WEBVTT - Tom Jones Still Has It 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:04.360 I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:27.480 from my Heart Radio. He always runs while of those walls, 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:42.280 she as while just talk us at this world. Al 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:59.000 sudo so he strikes Black and the boat. He always 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:06.320 runs while there's walk Yes, those walls. This is such 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:10.080 an anthem. This song is one of the most wonderful 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:14.920 and preposterous anthems to masculinity and chauvinism I've ever heard 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:19.639 in my life. My favorite is he knows the meaning 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:27.640 of success, meaning his needs are more, so he gives less. 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:39.240 He gives less exactly he don't. Black wrote the lyrics. 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:42.559 Oh my god, he said the song doesn't make any sense, 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:46.880 but it ripens, you know. He said, it's about a 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:50.080 guy who's a big fan of himself. All I know 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:51.560 is we got to get a guy that can sing 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:55.040 the ship song to make everybody forget that it's not 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:57.640 about anything, you know what I mean. Well, the thing was, 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:01.200 in those days with the James Bond, all those songs 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:04.720 were big songs, so they wanted a big singer that 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:09.800 could say that had a big voice, you will breathe 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:26.360 and a heart without regrets. Days are asking are all gone. 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:38.280 Just fight he goes on and on and on, but 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:49.960 he thinks for that the fight is re so he strikes. 0:02:50.520 --> 0:03:06.639 Let them my guest today is perhaps the only singer 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:11.560 who could have made that song work, Tom Jones. Legend 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:15.560 has it, Jones nearly passed out holding that final note 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:18.800 in this song. Thunderball, the theme song from the fourth 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:24.440 James Bond film. Tom jones booming baritone has led him 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:27.799 to sell over one d million records in his nearly 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:31.799 six decade career. Thunderball was just one of a burst 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:34.360 of hits for Jones when he started out in the 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:38.600 mid nineteen sixties, including It's Not Unusual, What's New, Pussycat, 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:41.760 She's a Lady, Green Green Grass of Home, I'll Never 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:45.960 Fall in Love Again, and Delilah. After topping the UK 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:50.160 charts in xt Jones quickly crossed over to the US. 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:54.720 He won the Best New Artist Grammy Award in and 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:59.160 appeared regularly on The Ed Sullivan Show. He even hosted 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:03.680 his own the variety show This Is Tom Jones. Along 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:07.760 the way, Tom Jones perfected the Sexiest Man Alive look 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:12.040 and devoted himself to playing live shows. He headlined in 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:15.120 Las Vegas at least one week a year between nineteen 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:20.800 and two thousand eleven. Growing up in South Wales, Jones 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:23.239 assumed he'd work in the coal mines like his father, 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:28.240 but at age twelve, he contracted tuberculosis. He spent the 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:33.040 next two years convalescing, listening to American R and B music, 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:37.240 and dreaming of a very different life. I was always 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:40.720 interested in music. Music was always there since I was 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:43.760 a very young child. I was always listening to the 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:46.080 to the radio. And there's a lot of singers in 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:49.560 my family, you see. My uncle was really good. So 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:52.320 I would be listening to these singers growing up. And 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:55.440 then when I had t B they said just go 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:58.360 to bed and stay there. That's all it was in 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:01.480 those days, was rest, and they were going to send 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:03.320 me away. First of all, they said, you either got 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:05.960 to go to Switzerland or Scotland, you know, somewhere where 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:09.200 the air is is pure. But when they checked out 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:12.360 my house, we lived on a hill in South Wales, 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:15.320 not not near a coal mine, and so they said 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:17.479 we'll find if you're can have your own room, you 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:20.120 can stay home, which I was thrilled about because I 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:24.520 didn't want to really go anywhere at that age. Describe 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:26.840 when you decide you've got what it takes to get 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:29.120 up on stage and just start to perform. What your 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:32.719 early career is. Where where are you performing? Yeah, well 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:38.000 in school first of all, and then Chapel, Presbyterian Chapel. 