Tom brought in money for his new family from an assortment of jobs, including a builder's laborer, a glove cutter, paper miller, and door-to-door vacuum salesman. He sang in the pubs at night, working with local groups. By 1963 he had gained notoriety with his own band, Tommy Scott And The Senators, and was playing regularly in the demanding atmosphere of the working-class clubs and dance halls. Gordon Mills, a man with a solid performance background who had decided to branch into songwriting and management, went to see Tom sing. As Mills recalled: "The first few bars were all I needed to hear, they convinced me that here was a voice that could make him the greatest singer in the world."
Mills became Tom's manager, and, taking advantage of the free publicity generated by a hit movie that was in theatres at the time, changed his stage name to Tom Jones. Promoting him was not an easy task, as record companies found him disconcerting. The vocal sound was raucous and too powerful, the performance style too forward and sexual. He sounded Black and moved like Elvis Presley. The two men persisted though, and in late 1964 landed a recording contract with Decca Records. Tom's first single, "Chills and Fever", was not a success, but the follow-up, a new song penned by Mills called "It's Not Unusual", became a huge international hit. The record peaked at #1 on the UK chart and #10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Considered too hot by the established BBC Radio at the time, it was broken by the pirate, off-shore station, Radio Caroline. By the next year, Tom found himself opening for The Rolling Stones at London's Beat City and gigging with The Spencer Davis Group.
An avalanche of Gold singles and albums were soon to follow: "What's New Pussycat" (#3 in 1965), "The Green, Green Grass Of Home" (#11 in 1967), "Delilah" (#15 in 1968), "Help Yourself" (#15 in 1968, "Love Me Tonight" (#13 in 1969), and "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" (#6 in 1969). For most of the late sixties, several of his LPs were in the Top 10 in both Europe and the United States. A long friendship with Elvis Presley developed by mutual respect and admiration. Elvis would warm up his voice to Delilah before his own performances, and when "Green Green Grass Of Home" hit for Tom in 1966, Elvis himself would call radio stations repeatedly to request the song. Tom was offered his own television show the summer of 1969. A contract was drawn with ABC that was the largest ever between network and artist. The show's location was split between London and Los Angeles, and included an impressive guest list of virtually every major star of the day.
Continuing into the '70s, Gold albums came in the form of "I, Who Have Nothing", "She's A Lady" and "Tom Jones Live at Caesars Palace". By the end of 1970, Tom had sold over 30 million discs in all categories around the world. The hit singles of the decade included "Without Love (There Is Nothing") (#5 in 1970), "Daughter Of Darkness" (#13 in 1970), "I Who Have Nothing" (#14 in 1970), "She's A Lady" (#2 in 1971), and "Say You'll Stay Until Tomorrow" (#15 in 1977). With this tremendous recording success, Tom was able to draw capacity audiences everywhere in concert halls and arenas worldwide. His skills as a singer developed sharply. His energy, openness and spontaneity appealed to critics and audiences alike.
In 1987 Tom was asked to perform a musical play with a bullfighting theme called Matador on the CBS Epic label. The single, "A Boy From Nowhere", reached #2 on the British charts that summer, but did not chart in America. This prompted insistent requests for "It's Not Unusual" in the London clubs along with a very successful re-release of the song on the charts. A new interest in Tom Jones emerged amongst a whole new generation of fans. Late in 1988, the British avante-garde, Techno-Pop group, The Art of Noise requested a collaboration with Tom on a cover of Prince's "Kiss". The results were sensational and highly contemporary, and the record put Tom back into the Top 10 charts in Europe and the Top 40 in America. The video of "Kiss" was seen in strong rotation on both MTV and VH-1, winning the Breakthrough Video MTV Award that year. Tom Jones was once again seen in a format reaching across all demographics worldwide.
Tom has stated that he had sex with up to two hundred and fifty women a year at the height of his career. One of the liaisons in 1987 with Model Ketherine Berkery resulted in the birth of a son. After a long and much publicized legal battle that included DNA testing, a U.S. court ruled in 1989 that Jones was indeed the boy's father. Jones denied the court's findings until 2008, when he finally admitted they were true. He never showed any interest in meeting his son, Jonathan Berkery.
1992 was an exciting year for Tom. His new six-part television series, Tom Jones: The Right Time, produced for the national independent ITV network in the UK, aired in the summer to wide critical and commercial appeal. The six half-hour segments were music-based and designed in a way unique to television formats. Guest artists included The Chieftains, Joe Cocker, EMF, Erasure, Bob Geldof, David Gilmore, Daryl Hall, Al Jarreau, Cyndi Lauper, Lyle Lovett, Mica Paris, Sam Moore, Shakespears Sister, Curtis Steiger and Stevie Wonder. The series aired in the U.S. on VH-1. In November, 1992, Tom appeared as himself on the animated hit comedy The Simpsons. As Marge temporarily finds work at the plant, her boss kidnaps Tom in a plot to seduce her. In the end, Homer makes a chivalrous stand for his wife, and Tom serenades the two of them with "It's Not Unusual". Shortly after some promotional efforts in support of The Right Time, Tom was invited by Sting and Trudie Styler to participate in an annual show at Carnegie Hall to benefit their charity, the Rainforest Foundation. In an evening of extraordinary performances, he shared the bill with James Taylor, George Michael, Sting, Bryan Adams, Herb Alpert, and Tina Turner. Tom was the surprise sensation of the evening, ripping through several songs with Sting and his band.
