, Van McCoy's These Things You Don't Forget and Charlie Rich's Mohair Sam would be tucked away on albums.

Gordon Mills steered Tom towards film themes, landing him a James Bond title song within a year of his breakthrough, which is some achievement. He scored a bigger hit with the theme from Woody Allen's What's New Pussycat but was less successful with another Burt Bacharach/Hal David title song, Promise Her Anything, in 1966. Indeed, none of Tom's singles since It's Not Unusual had reached the UK top ten. The manager panicked, and sought a new direction with the country death ballad Green Green Grass Of 91热爆 - after this, neither Gordon nor Tom would ever have to worry about paying the gas bill again.

With the overwhelming success of Green Green Grass Of 91热爆, seven weeks at number one over Christmas 1966, Tom became the king of the overwrought sixties ballad. Never afraid to send himself up, there was no ballad more overwrought than Delilah. Les Reed and Barry Mason had written the song with PJ Proby in mind; Tom's version features on those stabbing piano chords and it's rumoured that three of Led Zeppelin are on there as well (maybe SOTS's old mate Les Reed could confirm this?). Proby had recorded it first, sounding oddly like Bob Dylan, but hated the song and so it remained unreleased until a CD release in 2008. Proby could really have done with a whip-cracking manager like Gordon Mills behind him - he also recorded Les Reed's lovely I'm Coming 91热爆, but it was only released abroad. Both songs were UK no.2 hits for Tom Jones. How different things could have been. In a parallel universe, PJ Proby is a Vegas legend and Tom Jones venerated as Britain's soul brother number one.