With booming baritone projection and charismatic stage presence, Tom Jones rose to dizzying heights of fame as a pop singer in the mid-1960s. From humble beginnings in the Welsh mining town Pontypridd, Jones transcended generational divides to captivate vast audiences on a global scale.
While the King of the Crooners’ first solo single, ‘Chills and Fever’, didn’t chart, his second, ‘It’s Not Unusual’, became an instant classic, reaching number one in the UK and ten in the US. Though it was released in 1964, ‘It’s Not Unusual’ struck number one in 1965 and set a precedent for the remainder of the year, which would turn out to be the most momentous of Jones’ career.
Concurrently, Bob Dylan, an established young folk star on the other side of the Atlantic, was beginning to welcome rock influences to his folk style. In August 1965, he made history with his bold, controversial decision to “go electric” during his set at the prestigious Newport Folk Festival.
While Jones had caught wind of this brazen cultural icon, he wasn’t particularly enthused by his work until the summer of ’65, when he first laid ears on Dylan’s early folk hit ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’.
Speaking to The Guardian in 2021, the Welsh crooner was challenged to pick out his favourite Dylan song and remembered how he hadn’t been instantly moved by the troubadour’s unique vocals. “I was on tour in the States in the summer of ’65 with a British act, Peter and Gordon,” Jones said. It turned out Gordon Waller was a huge Dylan fan and would play his records on the road during hotel stop-overs.
Jones, 25 at the time, continued: “I wasn’t struck by Dylan’s voice at first. But then I heard ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’, and I’ve been a fan ever since. The lyrics are fantastic. He’s basically asking, ‘How many times do we have to go through all this shit before we realise that we’re fucking up the world?’”
Noting Dylan’s talent for vivid imagery and culturally pertinent themes, Jones said: “He paints pictures with his songs so you can see things happening. What good am I if I just stand by and let things happen that I know I should be changing? He was the first singer-songwriter to make me think.”
In recent years, Jones has paid tribute to Dylan with a couple of covers. In 2010, he recorded the 1989 song ‘What Good Am I’ for his album Praise & Blame and in 2021, he recorded the 1976 Desire cut ‘One More Cup of Coffee’ for his album Surrounded By Time.
