Tom Jones can typically turn his voice to a song from any genre and make it his own. However, even the Welshman has made the occasional faux-pax throughout his long and fruitful career, such as the somewhat suspect rendition of ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’ by Arctic Monkeys. Through his own admission, Jones admits to “ruining” the original.
Jones was performing at Wembley Stadium at the ‘Concert for Diana’ in 2007, an event which commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Princess’s death. The show was a star-studded affair kicked off by Elton John playing ‘Your Song’, who also brought the ceremony to a close. Other performers included the likes of Duran Duran, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Andrea Bocelli, P. Diddy, Brian Ferry, and comedian Ricky Gervais.
In the middle of proceedings, Jones took to the stage to perform a three-song set which surprisingly didn’t include any tracks connected to him. The singer kicked off with a cover of the Prince hit ‘Kiss’ before taking on the debut single by Arctic Monkeys and concluding by duetting with Joss Stone on ‘Ain’t That A Lot of Love?’.
Before the performance, Jones explained his peculiar choice of cover and told The Mirror: “I’m a massive fan of the band, and I felt like doing something different with my set. It’s a great song, and I wanted to do it as a surprise for the Princess Diana concert. I haven’t been in touch with the lads about it, but I hope that they like it.”
A source also added: “Depending on the reaction, Sir Tom may even consider releasing it as a single. It really is a very special cover indeed”. The same publication also claimed a source said: “He has watched with interest as the Arctics’ career has taken off and always wondered about doing a Tom-style ‘I Bet You Look Good.’”
In a separate article published by The Mirror, the newspaper claimed Jones was considering officially releasing ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’, and quoted a source who reportedly said: “Tom was delighted with the response to it at the Concert For Diana.”
Jones later confirmed the rumour that he initially planned to release the track. However, the singer said he didn’t receive a grain of positive feedback about his cover of Arctic Monkeys’ chart-topping debut single. After listening to the response, Jones decided against releasing his version of the song.
“No,” he told NME after being asked if Arctic Monkeys ever spoke to him about the cover. He added: “The only feedback we got were the reviews which said we’d ruined it! We were going to release it, but the reviews were so bad we thought better of putting it out!”
Listen below to Tom Jones’ ambitious cover of ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’.