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:40.240 I never I never liked being in a quiet though. 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:42.240 I wanted to shine. You know. I was a show 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:45.200 off as a kid. I think a lot of entertainers 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:47.719 are like that, you know, showing off. You you'll find 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:49.960 something that you're good at and you give it your 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:52.880 full attention. So that's that's what I was doing. So 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:56.560 I was it was more of listening to black gospel 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:59.880 music on the radio and then if I was going 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:04.360 saying the old Rugged Cross, you know, a hymn in Chapel. 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:07.200 I heard my Helia Jackson sing it on on the 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:09.800 radio and I thought, ship, you know, I mean I 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:12.120 want to sing it like that. They were playing black 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:15.440 gospel music on the radio in the South of Wales. Yeah. 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:20.520 The BBC would play a variety of things and that 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:24.000 was part of it. Sometimes you'd hear blues song, you know, 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:29.359 a black voice, you know, a gospel voice especially, I thought, wow, 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:31.080 what is you know, what is that? Why does that 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.360 woman sound different? To the way they were singing it 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:37.880 in the chapel. It was a difference in it, you know, 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:41.159 And that caught me. Many of the great singers that 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:42.720 we've had on the show, and we've had quite a few, 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:45.400 Roger Daltrey, we had all these guys on here, and 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.960 they all talked about the same thing, choir choruses, church 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:51.960 related singing when they were very young. But when do 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:54.600 you decide you're going to go professional? When do you 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:57.440 decide you're gonna get out there and will make a 0:06:57.480 --> 0:06:59.400 stab at then? And what's your first pro gigs? Where 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:04.520 were you? Okay? First one was in a workingman's club locally. 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:08.360 It was on a Saturday night. I was seventeen, and 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:10.040 I shouldn't have been in there, You've got to be 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:12.200 it should have been eighteen. But I was in there, 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:15.840 of course with my father and his brothers, coal miners, 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:18.880 you know. So I couldn't wait to get in there, 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:20.880 you know, I couldn't wait to be a man. I 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.720 wanted to drink pints of beer with these fellas. So 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:26.560 I was there on a Saturday night and they booked 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:29.680 some concert party they used to call him, and and 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:32.080 they didn't show up. So the fellow that was running 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:34.960 it said, you know you've got a guitar, right, I 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:37.400 said yeah, yeah, And he said, do you want to 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:40.120 run home and get it and sing as a few songs? 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:42.680 I said sure. So I ran up the road, you know, 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:46.920 it wasn't that far away, grabbed my guitar, an acoustic guitar, 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:50.680 ran back there, and rock and roller just kicked in. Then. 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.440 You see, it was in the fifties, this is seven. 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:57.080 So there I was doing like Elvis Presley songs, you know, 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:00.680 stuff like that. So that was it, and they gave 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:03.720 me a pound. They gave you a beer, one pound, 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:07.600 one beer. Whether those days you could have a night 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:11.360 out on a pound, so I could have like five 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:13.560 or six points of beer and that was it. So 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:16.520 so I thought, wow, this is great. So then I 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:20.040 started going playing other pubs and clubs and stuff like that. 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:24.600 When does someone find you right, Well, I was. I 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:27.080 was in one of these workermen's clubs. I got a 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:30.760 band together. By this time, there was a local rock 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:33.160 band cover bands they call him. Now, how many guys 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:35.680 were in the band. Three? There were three guitars. That 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:40.400 was lead guitar, bass guitar, and rhythm guitar. And a druma. 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:43.400 So that was you and four guys. Yeah. By the 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:45.520 time I got with these fellas, they were playing a 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:50.080 y m c A on a Friday night, right, yeah, 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:53.160 So now a Friday was for me. I was like 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:57.559 twenty or something like that, and a Friday night was 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:00.080 a drinking night. You say that was? That? Was it? 