There was a time those words would be answered with shrill screams, waves of applause & knick­ers being tossed on stage. The likes of which, Mr. Pretty-Boy, Justin Tim­ber­lake, has never seen.

But that’s just it, Tom Jones is a man, not a boy-toy. With an albeit cheesy past related to tight trousers and the afore­men­tioned panty-tossing (which, as a kid and now, as an adult, I think is weird), but it was Tom’s schtick and he rode it.

I’m not sayin’ that JT or (insert any cur­rent teen-heartthrob’s name) is any less tal­ented, or that I am proud of Mr. Jones’ too-tight trousers and panty-tossing fans. I’m just sayin’, Mr. Jones had grown women in the palm of his hand…and still does today. They are just a bit more reserved, like he is now.

I have long been a fan of Mr. Jones, not a knicker-tossing fan, but a fan non-the-less. About 10 years ago, he was at the top of the charts with a crit­i­cally acclaimed album called Reload. Well, not the top of the charts in the U.S., but in a much cooler place music-wise, Eng­land and the rest of Great Britain. I just hap­pened to be there on a trip when I heard Burn­ing Down the House in a way David Byrne could never have imag­ined. It was the top video, and you heard it every­where. The same hap­pened when Mr. Jones recorded Prince’s KISS a few years ear­lier. It was far more con­vinc­ing com­ing from Tom than Prince. And did you know that was Tom Jones singing SexBomb which was fea­tured in Sex and the City?

Repack­aged and renamed in the States as Reloaded, it is a very dif­fer­ent CD than the one I picked up in Lon­don. I guess the pro­duc­ers were afraid of not includ­ing his ear­lier works that most Amer­i­can would rec­og­nize like What’s New Pussy­cat, It’s Not Unusual, etc., which makes the Amer­i­can ver­sion far less impres­sive and inno­v­a­tive than the British release.

In the MP3 player, above, pay atten­tion to Mama Told Me Not To Come, Burnin’ Down the House, Moth­er­less Child, Some­times We Cry, KISS & Baby, It’s Cold Out­side. Reload was orig­i­nally a “duet” type of cover album where Tom was paired with a wide range of musi­cians, such as, The Cardi­gans, Van Mor­ri­son, Rob­bie Williams, Stereo­phon­ics, Cerys From Cata­to­nia, Natalie Imbruglia and Sim­ply Red. The orig­i­nal CD is avail­able on Ama­zon, click here: Reload.

Tom Jones has a new CD out called 24 Hours with all orig­i­nal songs. I didn’t want to jump into this rec­om­men­da­tion with­out a lit­tle back­ground for you. Those that know me well, know I like to pass on every tid-bit of infor­ma­tion I have on a sub­ject, so that they can have just as much use­less infor­ma­tion stored in their heads as I do. Although, I don’t think that would be possible.

I received 24 Hours as a Christ­mas gift from my friend, Evette. Fun­nily enough, she had called me a few weeks ago to let me know that Tom Jones was going to be on the Today Show. “Oh, Prob­a­bly because he has a new CD com­ing out. I have it on my Ama­zon wish-list. It’s on pre-order right now..”, I said. To her credit, she did not con­vey an “I’m laugh­ing with you-not at you” tone in her voice as she answered “You would.” No, I would say it was a straight-up “I’m laugh­ing at you” tone. She can’t laugh too hard though, because she actu­ally asked for a copy of the orig­i­nal Reload CD and she went with me and my Mom to see Mr. Jones in con­cert a cou­ple years ago.

When I first lis­tened to the new 24 Hours CD, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. There were tracks that I liked imme­di­ately, and the ones I didn’t, have grown on me. It is an inter­est­ing com­bi­na­tion to a throw­back ’60’s beat but with more sophis­ti­cated arrange­ments, sound, and pro­duc­tion with a cool club vibe that I could sing along to, all the while, sound­ing like true Tom Jones. His voice is pow­er­ful, play­ful, soul­ful and fun. One of the few singers today that can rock out and sing a soul­ful bal­lad of a man who has lived life to the fullest– I’m just guess­ing here.

My favorite tracks on the CD are Style and Rhythm, Sugar Daddy, Sea­sons and Give a A Lit­tle Love.

Like my other favorite singers, Elvis and George Michael, Mr. Jones is all voice and charisma. I think he has been sold short on the true tal­ent that he is. Pack­aged and sold as a sex– sym­bol early on in his career, I think it has been harder for him to be taken seri­ously by the Amer­i­can pub­lic. In Great Britain, he is iconic, in the States, not-so-much. But I will do my part to change that and encour­age you to open your musi­cal taste up to a man who’s con­tri­bu­tion to music can­not be denied.

Will Justin Tim­ber­lake be able to deliver Rock Your Body, Señorita, Cry Me a River or any of his hits, as con­vinc­ingly in 30 years? Time will tell.

But as Tom tells us in Sugar Daddy, “Don’t send a boy to do a man’s job.”

I’m just sayin’.