Tom Jones rose to fame with his fun-loving music in the mid-1960s. ‘It’s Not Unusual’ and ‘What’s New Pussycat?’ were huge hits—he’s sold more than 100 million records

Tom Jones got his big break into the business when he went to the Copacabana club in New York, and sang My Yiddishe Momme.  After the song a waiter brought him a note, inviting him to a hotel to hear a new song that would suit Tom’s voice perfectly. It was signed by Burt Bacharach.

It turned out Burt had a horrible singing voice, and after hearing him sing What’s New Pussycat? on a cassette, Tom hated the song, as Burt sang it so horribly, but he sang it with panache, and when he hit that big ‘woah-woah’ line, a star was born.

"That’s it,’ Burt shouted. ‘That’s the way I always imagined the song would sound.’

Four weeks later he recorded it with the cream of session men: Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones — who would soon form Led Zeppelin — and a youngster called Elton John, who was very nervous. After all, he was playing piano for Bacharach, who at that time was the world’s most successful pianist and composer.

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