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:01.760 I was out with the fellas. I was working on 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:05.520 construction by this time, and I'm out drinking in this pub. 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:07.880 So I knew the bass player from this band and 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:09.800 he came in and he said, look, I was singing 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:12.640 asn't shown. Could you come into the y m c 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:16.800 A and sing some tunes with us? And I said, oh, 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:19.920 come on, Ernon. His name was Vernon. I said, Vernon 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:22.439 is Friday. You know what I mean? This is? This 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:25.280 is drinking like come on, and I said, Saturday is 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:27.880 you know I do shows on Saturday. Well, he said 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:31.240 the singer didn't show. If you don't come, you know, 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:34.480 we won't be able to do the show. So I said, well, 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:38.840 they don't have any booze in a YMC. So he said, 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:40.560 well what about if we get to create a beer 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:43.720 and stick it behind the curtains there? Because they had 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:47.559 a stage and everything for dancing. So I said sure. 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:50.160 So I went able to this friend of mine and 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:53.240 I said, look, you know, when in doubt great balls 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:58.960 of fire, I mean, that's you know exactly. So he said, 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:02.200 do you know create was a fire in c and 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:05.040 they said sure. I said, well then let's do it, 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:07.920 so boom, you know. And then when I must say, 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:12.520 you've had on my brain exactly too much of Lords 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:22.160 out of a man saying you broke my way good exactly, 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:24.120 So so that was the standard you need to know 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:27.640 that song, yes exactly. So that was it. And then 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:30.720 I took this banton that we're already playing these y 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:33.240 m c a s you know, for kids, and I'd 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:37.640 already gone into these workingmen's clubs to sing to coal miners. 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:41.240 So I said, look, there's a whole world here in 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:45.439 South Wales in these workingmen's clubs. They've never had rock 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:48.600 and roll music in there before. So they said, well, 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:51.600 we don't know about I said, I've got a gig 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:55.040 right tomorrow night. I'll take you all in there. So 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:58.280 we get into this club as soon as we walk in. 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:02.199 In those days, electric guitars, you know, and amplifiers and 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:04.599 drums and all that ship. It was like, what the 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:07.679 you know is this? And I said, wait a minute, 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:11.040 fellas to the audience, and they said, oh, yes, we 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:13.160 know you taught me you were fine. But what about 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:15.360 all these other buss that you got with you. I said, 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:17.960 just give us some give us you know these are 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:21.400 coal miners and their girlfriends and that. So I said 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:24.559 to the boys, I said, look, keep the sound down right, 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:29.640 we'll do my mother's eyes will do. I believe, We'll 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:33.000 do some balance that they understand. And then when they're 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:37.839 not looking quit pausifier, right they We're going to clip 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:41.280 them exactly. That's exactly what we did. And by the 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:44.600 end of the night from pay them off, which we 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:48.079 got first of all, which means pay them not to play, right, 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:50.800 that's what they were showing. To pay them off, I said, 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:53.200 just a second, you know, give us a chance. By 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:55.560 the end of the night, the fellow that book the 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:58.160 show said, if I called the police station and get 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:03.520 an extension, could you play to midnight? You know, in 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:06.320 one night now, so someone finds you at one of 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:09.640 these places that professional find you in South Wales exactly 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:13.360 Who was that person? His name was Gordon Mills, and 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:16.880 he was a songwriter and he was all also in 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:20.439 a group then called the Viscounts, which were three fellas 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:23.400 doing three part harmonies. They had some hit records themselves. 