This was $4.00. I was not going to pass this up at any price, never less close to the top end of my purchasing limits. You may have noticed this but I am trying to keep post construction down to 20 mins or less.
Oddly enough, I have not come across a whole lot of Tom Jones, born in Wales in 1940. I do not know if there is not a lot of records out there in the secondary market or if they are mostly over $5.00. Either way, Jones had 36 Top Forty Hits in the UK and 19 in the US so he is no slouch. He still performs here and there and was recently a judge on the UK’s version of The Voice.
This album was released in 1978 as a compilation under London Records. According to the back cover, all this material was previously released. Many artists released country albums in the 1970’s. I am guessing someone at the label wanted to ride the country and western fad with this release.
The album is pretty good. It has a decent collection of songs on it including “Little Green Apples” and “Wichita Lineman”. The songs are mostly slower paced, taking advantage of Jones’ booming voice. While the songs are C&W standards, the instrumentation is not. It is safe to say that Jones puts his stamp on these and not vice versa.
For a sample, I went with “Cool Water” and “Ring of Fire” as I felt these were the best songs.
Satisfactory record.