Sir Tom In the News, What's New, Pussycat?
Here’s our news page. This is the place for articles and, we pledge, we’ll try not to post the stupid stuff we all run across once in awhile.
Tom Plays Australia In February; A Comment On That Movie From TJ.com; December 30, 1982: Tom Jones Goes Country
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009On February 27, 2010, at 4 p.m., Tom will be in New South Wales, Australia. The event is called A Day On The Green – Tom Jones (Concert & Dining), Bimbadgen Estate, Pokolbin, NSW. You can get tickets here (My son, who lives in South Australia and is promoting concerts got this notice and called me to suggest I attend. He even said he’d go with. Would that were possible!) Tickets seem to start at $115 AU ($105.43 USD) and go to $395 AU ($363.891 USD) for concert and dining. The dates are still not on tj.com but, as with the MGM in January, tickets are being sold. One can only suppose that Tom and his band, crew, singers, etc., would not fly around the world for just one gig (unless it pays very, very well) so it’s probably a decent guess that more dates Down Under will be announced.
Yesterday TJI posted the latest news story about A Bit of Tom Jones? cleaning up at the box office in Wales. TJI took criticism for an October 14 post about the film and, then, 10 days letter in the Welsh press. But, now, even The Voice’s voice — TJ.com — is chiming in. They say, before they post the article TJI posted yesterday,(below): “Although we haven’t seen A Bit of Tom Jones yet, we send our congratulations to the filmakers [sic] and applaud their creativity, pluck and determination.
“We wish them much success and hope they continue to inspire other independent-minded talent who might have a dream to realize.”
From the now-defunct United Press International (UPI) syndicate is an interview with Tom about his country music. I liked the music, as I edited a country music magazine at the time and, still today, much prefer George, Merle, Waylon and Hank, Sr. Tom also looked pretty good then, too. Note how badly written this is: Aside from typos, do you think Tom simply said his wife would “rather listen to me than see me?” I doubt it….or, at least, doubt he really meant that. Oh, well.
Tom Jones Goes Country
NASHVILLE, Tenn (UPI) — Thinks haven’t been the same for singer Tom Jones since his popular TV show went off the air in 1971. Som people think he has retired.
“There’s a lot of people who don’t see live shows. They watch TV and listen to the radio,” he said.
Jones fans take note: “I’m 42 no and still gyrating and belting out songs. I feel the same way now as I did when I was 32 or even before that.”
The “disapearing act” is why Jones has been recording albums in his studio near his home of [sic] Bel Air, Calif.
For his last two albums, Jones has put on country airs. The current work is called Tom Jones Country.
“Last year I was trying to find a direction and we finally decided on country,” he said.
That direction is not unusual for Jones, a coal miner’s son.
“When I recorded those two country albums (women fans) didn’t say I like the switch or I don’t like the switch. To them, there was no switch. I’m still singing those love songs, except there a country flavor.
“My single now, A Woman’s Touch, basically has the same sentiment as She’s A Lady. The feel is different but the message is the same. That’s what I always look for in a song. It has to have a message — a relationship between a man and a woman.
“I’m not singing about bombs going off. I don’t want to get into protesting about nuclear war and things. I’m comfortable singing love songs, sexy songs, with some kind of driving force.”
Jones is at his best on the stage, singing hits like What’s New Pussycat or It’s Not Unusual. He conducted the telephone interview just before his first show of the night at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. He does about 200 live shows a year.
His wife, Melinda, usually is not in the crowd.
“She would prefer to listen to the records,” he said. “She’d rather listen to me than see me.”
At 42, Jones has to keep a close eye on his figure. Since women fans are his mainstay, a few extra pounds in the wrong places could be devastating to his career. He just wouldn’t look the same in those same spandex pants. So he lifts weights, boxes and jogs.
“I try to keep myself as fit as possible, try to keep myself presentable for the stage,” he said.
Jons has sold 50 million records in his career, but he says no amount of recod sales will ever eclipse the exposure he received on his television show.
November 24th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Why would this article even be released with all the typos? I personally like Tom’s country stuff. I wish he would do a little more of those songs in his show. They were part of his career and he can sing them and country music is pretty hot right now, especially among a younger audience.
November 24th, 2009 at 9:38 am
As far as his wife, I think he has said she didn’t like to see the fans reaction to him even though she understands it. I certainly could understand that.
November 24th, 2009 at 10:07 am
A question for the TJ experts: Which is his best “country” album?.
November 24th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Hi, All: The typos are due to the typesetter at the paper that carried the article. Remember, no computers back then so there was no “cut and paste”
Tom has been doing country in his shows. Green Green Grass is certainly country.
I finally realized that his grouping of Save The Last Dance with country songs has to do with Emmylou Harris’ hit with the tune. And, of course, he did the beautiful He Stopped Loving Her Today for awhile in in 2008. The country phase wasn’t Tom’s most successful and I can see why he wouldn’t revisit it too often. As for his “best” country album, I cannot pick just one. Say You’ll Stay Until Tomorrow has the melodic title track, his version of Have You Ever Been Lonely and his ineffably beautiful rendition of the Anniversary Song. Darlin’ has the title track, Lady Lay Down, One Night, Dime Queen of Nevada. Tom Jones Country has his first recording of It’ll be Me and He Stopped Loving Her Today. If you like the music, they all have something to recommend them. It all depends on the listener’s taste.
November 24th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Thank you!
November 25th, 2009 at 11:48 am
To my knowledge. Tom didn’t record “He Stopped Loving Her Today”. If he did, it is not on Tom Jones Country. As far as my favorite country album Tom has done, I think I would choose Tom Jones Country, out of the 5 country albums he did in the 80’s. I’m not sure that “Say You’ll Stay Until Tomorrow” is actually a country album. I know the title track is, and the single of that song was a big country hit, but most of the songs are more pop to me, such as “Take Me Tonight”, “Come To Me”, “Anniversay Song”, “Papa”, etc. I actually think of one of his early albums from 1967, “Funny, Familiar, Forgotten Feelings” as a country album (perhaps country western is more accurate for that one). If that album qualifies as a country album, I’ll pick that as my favorite and “Tom Jones Country” as my second choice.
November 25th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Stewart: When I wrote that the song was on the album i was reading from the album . He did record it and, just as it was in his live show, it is beautiful.
November 25th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Just to confuse the issue a little bit more, I recall Tom said in 1997 during his live concert that he has waited a long time to record this next song and now he has finally done it and it was He Stopped Loving Her Today. Tom was promoting his upcoming soul album at that time which actually was never released. But, if Ellen is holding an album from the early eighties where is a studio recording of the song, then he obviously did record it earlier already. I have to add that I do have an album called Tom Jones Country which has the song He Stopped Loving Her Today BUT it is a compilation from the Coast to coast TV-series and those recordings do not execute the specification of an original Tom Jones record.
November 25th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Like Mika, I’m wondering if this is not off of one of the “Coast to Coast” recordings. I have the “Tom Jones Country” album that was released around 1982, and the songs are as follows: 1)I don’t want to be alone tonight 2) A woman’s touch 3) If I ever had to say goodbyue to you 4)We’re waisting our time 5) Somebody’s cryin’ 6) Marie 7) Our last goodbye
Touch Me 9) we could have been the closest of friends 10) It’ll be me.
I believe I have every album Tom ever recorded that was released in the U.S., plus many of the imports from the U.K. I have all the country albums. I also have him singing “He stopped loving her today” on video from the “One Night Only” performance in 1997. I don’t have all the coast to Coast material, so perhaps that’s what it’s from? I don’t know.