Tom enjoyed a consistent U.S. and international touring schedule throughout the decade. He lived with his wife of thirty-eight years, Melinda, in their homes in Bel Air, CA and South Wales. His son Mark and daughter-in-law Donna, gave him him a grandson, Alexander John, born in 1983, and a grand-daughter Emma Violet, born in 1987. His mother and sister also lived in Los Angeles. Since September of 1986, when Gordon Mills suffered an untimely death, Tom was managed by his son Mark Woodward, who traveled with him since the age of 17.
On March 29th, 2006, Tom Jones was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. In a statement to the press, he said "When you first come into show business and you get a hit record, it is the start of something. As time goes on, it just gets better. This is the best thing that I have had. It is a wonderful feeling, a heady feeling." On July 1st, 2007, Jones was among the invited artists who performed at Wembley Stadium at the Concert for Diana. In 2008 he released "24 Hours" on S-Curve Records, his first album of new material to be issued in the U.S. in over fifteen years. The LP was supported by a world tour. Later that year, Jones was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall Of Fame. In 2009, the 69-year-old Jones was voted The Sexiest Man In The World in the Hungarian magazine Periodika. In March of that year, Tom went to the top of the U.K. Music Charts for the third time in his career thanks to a cover of "Islands in the Stream", accompanied by Rob Brydon, Ruth Jones and Robin Gibb, who co-wrote the song with his Bee Gees brothers Barry and Maurice.
July 26th, 2010 brought his 39th studio album, "Praise & Blame", which was made up of largely little known Devotional and Gospel covers. The collection brought favorable reviews, with one critic calling it "One of the best" in Jones' six decade long career. It debuted at #2 on the U.K. album chart. On Jones' 70th birthday, June 7th, 2010, a cover of the John Lee Hooker classic called "Burning Hell" was released. Instead of becoming yet another success, David Sharp, vice-president of Island Records demanded that the single be pulled back immediately and asked if it was some kind of "a sick joke." Jones responded that he was furious with the decision. In July of that year, Tom performed the song on an episode of the British talk show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. On September 22nd, Jones appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman at the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York and told David that he had decided to quit dying his hair and would let it grow a silver color "Because it's more distinguished." On December 22nd, 2010, one of the songs from Tom's 2008 album, "24 Hours", called "Give A Little Love", was featured in the trailer for the Robert De Niro / Ben Stiller film Little Fockers.
In May, 2011 Jones sang as guest vocalist on actor Hugh Laurie's debut album "Let Them Talk". On May 25th, he appeared on U.S. TV's American Idol after a medley of his hits was performed by the show's Top 13 contestants. On November 28th of that same year, Jones was introduced as one of the judges on upcoming British talent show, The Voice UK. In February, 2012 it was announced that Tom Jones' latest single would be sold exclusively at Spillers Records in Cardiff, Wales. The shop, from which Jones bought records as a schoolboy in the fifties and early sixties, was established in 1894 and is listed in the Guinness World Records as the oldest record shop in the world.
On October 15th, 2015, the 75-year-old singer released a new album called "Long Lost Suitcase", which he supported with more live shows. He also appeared on BBC's Jools' Annual Hootenanny, broadcast on New Year's Eve, on which he duetted with Paul Weller. Sadly, Tom's wife, Linda Woodward, died on April 10th, 2016 at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, after a short but fierce battle with cancer, with Jones canceling his concert dates at the time. For 2017, he was scheduled to return to The Voice UK as a coach for series 6. In mid-March, 2018, the veteran Welsh crooner announced that he was working on a new song with fellow Voice UK coach, will.i.am. 2019 saw Tom playing shows in the U.S. in the spring before returning to the U.K. and Europe for several summer dates. 2020 was supposed to be filled with shows across Europe, but most were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Also scrapped was a stage musical based on his music that was scheduled to begin performances at Leeds Playhouse in England on September 23rd.
Things were a bit brighter for Tom in April, 2021 when his 41st studio album, "Surrounded By Time" topped the U.K. album chart. It was his fourth LP to do so and his first in over twenty years. When he celebrated his 81st birthday on June 7th, Tom told Britain's OK! magazine that he has no intention of retiring, insisting: "I've got good bones and I am pretty fit, and as long as I've got two bloody legs, I'll keep performing." He planned a four date arena tour in the UK for the following December.
Tom was back in the news again in early February, 2023 when The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) announced that his 1968 hit, "Delilah" would no longer be played before games at Cardiff's Principality Stadium. The ban was due to the lyrics depicting a woman named Delilah being stabbed to death after her husband discovers she's been cheating. Jones previously defended the controversial lyrics, insisting it's not meant to be taken "literally."
