Tom Jones - An Extraordinary Life. Gwen Russell
were still more boundaries to overcome. The song had been written for Sandie Shaw and the next task was to ensure that she would be happy if it went to someone else. In the event she was extremely gracious. ‘God bless Sandie Shaw,’ said Tom, decades later, ‘because she said, “Whoever is singing this demo should put it out. I can’t sing like that.”’ And so it was that the song was altered to suit Tom’s macho style and released. Even so it was not plain sailing. Had it not been for pirate radio, Tom might never have made his big breakthrough and the world would have been deprived of one of the twentieth century’s greatest entertainers. The BBC considered the single so raunchy they didn’t want to play it but pirate station Radio Caroline was made of sterner stuff and gave it airtime. Decca was quite right: on 1 March 1965, ‘It’s Not Unusual’ went to No. 1 in the charts. It caused an absolute sensation.
Freda Woodward had previously heard the song and knew there was a chance it wouldn’t be released. ‘If they do, you’ve got a winner,’ she told Tom. And they did. ‘We heard it one morning on the radio,’ she said. ‘Then a few days later a little lad down the road ran up and said, “Mrs Woodward, do you know that Tommy’s record is No. 21 in the charts?”’
‘No. 27,’ Tom Senior corrected her.
‘That’s right,’ said Freda. ‘He said it was No. 27.’
‘It then did a big jump into the Top Ten,’ said Tom Senior. ‘When it came out in the papers that Tommy was No. 1, the neighbours kept running up all day, saying, “He’s done it! He’s done it!” It was marvellous, and that night we had a party and tasted champagne for the first time.’
The speed of his success caught even Tom by surprise. ‘I was on a package tour with a lot of bands and I wasn’t aware that “It’s Not Unusual” was going so fast up the chart,’ he said. ‘We used to do two shows a night. So between shows I went to the pub and I was having a pork pie and a pint, and these girls were outside screaming. I thought they must be here for one of the rock bands on this package, but they’d all gone back to the theatre; the kids must think they’re in the pub. So I walk out the pub, straight into this crowd, with a pork pie in my hand. And they go “Oooooo” and they’re on me! And they tore everything. I had this raincoat, the first decent raincoat I ever bought, and it went like in f**king shreds. I had to run to get back in the theatre.’
It was proof, right from the start, that here was a force to be reckoned with, and the reaction from the girls made it clear that Decca now had a serious sex symbol on their hands. Tom had not had a formal training, but he possessed a certain raw quality that made him stand out from the crowd. Not only this, but his quite exceptional voice brought the house down wherever he went. And so almost overnight he was catapulted from a complete unknown into mega stardom. Given how suddenly it all happened, it was quite a change to cope with, but he managed. And he was certainly different from anyone else around in Britain at the time. ‘He has a very earthy appeal,’ said one music industry analyst. ‘When he first burst on the scene, the charts were full of skinny young pretty-boys. With his strapping build, hairy chest and tight curly hair, Tom was the complete opposite. But it was soon obvious that he appealed to ladies, who liked a bit of meat with their veg.’ It was an interesting way of summing up his appeal, but undoubtedly true.
At that early stage of Tom’s career many patterns were emerging that were to become part of his life throughout his career. For a start, it was not widely known that there was a Mrs Tom Jones in the background. Keen that he should appeal to as wide an audience as possible, Tom’s managers encouraged him to deny that he was married, something he duly did. Of course, it then came out almost immediately that not only was there a wife but also a son in the background, one who was now eight years old. And so, on 1 March 1965, the day ‘It’s Not Unusual’ went to the top of the charts, Tom confessed that Linda was waiting for him back home. Indeed, he seemed nothing but relieved that his secret was finally out.
‘I was told by my managers, publicists and everyone around me to say I was single,’ he revealed. ‘I was not happy about it because it’s not true. I am married. When I came to London I was told to say I was single. I knew that sooner or later the secret would come out. It’s never been a secret back home in Wales that I was married. But when I came to London it was felt best if my wife and son were dispensed with. I should never have agreed to say I was single in the first place. When I sing, I sing from the soul. And I sing from my heart – you can’t fool teenagers.’
The song duly made No. 1, Tom’s fans coped with the fact that he was married and his rollercoaster ride to fame began in earnest. ‘Bookings for performances came in so fast from all round the country that I doubt if I could have told you the day of the week,’ he recalled, some years later. ‘It is a rule in showbusiness strategy to cash in on a success and we were doing that as hard as we could. Life became a bewildering succession of stages, stage-door crowds to be escaped from in disguise, reporters, photographers with flashing cameras, snatched meals and crazy drives across the country.’ He, of course, loved every minute of it.
Such sudden success meant logistical problems had to be tackled swiftly, too. Tom’s old friend, Chris Ellis, had driven the band around in the early days on a part-time basis. ‘We were seldom on time because the van kept breaking down,’ he once said. After that first hit he was asked to become Tom’s full-time road manager and he accepted the job. ‘Tom did not have a car of his own for some time,’ he recalled, in 1969. ‘Then he bought a new Jag. I was with him the first time he took it out. At a roundabout, Tom hit another car. His driving has improved since then, but he usually prefers to let me do the driving. Now it’s a Rolls, and he has to sit at the back with darkened windows up, otherwise there would be autograph hunters waiting every time we stopped at the traffic light.’
Delighted with the success of the song, Decca realised it had a major star in the making and released three more of Tom’s singles that year. ‘Once Upon a Time’, ‘Little Lonely One’ and ‘With These Hands’ didn’t do quite so well as ‘It’s Not Unusual’, but they were perfectly creditable and had the effect of building up his career. His first album, Along Came Jones, was released in the summer of 1965, and along with the songs by Gordon Mills and Lou Reed, featured numbers written by Jerry Lieber and Phil Specter (‘Spanish Harlem’), Wilson Pickett (‘If You Need Me’), Chuck Berry (‘Memphis Tennessee’), Johnny Mercer (‘Autumn Leaves’) and Brook Benton (‘Endlessly’.)
Along Came Jones was released in the States under the title It’s Not Unusual. On the cover, in blue jeans and red shirt Tom stands, looking moody and almost unrecognisable from the man of later years and indeed, this was one of the last sightings of his original nose. It’s still possible to see the early, raw Tom in his features, but he was learning – and changing – fast. The boy from the valleys was metamorphosing into a metropolitan sophisticate who would soon be taking the world by storm. By this time it was also becoming clear to him that he was going to have to leave Wales and move to London full time. His feelings about this were very mixed: on the one hand, all these great opportunities were opening up to him and yet he was leaving the land of his fathers. In recent years he sounded quite wistful about the fact that Charlotte Church was able to stay put: ‘She likes Cardiff and it’s great if she can do it,’ he said. ‘In the sixties you had to move to London because there was no M4 and the quickest way to London was by train.’ And so move he did, now taking his family with him.
As his profile increased, Tom stepped up his touring, first in the UK before going on abroad. He has fond memories of those years. ‘The first thing I remember was going up to Scotland to play the Glasgow Apollo and my organ player was driving,’ he said. ‘We stopped at the side of the street and asked this guy directions and I couldn’t understand a word he said. After we found the Apollo, it was a great experience. I remember doing a soft ballad and during a little gap in the song, a girl loudly sighed, “Och, Tom!” I could hear it cutting through the air and I started to laugh. It broke me up and destroyed the mood, but it was so funny and so Scottish. I’ve toured all over the world, but Scottish people in general never mess us about. They tell you exactly what they think. And for me, not being English had a lot to do with the Scots accepting me.’
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