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:27.400 They were covering American records. But I knew him. I'd 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:29.640 seen him on TV. He had come to visit his 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:32.280 mother in South Wales because he was He was Welsh 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:35.000 as well, so he came to see me in this 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:39.520 club and he said, you should be in London. I said, 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.760 I know that, you know I've been there. You've gone 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:45.320 there for what. I went to get a record deal 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:48.079 because they heard a tape that I did, and so 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:50.840 I already had a record contract with Decca, but that 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:53.800 was like three singles, you know, three strikes in here out, 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:57.800 That's what I had. So then as Gordon Mill shows 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:00.439 up and said I can write songs. I write songs, 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:02.960 and he had written some hit songs for other people, 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:06.280 so I knew that he knew what he was talking about. 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:08.960 And what did he write for you? Then he wrote, 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:12.800 it's not unusual. He wrote, it's not unusual. He wrote it, Yeah, 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:16.200 my god. He had written it for a girl called 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:18.760 Sandy Shaw who had had some hit records. She had 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:21.600 number ones like two or three number ones, and he said, 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:24.840 could you do the demo? So I said sure. So 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:28.440 we go into Regions Sound in Denmark Street and I 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:33.960 did this demo demo, a demonstration record for Sandy Show. 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:37.880 So I said, you know good, this is the fucking 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:40.960 song that we've been looking for. It he said, he said, 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:45.000 he said, you know what that song? I said, yes, 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:48.880 I do. You know this is a hit song and 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:52.960 he said yeah for Sandy Show. I said no. I said, look, 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:56.240 if I don't get this song, I'm going back to Wales. 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:01.040 I said, fuck this you you Oh. I knew as 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:02.880 soon as I heard it, I thought this is a 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:05.760 hit song. So then we went and recorded it properly, 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:09.360 you know, with the with the brass bomp, you know 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:12.200 like that, and then there we yeah, we're often running. 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:15.559 So that was at the end of six. Did you 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:17.840 run into Sandy Shore years later and she was drunk 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:20.920 at a club and said, you Boston, What happened to 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:24.280 Sandy Shore? No, she said, I met her and she 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:26.400 did my TV show later on right, I had a 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:29.320 TV show, so she came on there and she says, 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:32.640 you could do and she said, when I heard you 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:36.160 singing it, I said, whoever singing this song, that's his song. 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:39.280 I wouldn't be able to sing that like that now. 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:45.440 So that song comes out and things change, I assume overnight, overnight, 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:49.720 it's unbelievable, so so much so he went so fast 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:53.200 up the charts. Right, I'm in a pub. I'm doing 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:57.720 a tour now with my band from Wales, Silla Black, 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:01.040 who was a singer. Then she's passed on since she 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:03.600 had a tour and I was on there. I took 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:07.040 I took the place of a man called p J Proby. 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:09.800 He was busting his pants all the time and they said, 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:12.400 you keep doing that and when you're out the fucking door. 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:16.040 So he busted his pants one store off and you 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:20.280 keep sending a piece of cheesecake over his table. Cheesecake. 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:23.880 It's really good, have it trying this exactly. So I 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:26.440 was doing all that. So so there I am on 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:29.920 on this tour and it's not unusual starts going up 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:32.760 the chart and I didn't know. I didn't know it. 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:34.880 It was moving that fast. So I'm in a pub 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:39.200 in between shows with rock bands from a lot of 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:41.680 them from Liverpool at the time. Because the Beatles, you know, 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:45.040 like that, So I'm in this pub and all these 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:47.600 kids are screaming outside, and me like a schmuck. I 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:51.080 walked straight out into the crowd, thinking that they were 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:54.840 there for somebody else, not knowing that it's not unusual 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:56.720 of going up the chat so fast, and I walked 0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:59.160 straight into this thing. Well, they ripped the ship out 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:02.600 of my This had one raincoat to my name, and 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:05.680 the thing we're flying all over the place. So I thought, well, 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.080 this is it. You know, I'm been tearing you limb 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:11.640 from limb exactly overnight. You know, like a week before 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:14.640 you couldn't get a place of a drink, you know. 