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Sir Thomas Jones Woodward, OBE, (born 7 June 1940), known by his stage name Tom
Jones, is a Grammy Award-winning Welsh popular music singer. He was born in
Treforest, Pontypridd, near Cardiff in South Wales.
 Musical
career
Tom Jones rose to fame in the mid-1960s, with an exuberant live act which included
wearing tight breeches and billowing shirts, in an Edwardian style popular amongst
his peers at the time. He was known for his overt sexuality, before this was as
common as it has become in subsequent years.
In 1963 he became the frontman for Tommy Scott and the Senators, a local beat
group. Clad all in black leather, he soon gained a reputation in the South Wales
area. The Senators were still unheard of in London.
In 1964 they laid down seven tracks with maverick Telstar producer Joe Meek, and
took them to various labels in an attempt to get a record deal, with no success.
The plan was to release a single, Lonely Joe/I Was A Fool, but the ever-flighty
Meek refused to release the tapes. Only after It's Not Unusual became a massive
hit, Meek was able to sell the tapes to Tower (USA) and Columbia (UK). The group
returned to South Wales and continued to play gigs at dance halls and working men's
clubs. One night, at the Top Hat in Cwmtillery, Jones was spotted by Gordon Mills,
a London-based manager originally from South Wales. Mills became Jones' manager,
and took the young singer to London. He also renamed him Tom Jones, an ingenious
moniker which not only linked the singer to the image of the title character - a
good-looking, low-born stud - portrayed in Tony Richardson's film of Fielding's Tom
Jones which was a huge contemporary hit, but also subtly emphasized his
nationality. Gordon Mills gave many rock stars their stage names, among them
Engelbert Humperdinck (born Arnold George Dorsey). The Senators became the
Playboys, and later still the Squires. It was the beginning of the second phase in
Jones' career.
Record companies were finding his style and delivery to be too abrasive and raw.
Jones' vocals were considered to be too raucous, and he moved like Elvis. But
eventually, Decca rekindled their early interest, and Jones recorded his first
single, Chills And Fever in late 1964.
The single didn't chart, but the follow-up, It's Not Unusual, (co-written by Les
Reed), was an instant smash hit, released in early 1965. Initially the BBC refused
to play it, but an offshore pirate station, Radio Caroline, picked it up. Its
orchestrated arrangement coupled with Jones' energetic delivery proved infectious,
and by March 1st the song reached number one in the UK and the top ten in America.
In the same year, Jones sang the theme tune to the James Bond film Thunderball.
Jones was awarded the Grammy Award for Best New Artist for 1965. In 1966 Jones'
popularity began to slip somewhat, causing Mills to redesign the singer's image
into a more respectable, mature tuxedoed crooner.
Inspired by long-time influence Jerry Lee Lewis' country version, Jones released
his most successful single ever, Green Green Grass of Home (written by Claude
"Curly" Putman Jr. in 1965), and began to sing material that appealed to a broad
audience, as well as a string of hit singles and albums including What's New
Pussycat?, Help Yourself and Delilah. The strategy worked, as he returned to the
top of the charts in the UK and began hitting the Top 40 again in the U.S.
In 1967 he performed for the first time in Las Vegas, at The Flamingo. In 1968,
starting at New York's Copacabana night club, women would swoon and scream, and
some would throw their knickers on stage. Soon after, he began to play Las Vegas,
where he began recording less, choosing to concentrate on his lucrative club
performances. At Caesar's Palace his shows were traditionally a knicker-hurling
frenzy of raw sexual tension and good-time entertainment. There, they started
throwing hotel room keys. Jones and Elvis became good friends, spending time
together in Las Vegas. They had a friendship that would endure until Presley's
death in 1977.
This is Tom Jones 1969 variety series starring Tom JonesJones had an
internationally successful television variety show from 1969-1971 titled This Is
Tom Jones. This hit TV show aired on ABC-TV (American Broadcasting Company) in
America and ITV in the UK. The 1970s saw Jones' popularity leveling off somewhat.
