Ravinia 2026 Issue 6

alone a relative newcomer whose look and sound was quite different fromThe Fab Four and their growing number of “mop-top” copycats. Suddenly, this unlikely wailer from Wales was one of the most popular per- formers of “The British Invasion.” “When I did ‘It’s Not Unusual,’ to me it was a pop song. Peter Sullivan, the producer, said, ‘This is not really a rock song, but we have to try to make it one.’ That’s why we had Jimmy Page playing on it, to try to rock it out,” Jones remembered. Buoyed by this surging success and exposure, Jones was approached to sing themes to several high-profile films. One of his first outings made him a member of the exclusive club of music dignitaries (Shirley Bassey, Paul McCartney, Carly Simon, Madonna, Tina Turner, Adele, Billie Eilish, just to name a few) to record a James Bond theme—his being for 1965’s box-office smash Thunderball , starring Sean Connery. Jones also notched another of his all- time smash hits with the theme from the silly 1965 Woody Allen–written roman- tic farce What’s New Pussycat?, starring Peter Sellers, Peter O’Toole, Ursula Andress, and Allen in his acting debut. Jones again was leery, wondering if the song matched his vocal style. “When I first heard it, I thought, ‘Christ! What the bloody hell do they want me to sing this for?’ But Burt Bacharach [the co-writer with Hal David] explained, ‘I want a big voice to sing this song.’ “I couldn’t quite get the melody of it, and Burt said, ‘Look, this is a crazy movie. It’s a crazy song. Don’t think of it as a rhythm and blues song. Just think of it as being for a Woody Allen film. Get the spirit.’ ” “What’s New Pussycat?” soared to number three on the US singles chart and was nominated for an Academy Award. With these major triumphs in one year, Jones won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1966. He soon expanded his image and material, gaining two more big winners with a country slant: 1966’s million-sell- ing “Green, Green Grass of Home” and 1967’s “Delilah.” And after a series of successful television performances, he was recruited to host his popular and musically diverse This Is Tom Jones TV variety show from 1969 to 1971, which led to Jones being nominated for a Golden Globe Award. In 1967, Jones performed in Las Vegas’s historic Flamingo Hotel for the first time—two years before Elvis Presley conquered “Sin City” between 1969 and 1976. Jones went on to play in Vegas at least one week a year until 2011. But while many performers are ulti- mately connected through major shows in Vegas, there is more to the Tom Jones–Elvis Presley parallel than this singular musical rite of passage. Both were born to working class families and showed raw potential talent in their youth. Both had stunning, dark RAVINIAMAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 7 – SEPTEMBER 23 , 2026 14 KYLEDUNLEAVY/RAVINIA