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:24.240 Superstar crooner Tom Jones. Another staggeringly accomplished artist who rose 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:27.640 to fame in the sixties was Herb Albert. In addition 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:30.680 to his virtuosic trumpet playing, he was also the A 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:35.480 in A and M Records, the world's largest independent record label. 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:39.680 In our conversation, Albert talked about passing on a song 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:43.760 that became a hit for the Carpenters. As I'm marking 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:45.600 out of Hall's door, I said, how is there a 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:47.560 song that do you think I might be able to handle? 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:50.320 Or song that you have talked away in the Jordan 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:53.520 same yarn I gave bird. Two days later, he sent 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:55.920 me close to You, which was going to be the 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:59.560 follow up to this Guy's in Love with You. I 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:02.440 recorded it in the studio. I'm listening to the playback 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:05.879 and my engineer friend Larry Levine rested. So look to me, 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:08.880 says man, you sound terrible singing this. I don't forget it. 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:11.399 I lost my confidence. I put that thing in the 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:16.840 drawer when I signed the Carpenters in so a year later, 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:23.000 I gave him close to You. Here the rest of 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:26.840 my conversation with herb Albert at Here's the Thing dot org. 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:31.000 After the break, Tom Jones talks about how he developed 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:46.920 his on stage sex appeal. I'm Alec Baldwin and this 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:50.440 is Here's the thing. Tom Jones had a breakout hit 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:54.520 with It's Not Unusual in and he was eager to 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:56.960 get to the top of the charts again. But he 0:17:57.000 --> 0:17:59.960 couldn't have been more surprised by the song that took 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:03.920 him there. And all of a sudden, my manager says, 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:06.800 look you know Bert Packer acas I said, of course, 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:10.760 I do you know how David was in houses exactly? 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:15.240 So they have written a song for a Woody Allen film. Right, 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:19.439 oh okay, and they want you to do the title 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:22.880 song and it's called What's New pussy Cat? I said, 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:26.199 oh great, okay, let me hear it. So we go 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:30.000 to this flat in London. Bert Back, like I said, 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:32.439 he was with Angie Dickinson then, who I was in 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:34.960 love with. And I'm just a you know, twenty four 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:38.800 year old fellow and I'm sitting there. I said, okay, 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:42.000 can I hear the song? And he said sure. So. 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:45.440 Now Bert Packer Rack can't sing, you know, I mean, 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:48.680 he admits to it himself. He can't. He's a great songwriter, 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:51.080 but he's not a singer. So he's at the piano 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:56.600 and he starts. Now I'm being listening to rhythm blues 0:18:56.640 --> 0:18:59.399 records like that rock and roll, fifties rock and roll. 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:02.000 All of my sudden, Burt Back rocks on this piano, 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:05.920 going damn day damn Dana Bam Bam damn Danda bam 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:11.880 bah d that like Kurt Vile, and I'm thinking, what 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:15.439 the fund has this? So he finishes it right, and 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:19.080 I said, you're pulling my leg right, and he said, 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:21.879 what I said, You're trying to catch me out don't you. 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:24.760 I said, you're I am, you know, twenty four years 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:27.840 old from Wales, don't know anything. You're playing this piece 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:30.480 of ship and you're trying to say what do you think? 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:34.760 And I'm gonna go it's a it's a test. So 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:37.320 and then then you're gonna say, well, that's not the song. 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:42.520 This is And he said that's the song and I said, 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:45.120 so my managers there now you know this is Bert 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:47.080 back Iraq. You know it's behind Burt background looking at 0:19:47.200 --> 0:19:51.680 going to stop stop. Yeah, I said, look, I said 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:55.440 I can't. I can't say this. And he said, what 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:57.879 of course you can't. I said, no, I can't. I said, 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:01.040 it doesn't make any sense to me, you know. So 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:04.320 fair play for Birt, you know. He said, I'll demo it. 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:06.800 I'll make a demonstration record of it so you can 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:09.800 live with it for at least a week and see 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:11.960 what do you think. So my manager is like, you know, 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:16.680 Golden Mills, he's gone white and the music publishers there, 0:20:16.720 --> 0:20:19.520 you know, and he's like, oh ship, you know, Birt 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:22.080 back around? Wouldy Allen film? You know what I mean? 