Everything Jones is new again
After Winehouse, his classic sound is sounding good
Tom Jones is well aware that you probably know him best as the snug-trouser-wearing, hip-swiveling heartthrob with a habit of exposing chest hair and belting out bigger-than-life chestnuts such as "It's Not Unusual" and "Help Yourself." But Jones also wants you to know that while he's proud of his lengthy catalog of hits - although not always proud of his fashion choices - he's far more modern than the curly-haired gent who sang the theme to "Thunderball" nearly 45 years ago.
"To be looked upon as a golden oldie isn't for me," Jones says. "If that's all I could do, that would be fine. But I love to listen to new music and hear new things. That's what I want to be a part of."
In fact, the 68-year-old Jones, who performs tonight at the House of Blues, has experienced a career renaissance in Europe over the past decade. His 1999 album, "Reload," a collection of duets with contemporary artists, was the biggest hit of his career. It was never released in the United States, a source of frustration for Jones and another reason why his musical reputation in this country is tied more closely to "What's New Pussycat?" and his libidinous thrusts rather than his more recent dance hits like "Black Betty" and "Sex Bomb."
In his native United Kingdom, Jones's bigger-than-life belting is seen as current, cutting edge, and - brace yourselves - hip. He keeps company with performers younger than his children and works with sought-after musicians and producers. Despite a career that stretches back 50 years, his booming voice is as powerful as ever. It's just a bit more aged and leathery than when he was hosting his TV variety show "This is Tom Jones" and dueting with the Who and Janis Joplin.
"The last three albums never came out in the US," he says in an affable tone. "I did one with Wyclef Jean, which was put out in Europe, but not in this country. We couldn't get a deal on it. The reason why I haven't had a record out in the US in 15 years is because I was told they wouldn't fly."
When it came time to record his most recent project, Steve Greenberg, the owner of the American record company S-Curve, approached Jones, and Jones, anxious to release new material in America, signed on. He was especially intrigued by Greenberg's concept: an album of new material, but recorded in the style of retro Brit soul singers such as Amy Winehouse, Adele, and Jamie Lidell. In other words, an album that updated the Tom Jones sound of 1965. After decades of multiple musical incarnations, it was hip for Tom Jones to sound like Tom Jones again.
"I've been wanting to do this for a long time," he says. "I've always talked about arrangements from those 1960s records, and how they weren't being done anymore. For a long while, I had this idea that I wanted to revisit those arrangements, but with a modern feel. Then Amy Winehouse came out and that capped it. I could point to her and say, 'That's what I'm talking about.' "
He felt it was logical to revisit the sound that took him from being the son of a Welsh coal miner to an international celebrity - but in an updated style that wouldn't alienate his young fans. The new album, called "24 Hours," smartly references Jones's early career at several points. The song "If He Should Ever Leave You" contains a sample of a 1960s Jones album track called "I Will Never Let You Go," while the album's title track is told from the point of view of the narrator from Jones's hit "The Green Green Grass of Home." Bono and the Edge penned a song for Jones called "Sugar Daddy" after a night spent socializing with Sir Tom in the pubs.
"We are big fans of the sound on his mid-1960s records," says Darren Lewis, half of the production team Future Cut, which was not only responsible for the new Jones record but has also produced hits for Lily Allen. "In this business there are some jobs you take that are just work, and other times you're doing it because you really want to. This was a case of the latter for us. You ask any producers out there, 'Do you want to work with a legend?' and I'm not sure how many would say no."
Lewis and production partner Tunde Babalola were clear that if the project was going to work, Jones needed to take an active role in the songwriting process, something he's never done. Future Cut wanted Jones to be singing songs that were relevant to his experiences and paired him with songwriters to work on lyrics. The result are songs such as "The Road," about his marriage of 50 years. They sit alongside covers such as "I'm Alive," a big Tommy James number that easily could have been lifted off a Jones record for Decca from the 1960s.
"I thought songwriting was going to be more difficult to do," he says. "But I sat down with songwriters, and we talked about my experiences and we made songs that sound like me."
On the phone from Los Angeles, Lewis still sounds a bit in awe over the fact that he worked with Jones on this record, and confesses that the singer was more up to date on what was happening in the world of music than he and Babalola were.
"He was coming into the studio saying, 'Have you heard track six off the Gnarls Barkley record?,' and I couldn't tell you what track six was," Lewis says. "Another time he told us when the Kanye West album was coming out, and he was very excited about it. The guy sits by his pool every day and listens to music. I don't think you can be in the business that long and not love it."
Christopher Muther can be reached at muther@globe.com. 