But the hits kept on coming: Daughter Of Darkness, She's A Lady, Till and The New
Mexican Puppeteer were all hits in the UK. On July 29, 1986, Gordon Mills, Jones'
long-time manager, died of cancer. Jones' son Mark became the singer's manager. In
April 1987 the singer re-entered the singles chart again. With the hit A Boy From
Nowhere Tom got back in the public eye. A few months later he performed a version
of Prince's Kiss, and recorded it with The Art of Noise, and it was an instant hit.
In 1993 he signed to Interscope Records, releasing the album The Lead And How To
Swing It, and his profile was raised with a younger audience by a powerful
performance at the Glastonbury Festival. In 1998 he performed a medley of songs
from the film The Full Monty with Robbie Williams at the BRIT Awards. That same
year, Space and Cerys Matthews released The Ballad Of Tom Jones.
In 1999 he recorded the blockbuster album Reload, a collection of duets with some
of the year's brightest stars, which brought him back into the limelight. On New
Year's Eve 2000 President Bill Clinton invited him to perform at the Millennium
Celebrations in Washington. Throughout 2000, Jones garnered several honors for his
work, including a BRIT Award for Best Male. In 2001 he toured throughout the Middle
East and Europe. In subsequent years he recorded albums in collaboration with such
artists as Wyclef Jean and Jools Holland.
In celebration of his 65th birthday, on 28 May 2005 Jones returned to his homeland
to perform a spectacular concert in Ynysangharad Park, Pontypridd. This was his
first performance in Pontypridd since 1964.
For his contribution to the recording industry, Tom Jones has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6608 Hollywood Blvd.
In 2005 the album Together In Concert, was recorded live with John Farnham and his
band.
He has collaborated with Chicane for Stoned in Love, a dance track that was
released 24 April 2006. It entered at number eight in the UK charts the following
Sunday.
The singer was awarded an OBE in 1999 and a Knight Bachelor in the 2006 New Years
Honors list for his services to music, and was subsequently knighted by Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, London on March 29, 2006.
Although his manager and public relations staff has attempted to change his
sex-bomb image and neutralize the knicker-throwing fans, to the delight of his
audiences Jones has never felt the need to tone down his behavior in the shows. Tom
Jones has remained highly respected by other singers and continues to attract
audiences of all ages. As of 2007, Jones continues to tour and record. He performs
shows at the MGM Grand Las Vegas ten to twelve weeks each year, as well as
performing concerts internationally.
On 1 July, 2007, Jones was one of the invited artists who performed at Wembley
Stadium at the Concert for Diana, joined on stage by guitarist Joe Perry of
Aerosmith.
Cultural
references
Jones was a recurring guest star on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, playing himself,
as the favorite singer (and sometimes, guardian angel) of Alfonso Ribeiro's
character, Carlton. Ribeiro's character would often act out an over-the-top dance
routine to Jones' It's Not Unusual.
Personal
life
The son of coal miner Thomas Woodward (died 5 October 1981), and Freda Jones (died
7 February 2003, of cancer), Jones began singing at an early age. He'd regularly
sing at family gatherings, weddings and also sang in his school choir. He was
struck down by tuberculosis and bedridden for almost a year. It was a critical time
for him, but he could do little else but listen to music and draw. At the age of
sixteen, Jones married Linda Trenchard on March 2, 1957 and had a son named Mark,
long before becoming a pop idol. Jones quit school with no qualifications and took
a variety of jobs including a builder's laborer and a door-to-door vacuum cleaner
salesman.
In 1974, Jones moved to the United States, buying the mansion formerly belonging to
Dean Martin in Bel-Air, Los Angeles.
Despite publicized infidelities, including an affair with the dethroned Miss World
of 1973, USA's Marjorie Wallace, and a one night stand with Cassandra Peterson
a.k.a. Elvira, in which he claimed her virginity, he has remained married to the
same woman for 50 years.
One of his dalliances with a fan produced a love child, Jonathan Berkery born
June 27th, 1988. He lost a paternity suit when DNA testing proved to be
positive.
He has two grandchildren, Emma and Alexander Woodward. Alexander competed in the
2006 Commonwealth Games, representing Wales as a Full-Bore marksman.
Fathered with Paula Kelly, musician and lyricist Kelly Jones (Stereophonics).
Jones lives in Los Angeles, California and continues to tour extensively.
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Tom
Jones - Manifesting Generator - Biography
