Tom Jones biography

The band, and their hard-drinking, leather-clad singer gained a reputation locally, but he longed to make his mark nationally - which meant becoming big news in London. With the help of two local songwriters, Raymond Godfrey and John Glastonbury, who became the managers of the Senators, a demo was recorded with the eccentric producer Joe Meek, of 'Telstar' fame. Although the seven track demo failed to attract major attention at any of the labels, and the band had to return to Wales and play working men's clubs and dance halls, they were spotted by Gordon Mills, a manager also from Wales originally, who saw the singer's potential and persuaded Godfrey and Glastonbury to give him managerial control.

Mills renamed him Tom Jones, as there was already a Tommy Scott making records at the time, and in 1964 a demo was taken to Decca. Jones's first single, 'Chills and Fever' was released on that label in the autumn, and although it was not a huge success, the follow up was a certain number called 'It's Not Unusual', which definitely was. Despite Jones having tidied himself up a bit, at Mills's behest, and toned down this raunchiness, the record was still a bit too much for the then-conservative BBC radio to play it, but it received a lot of airplay from pirate station Radio Caroline, and a star was born.

As if to prove that he had attained 'flavour of the month' status, Tom was selected to sing the theme for 1965's Bond movie 'Thunderball', picking up a Grammy award for best new artist.

However, by 1966 Mills thought it wise to guide Jones into more a traditional crooner image - this proved to be something of a master-stroke, as the next single 'Green, Green Grass of Home' was his biggest hit. A string of hit singles was to follow, with 'What's New Pussycat' and 'Delilah' still proving firm favourites today with his live crowds, karaoke singers and fans of Stoke City, for whom the latter has become a theme tune. Odd, really, that a dark song telling the tale of murder and infidelity should be such a mainstream hit, but Jones could probably have recorded a cover of 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' and got it into the top ten at this time.

1967 brought the first of his many lucrative Las Vegas performances, at the Flamingo. Summoning up some of that early energy and raw sexuality from his early performances with the Senators, only now on the grandest stage imaginable, Jones soon found himself swamped with women's knickers and hotel -room keys. Jones also developed a friendship with Elvis Presley at this time, possibly the only other person who could empathise with the effect he was having on the live Las Vegas audiences. The two remained firm friends up until Presley's demise in 1977.

Jones's love-affair with American audiences continued with his TV variety-show series for ABC, 'This is Tom Jones', from 1969 to 1971 - on which Jones shared the stage with such stars as Johnny Cash, Janis Joplin and the Moody Blues. Although Jones was still selling records by the bucket-load in the UK, and his TV show had also aired there, he ended up spending much of the 1970s as an exile in America, avoiding the stringent taxes demanded of him by Her Majesty's government. In 1974 he bought Dean Martin's former mansion in Bel Air, firmly ensconcing himself in the seat of LA's showbiz royalty. However, his popularity had levelled out, and despite relatively successful sales for 'She's a Lady' and 'Till', among others, 1977's single 'Say You'll Stay Until Tomorrow' was to be his last significant release for a decade.

Jones lost his best friend, manager and mentor in 1986 when Mills succumbed to cancer, but Jones's son Mark took up the reigns of management and decided a revamp was required. Ditching the now-corny hairy chest, open shirt and medallion-man image, Jones released 'A Boy from Nowhere' in 1987 and was back in the charts once more, with a cooler, slicker image to boot. An appearance on the chat show 'The Last Resort' performing Prince's funk classic 'Kiss' (a staple of his live shows) led to a seemingly unlikely collaboration on the song with The Art Of Noise, and an even less likely hit single with that track. Jones had now reached the 'living legend' level of fame, and by 1993 was signed to Interscope, for whom he released 'The Lead and how to Swing It' the following year - a rather kitsch collection that announced 'T.J.'s in the house with phat beats form the streets'. However, Jones had cannily recruited top producers such as Trevor Horn and Jeff Lynne to harness the best his voice had to offer.

Having already duetted on a medley with Robbie Williams at the 1998 Brit Awards, Jones's next move was to release an album of duets with other stars, in the shape of 1999's 'Reload'. Proving the biggest album hit of his career, it sold 4 million copies globally, and yielded numerous successful singles, most notably the collaborations with The Cardigans (on the Talking Heads tune 'Burning Down the House') and with fellow taffs Cerys Matthews (on 'Baby It's Cold Outside') and Stereophonics ('Mama Told Me Not to Come').

His next collaboration was perhaps his most surprising - with the producer Wyclef Jean, of the Fugees, on the 2003 album, 'Mr Jones'. Perhaps his most blatant attempt to keep himself fresh in the minds of a young audience, the album received mixed reviews, however his attempts at rapping probably have significant curiosity, if not musical, value. No matter - try telling the man who was asked by President Clinton to perform at his Millennium Party that he's no rapper, and he'll probably not be too bothered. Jones was also one of the many stellar performers that were asked to mark the Queen's jubilee celebrations at Buckingham Palace in March 2006.

Indeed, he is quite familiar with Buckingham Palace by now - having already been awarded an OBE for services to music in 1999, Jones then picked up a knighthood from the Queen in 2006. Jones had taken the time to mark his 65th birthday with a huge concert in Pontypridd, regaling 25000 home-town fans and giving them a none-too-subtle hint that he's not going anywhere just yet. For a start, his career still features those Las Vegas mega-shows, and the release of a greatest hits collection last year promises to keep his hip-swinging, chest-bearing, knicker-attracting image firmly burnt into the consciousness for several years to come.

• Discography