Tom Jones - This And That (1967)

Thomas John Woodward (aka Tom Jones) was born on 7 June 1940 in Pontypridd, Glamorgan, in South Wales, and began singing at an early age, regularly performing at family gatherings, weddings and in his school choir. His bluesy singing style developed out of the sound of American soul music, and his early influences included blues, R&B and rock and roll singers Little Richard, Solomon Burke, Jackie Wilson, Brook Benton, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. In 1963 he became the frontman for Tommy Scott and the Senators, a Welsh beat group, and in 1964 he recorded several solo tracks with producer Joe Meek, who took them to various record labels with little success, although these tracks would later surface after he'd started to have hit singles, much to the annoyance of Jones and his management. Later that year, Decca producer Peter Sullivan saw Tommy Scott and the Senators performing in a club and directed them to manager Phil Solomon for a short-lived partnership. The group continued to play gigs at dance halls and working men's clubs in South Wales, and one night Jones was spotted by Gordon Mills, a London-based manager who also originally hailed from South Wales. Mills became Jones' manager, and took the young singer to London, renaming him to exploit the popularity of the Academy Award-winning 1963 film of the same name. Eventually, Mills brokered a deal with Decca Records, and Jones' first single 'Chills And Fever' was released in late 1964. It didn't chart, but the follow-up 'It's Not Unusual' became an international hit after offshore pirate radio station Radio Caroline promoted it. The following year was the most prominent of Jones's career, making him one of the most popular vocalists of the British Invasion, and in early 1965 'It's Not Unusual' reached the No. 1 spot in the UK charts, and the top ten in the United States. During 1965 Mills secured a number of film themes for Jones to record, including 'What's New Pussycat?' and the James Bond film 'Thunderball' in 1965, and 'Promise Her Anything' and the thriller 'Triple Cross' in 1966. Around this time his popularity began to slip somewhat, so Mills tried to reshape Jones' image into that of a crooner, recording material that appealed to a wider audience, such as the country hit 'Green, Green Grass Of Home'. The strategy worked, gaining him another No. 1 hit in the UK, and further chart successes on both sides of the Atlantic over the next few years, including the classic 'Delilah' in 1968. An imminent box-set will showcase all of Jones' Decca albums, and will be welcomed by fans, as his discography is a bit disjointed, with UK and US albums having different track-listings, and often his UK albums weren't released in the US, and vice-versa. There were also a number of singles and their b-sides which didn't appear on his UK albums, particularly the afore-mentioned film themes, and so in preparation for the box-set here is a collection of his non-album recordings from the first four years of his career, starting with that very first single in 1964, through to the start of his crooner phase with 'Green, Green Grass Of Home' and 'I'll Never Fall In Love Again'.   

 
Track listing

01 Chills And Fever (single 1964)   
02 Breathless (b-side of 'Chills And Fever')
03 To Wait For Love (Is To Waste Your Life Aaway) (b-side of 'It's Not Unusual' 1965)
04 I Tell The Sea (b-side of 'Once Upon A Time' 1965)
05 With These Hands (single 1965)  
06 Untrue (b-side of 'With These Hands')
07 What's New Pussycat? (single from the film 'What's New Pussycat?' 1965) 
08 One More Chance (b-side of 'What's New Pussycat?')
09 Thunderball (single from the film 'Thunderball' 1966) 
10 Promise Her Anything (single from the film 'Promise Her Anything' 1966) 
11 Stop Breaking My Heart (single 1966) 
12 Never Give Away Love (b-side of 'Stop Breaking My Heart')
13 Triple Cross (single from the film 'Triple Cross' 1966) 
14 Not Responsible (single 1966) 
15 What A Party (single 1966) 
16 City Girl (b-side of 'What A Party')
17 This And That (single 1966) 
18 If I Had You (b-side of 'Green, Green Grass Of Home' 1966)  
19 Ten Guitars (b-side of 'Detroit City' 1967)
20 Things I Wanna Do (b-side of 'I'll Never Fall in Love Again' 1967)
21 I'm Coming Home (single 1967)