Happy 65th Birthday to Tom Jones

…and no sign of retiring anytime soon! 
 
Tom Jones my favorite Welsh crooner (and I do know of other Welsh acts like Stereophonics and Catatonia) who continues to impress me with his musical decisions. I was also surprised to discover that his real name is Thomas Woodward, I would’ve guessed he had a really unpronounceable Welsh name. 
 
Nine years ago I had the good fortune of seeing him perform in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand. After the Las Vegas show, my interest in him has never waned because Tom was amazing. For his encore he did Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna’ Go My Way” so well, you would’ve thought he made it a hit first. 
 
One other thing I really enjoy about Tom’s singing is his willingness to work with so many different artists and styles. Whether it’s doing a cover of “Kung Fu Fighting” with Ruby for a Jackie Chan movie or the opening theme to Duck Dodgers with the Flaming Lips (he even played himself on that cartoon). The album Reload is a must have for Tom Jones and Covers collectors. It has him doing “Burning Down the House” with the Cardigans, “Little Green Bag” with Barenaked Ladies and “Never Tear Us Apart” with Natalie Imbruglia plus more. He definitely made sure he did songs with Welsh pop acts Stereophonics and Catatonia. Sadly, the album with the original tracks is import only so don’t buy the US printing. 
 
Last year Tom Jones did something even more impressive. He did an album with bandleader (and former Squeeze keyboardist) Jools Holland of early rock n’ roll-blues-boogie woogie songs. It was really a return to Tom’s musical roots because he really got started singing this kind of material. When he did an episode of the BBC show Later and impressed Holland with his knowledge of this music, Holland decided that he had to do an album with Tom Jones showcasing songs like “200 Pounds of Heavenly Joy.” And again, much likeReload, this album flew under most Americans’ RADAR. Heck, I only found out about by watching an episode of The Kumars of No. 42 on BBC America. Others may have lucked out if they caught NPR’s The World Cafe which had a great interview with him. I managed to catch some of it on my way to work at Kenny’s and he answered one of my burning questions; does he ever get tired of singing the same songs he has been known for since the 1960s? Without hesitation, he said never because as long as the audience enjoys them and wants to hear them, he’ll keep performing “It’s Not Unusual,” “What’s New Pussycat?” and “Delilah.” The interviewer even got around to talking about Tom and Van Morrison being friends since the 1960s. Take that you rock snobs how say Sir Tom has no rock credentials! 
 
I’ve gushed on about how cool Tom Jones really is for his birthday. Don’t take my word on his coolness. Celebrate by gambling 99 cents on “It’s Not Unusual” on the iTunes music store.