TOM JONES FIRST ALBUM

Original released on LP Decca LK 4693 (mono)

(UK, May 1965)

"Along Came Jones" is the 1965 debut album recorded by Tom Jones and included his massive hit single "It's Not Unusual". The album reached Nº 11 on the British charts. Some of the songs were covers and some were written especially for Jones like the Gordon Mills-penned "The Rose". In July 1965 Parrot Records (USA, Canada) issued an abridged (12 tracks) version of the album, titled "It's Not Unusual".

«Recording TOM JONES has the same effect as driving a fast sports car on a motorway, exciting and exhilarating. Whether Tom Jones is purring softly and slowly through a romantic ballad or lustily giving out with a fast up-beat number you are guaranteed a performance which will be different. Tom Jones during his short singing career has already been acclaimed by various critics as one of the most exciting visual performers on the recording scene. Off stage, a quitly spoken person, Tom explodes into visual and vocal action when the music begins. He has a unique ability of getting inside a song, interpreting the complete meaning of the lyrics, draining the song of everything it has to offer and yet still managing to squeeze the last vestige of feeling from both melody and lyrics. On this L.P. Tom has ample opportunity to demonstrate his varied and considerable vocal talents. Side 1 is used like a showcase for the treatment which Tom gives to beat numbers such as “I Need Your Loving” and “Married Man”, plus six other titles including his first smash-hit “It’s Not Unusual” and his current hit “Once Upon a Time”. His performance can best be described as “gutsy”. This sums up in one short word the raving dynamic performance Tom manages to whip up.

When Tom Jones was introduced to the world by manager Gordon Mills in 1965, the big-voiced singer with animal magnetism was presented as ‘22, single and a miner’. He was, in fact, a 24-year-old married man with a seven-year-old son.  Eventually, the truth came out, and wife Linda, a slender young woman with pixie-cut blonde hair, gave a solitary Press interview. She explained that, although the adulation of his fans made her uncomfortable, she loved her husband with a consuming passion.

In contrast to this power-house side, Side 2 reveals Tom Jones in another light. His tender romantic treatment of such lovely ballads as “Spanish Harlem” and “The Rose” illustrates fully this other face of his singing ability. He is by turns, sad, wistful, tender and intimate, delivering the words with a deep sincerity. His “soul treatment” of “If You Need Me” must rank as one of his finest performances. One has only to listen to this L.P. to recognize and appreciate the very fine and unique arrangements of all these numbers. The arranger, Les Reed, who also collaborated with Gordon Mills in the writing of Tom Jones first single hit “It’s Not Unusual” must surely be congratulated for his very exciting and lush imaginative arrangements. Les has again got together with Gordon to pen one of the three new titles on the L.P. “I’ve Got a Heart”. The remaining two new titles are the sole work of Gordon Mills. One is a beautiful ballad called “The Rose” and the other a ballad with a beat entitled “Some Other Guy”. Assembled on this L.P. are outstanding songs and arrangements which only need the firing-spark of Tom Jones to enable it to explode into action on your record machine. So, like driving a car, switch on the machine, put the needle into the first track and listen to it go, but don’t exceed 33 r.p.m.» (original liner notes by Peter Sullivan)