Who else could inspire groups of women to shed their underwear and throw it on stage? Only Tom Jones.
It’s no wonder then that man who sang “Sex Bomb,” “Delilah,” and “It’s Not Unusual” and sold more than 100 million records during his decades long career, would have a fascinating extracurricular life, as journalist Sean Smith recounts in his new biography. A sample:
He’s always been married
At age 11, young Tommy Woodward (who later changed his name to Tom Jones, after the movie) developed a crush on Catholic school girl Melinda Trenchard. A few years later the two dated and by their 16th birthdays, she became pregnant. The couple have been married ever since. This month they will be celebrating their 58th anniversary (despite Jones’ multitude of dalliances).
People were beginning to think I was nothing more than a pair of tight pants and a hairy chest.
“It’s Not Unusual” was a hard sell
Originally written for Sandie Shaw, who had hit it big with the song “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me” in 1964, musician Les Reed decided to hand it off to newcomer Jones.
“It’ll never be a hit,” a record producer told them. Reed rearranged the song to match Jones masculine vocals, adding the brass section, and the result is one of Jones’ greatest hits.
He had a beef with John Lennon
Jones ran into John Lennon on the set of the pop show “Thank Your Lucky Stars.”
During rehearsals, Lennon plugged in his guitar, looked up and started singing, “It’s not an elephant, it’s a unicorn” to the tune of “It’s Not Unusual.” He then said, “How are you doing, you Welsh poof?” Tom was incensed. “Come up here, you Scouse bastard, and I’ll show you.” His manager had to cool the fire before a fight erupted.
He Hates ‘What’s New Pussycat?’
Written by Burt Bacharach as a B-Side for “It’s Not Unusual,” Jones “thought it was a joke. I don’t like it at all. It’s just not me.”
Bacharach agreed that it was tough-going: “It was the hardest recording session I have ever done,” he said.
He smoked and drank for a reason
His manager Gordon Mills suggested that he move from smoking Woodbine cigarettes and drinking beer to smoking cigars and drinking Dom Perignon champagne — believing that these would help with his voice.
Elvis and Jones were close
The King was particularly fond of Jones’ “Green, Green Grass of Home,” about a man on death row, and started going to his shows in Vegas. Over time the two started a mutual admiration society. The King even had a secret nickname for Jones: “Sockdick,” because he believed that Jones stuffed his underwear with a sock to get that impressive bulge.
Jones hates the panties
The panty-throwing ritual began at the Copa in the late 1960s. Tom was singing a song and sweating profusely when he asked the audience for a napkin. An overeager fan offered her underwear. Tom quipped, “Don’t catch cold.” (In other versions of events, not included in the book, Jones’ manager paid the woman to hand over her underwear to get publicity.)
Nevertheless, the panty-incident would follow him to Vegas and beyond and become a tradition he would revile. “Reviewers never mentioned my voice, and it’s been a constant struggle to overcome that,” Jones said in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times. “People were beginning to think I was nothing more than a pair of tight pants and a hairy chest.”
The Supremes’ Mary Wilson was a love of his life
He met Wilson in January of 1968 when he knocked on her dressing-room door at the Bal Paree in Munich.
“It really was love at first sign for Mary,” writes author Sean Smith. “We talked, we cuddled, then we kissed, and by the time the evening had ended I knew I was in love,” Wilson said of the affair.
Whenever they were to meet, Jones would ring her hotel room and leave a message that Jimi Hendrix had called. Jones finally broke it off when his wife Linda got wind.
Jones has gotten serious work done
Jones often badgered his manager about getting work done on his nose and fixing his teeth — but Mills declined, saying he liked him masculine and rugged. That is, until the success of “Delilah.”
Mills told him, “You are a star and you must look like a star.” Jones was booked in a clinic in London for a nose job, teeth whitening and capping, and a procedure that made “his long face become more rounded under his chin.” Over the years, Jones would go under the knife several more times.
He almost sang a Beatles hit
Jones didn’t have beef with all the Beatles. When he met Paul McCartney at a club he asked him to write him a song. Days later McCartney sent over a demo of “The Long and Winding Road,” and offered it up with one caveat: It had to be his next single. Jones was on the hook for another single “Without Love” (which would be a flop) and had to decline. “The Long and Winding Road” would turn out to be one of the Beatles’ biggest hits.
At least one woman regretted it
Darlene Love, part of the Phil Spector entourage of singers, opened for Jones and backed him during his concerts. It didn’t take long for her to hop in bed with him — and a shorter time to hop back out.
In her memoir, she says it was a “fact-finding mission to see what all the fuss was about.” But when she realized she was lying next to a “hairy white man,” she knew it was a mistake. “Tom was very nice. He didn’t force me to stay.”
Jones really wanted to be Bond
Jones “dreamed” of playing James Bond and even threw his hat in the ring for the role. But Cubby Broccoli, one of the producers of the Bond franchise, said no. Jones said that “He said I was too well known for people to believe it.”
Jones is a night owl
While on tour, Jones would sleep until after lunch and then start his day with a trip to the spa and gym, eat a steak, chicken or prawn dinner, go on stage, and then party way into the wee hours of the morning. Though he’s still a night owl, Jones has amended his schedule in his older age now spending two hours each morning in the gym and drinking a gallon of water a day instead of a vat of champagne.
Jones has a love child
Jones met and bedded 24-year old model Katherine Berkery in 1987. According to Berkery, Jones got in the mood by listening to his own music that he played on a portable tape recorder that he kept by his bed. He also didn’t wear a condom.
Six weeks after their brief fling, Berkery found out she was pregnant. She filed a paternity case against Jones. The court ordered Tom to take a blood test and it came back 99.7% positive that Jones was the father. Even though he pays a reported 2,000 pounds a month in expenses, he still refuses to acknowledge the boy as his own.
“The Simpson” and “Fresh Prince” revamped his career
Author Sean Smith credits animated TV show “The Simpsons” with rekindling Jones’ waning career. When he went on the episode called “Marge Gets a Job,” Jones made an appearance singing “It’s Not Unusual” chained up by Mr. Burns. Jones called it an “incredible” experience. He then guest starred on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” as a guardian angel to hopelessly goofy Carols Banks. These opened Jones up to a wider audience.