Tom Jones, whose 'leather lungs' and sexual magnetism catapulted him onto the world stage, was born Thomas Jones Woodward on June 7, 1940 in Pontypridd, South Wales in the United Kingdom. He started out working local clubs using the name Tommy Scott. In 1963 he formed a trio, The Senators. He was spotted by another fellow Welshamn and harmonica player, Gordon Mills, who eventually became his manager.In 1964 he moved to London, England and that's when things started to come together for him. He signed a record deal with Decca Records, but the first single went nowhere, a pretty typical siutuation. His second single, It's Not Unusual, was released but the BBC refused to play it. However, all was not lost as the off-shore pirate radio station, Radio Caroline, added it to their playlist and the song soared to Number 1 on the charts. Tom later appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and as a result of his electrifying performance, the song reached Top Ten on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. He became even more popular when his own TV show hit the airwaves.
Tom Jones charted 30 singles between 1965 and 1988, with eleven reaching the Top Twenty, and three of them attaining Gold Record status for sales.
This week on Treasure Island Oldies, Tom Jones is the featured artist on Voice Your Choice with It's Not Unusual and Delilah. Come to the website and click on the Voice Your Choice button, then make your selection. We'll play the song with the most votes in the 3rd hour of this week's show.