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:24.640 And they're schmuck from Wales. They say they can't do it. 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:28.000 So anyway, so I lived with the song, and until 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:31.280 I did it, I wasn't sure of it, you know, 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:35.480 I mean, when did you get it? Like when I 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:37.080 sang it. As soon as I got in the studio, 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:40.480 he was there, which was strange. He had four four 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:43.399 upright pianos in a square and he's banging away on 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:45.959 him right. He's got this full August for there, and 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:49.160 he goes, okay, you need to think of this as 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:52.800 like the Midnight Hour. Right you're Wilson Pickett. You do 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:55.159 a midnight Hour, sing the ship out of it. And 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:59.200 I said, all right, so what you hear is we 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:08.560 see pussy can't. You're delicious and if come true, yeah, 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:15.359 I'll soon be kiss kissing you act inside the song. 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:19.600 There's a performance inside the song. Super masculine. I mean, 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:21.160 like I told you, you look like you're the captain 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:22.960 of the rugby team. You look like you chopped down 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:25.040 the whole forest with an ax when you're a little boy. 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:29.720 You're so super masculine in your performance persona. And it 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:32.960 was so delightful to have you played through these playful words. 0:21:33.000 --> 0:21:35.400 You know, a lot of these songs are very playful, 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:37.960 not just like like Green Green, Grass of Home is 0:21:37.960 --> 0:21:40.879 a straight ahead, just killer ballad. I mean, there's one 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:43.200 of the great ballads of all time, and you sing 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:46.480 the ship out of it. But it's a very straight ahead, sentimental, 0:21:46.480 --> 0:21:49.760 old school kind of ballad, whereas some of these other 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:52.920 songs you sang like Pussycats the best example and Thunderball, 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:54.639 it's very playful. There's a kind of a there's a 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:57.520 performance you have to give. Yes, yes, you've got to 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:00.600 treat it like you mean it. And even though it's 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:03.760 like a novelty song, really you know, you've got to 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:07.320 try and make this novel take it seriously, take it seriously, 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:10.280 and and I honestly, I mean you hit the name 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:12.600 right on the head when you say acting. You know, 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:15.760 I think singers actors. It's just that we put it 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:19.680 into into into song, but it's still acting. That's the 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:21.760 way I feel. You've got to get in the song 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:24.720 and live it. You make it your own or you 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:28.720 put your own self in that character. And that's what 0:22:28.800 --> 0:22:30.879 I always what I always say about. You know, they say, oh, 0:22:30.920 --> 0:22:33.639 you covered this record. No, No, I didn't cover it. 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:37.120 I gave you my interpretation of it, just like an 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:40.160 actor does with when he or she does a rule, 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:43.400 it's gonna be different, different than what somebody else would 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:47.080 do it now, when you know, during the sixties and 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:51.600 the seventies and beyond, everything just seems much more deliberate 0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:55.159 in terms of packaging a star. You know, their albums, 0:22:55.200 --> 0:22:59.040 and they're remember album artwork on the album covers and 0:22:59.080 --> 0:23:01.959 the liner no oats, and it was such a presentation 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:04.479 of things that were so much deeper and richer than 0:23:04.480 --> 0:23:06.480 they seemed to be now. And and one thing is, 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:09.560 of course, is uh costuming. I mean, you're a guy 0:23:09.560 --> 0:23:11.560 who comes out there and you've got the jump suits 0:23:11.560 --> 0:23:14.320 and everything. You're obviously very fit guy. Whose idea was 0:23:14.320 --> 0:23:17.880 it to make you into the sex symbol in terms 0:23:17.880 --> 0:23:22.280 of your styling? You're an unrepentant sex symbol in your styling. 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:29.840 Whose idea was that? Mine? Yours? Literally? Literally literally it 0:23:30.119 --> 0:23:34.520 came from necessity. Really, I would start off in a suit, yes, right, 0:23:34.600 --> 0:23:36.639 because I was told to you know what, I had 0:23:36.680 --> 0:23:38.800 my TV show. They said, you gotta put a suit on, 0:23:38.880 --> 0:23:41.040 you gotta put a tuxedo on, you know, you gotta 0:23:41.080 --> 0:23:43.080 put a boat tie on. I said, this is not 0:23:43.160 --> 0:23:46.399 natural for me. You know, I don't like that, you know, 0:23:46.520 --> 0:23:48.760 so anyway, I would get rid of it as soon 0:23:48.800 --> 0:23:51.320 as possible. So to tell you would come off, the 0:23:51.400 --> 0:23:53.879 jacket would come off, the shoot would be open, you 0:23:53.920 --> 0:23:55.560 know what I mean. Because I was sweating my bullocks 0:23:55.560 --> 0:23:58.840 on an actual fact, you know what I mean. So 0:23:58.920 --> 0:24:01.560 I had to strip down. I mean I did a 0:24:01.600 --> 0:24:04.560 rehearsal once at a club in London and the same 0:24:04.560 --> 0:24:07.680 thing happened. In rehearsal. I said, funk the court. You know, 0:24:07.680 --> 0:24:09.960