Tom Jones

Originally paying his dues as the black leather-clad front man with Tommy Scott and the Senators playing in Welsh working men's clubs, Tom Jones – born Thomas John Woodward on June 7, 1940 in Treforest, Wales - rocketed to fame as the hip-thrusting raucous singer who topped the charts in 1965 with the impossibly catchy pop rocker “It's Not Unusual”. Not only did his distinctive vocal style survive the Beatles-inspired era of teenage rebellion, he cemented his popularity with further smashes like the dramatic “Delilah”, the theme to “What's New Pussycat?” and the huge power ballad “Green Green Grass of Home”. Once his string of hits slowed down after 1971’s “She’s a Lady”, his mid-to-late ‘70s albums catered to a country music crowd and he became a staple on stages in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, a new generation of artists that few up on Tom Jones’ music helped to rejuvenate his career by asking him to guest on their albums and offering to produce his. After the Art of Noise featured him on their cover of Prince's “Kiss”, his career took off again seemingly overnight. Managing to retain his reputation as a sex god in his advancing years, he continued to retain modern relevance through collaborations with younger artists as diverse as Cerys Matthews, Wyclef Jean, Stereophonics and Robbie Williams. After years of creating albums awash in modern production, he changed course in 2010 and recorded the stripped-down blues and gospel album Praise and Blame. His next two albums – Spirit in the Room (2012) and Long Lost Suitcase (2015) – followed the same musical formula. After a short break, Tom Jones returned with the album Surrounded by Time in 2021, proving that he was still a relevant and riveting artist at the age of 80.