Tom Jones - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1964-1966

I'm not much of a Tom Jones fan. He's done some good stuff over his long musical career, but also tons of cheesy, show biz stuff. A couple of weeks ago, it never would have even occurred to me to post any of his music. But it turns out her performed quite a lot for the BBC. In fact, there are three albums' worth of material just from 1964 to 1968. Then he had a TV show from 1969 to 1971 where practically every big name musician you could think of guested and sang duets with him. I'm going to post all that stuff.

After listening to his BBC material, I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised. I did some reading on him as a result, and it turns out his original musical passion was to belt out soul and rock music like his musical heroes Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard. For the first couple of years he tried focusing on that, but he didn't have big hits other than "It's Not Unusual." Then his management suggested his tone down his music and image. He put out "Green, Green Grass of Home" in late 1966. It was a massive hit in Britain, spending seven weeks at number one. He ran with that success, and did a lot more music in that vein. 

But his real passion remained the more soulful material. In fact, when he first came to the US in 1965, he played at the Apollo Theater in New York City, a famous soul concert venue with all black audiences. The audience was said to be shocked that he was white. But he won them over so thoroughly that he got a standing ovation lasting many minutes.

Especially on this first album, you get a lot more of that Tom Jones, and not much of his cheesy, show biz side. He does songs made famous by the likes of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Ray Charles, and Little Richard, and does them well. So if you like that kind of thing, don't overlook this.

None of his BBC material has been officially released, which is a shame. The songs with "[Edit]" in their titles had the usual problem of BBC DJs talking over the music, and I applied the usual treatment of using the audio editing program X-Minus to wipe that talking clean while keeping the underlying music.

It's both sad and funny to me that the BBC apparently ignored Tom Jones when he first started releasing music in 1964 because they considered him too sexually appealing. It wasn't any specific lyric in a song on anything like that; they rejected him as a whole. It was only when his had a huge hit with "It's Not Unusual" that the BBC relented due to overwhelming popular demand (well after it had peaked) and started booking recording sessions with him. 

As a result, there's only one song from 1964 here, a version of his first single "Chills and Fever," and that's from a non-BBC TV appearance. Everything else is from the BBC, with the exception of "Whatcha Gonna Do," which is from a performance on the "Ed Sullivan" show in the US.

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 Chills and Fever [Edit] (Tom Jones)
02 Can I Get a Witness (Tom Jones)
03 It's Not Unusual (Tom Jones)
04 Once upon a Time [Edit] (Tom Jones)
05 Lucille (Tom Jones)
06 Little by Little [Edit] (Tom Jones)
07 Bama Lama Bama Loo (Tom Jones)
08 Whatcha Gonna Do (Tom Jones)
09 Spanish Harlem (Tom Jones)
10 Whatcha Gonna Do about It (Tom Jones)
11 With These Hands (Tom Jones)
12 What'd I Say [Edit] (Tom Jones)
13 In the Midnight Hour [Edit] (Tom Jones)
14 Thunderball (Tom Jones)
15 Treat Her Right (Tom Jones)
16 The Rose [Edit] (Tom Jones)
17 The Key to My Heart (Tom Jones)
18 Long Tall Sally (Tom Jones)

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The cover photo is of Tom Jones in concert in 1965. I don't know the exact date or location.