Since having the number 1 hit “It’s Not Unusual,” in the UK to singing to the themes to James Bond’s Thunderball and the TV show What’s New Pussycat? in 1965, winning the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1966, and a Las Vegas residency from 1967-2011 music legend Tom Jones has had numerous accolades from 36 top 40 hits in the UK 19 top 40 hits in the U.S., selling over 100 million records worldwide, to being knighted in 2006 by Queen Elizabeth II, and being a coach on the voice UK from 2012-2015.
Tom Jones performed at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, CA Monday night. This would be his first L.A. show in two years and first at the Greek since 2018. Jones and his incredible band played a show of hits and covers of those who influenced Jones and were contemporaries. Jones opened his show with Bobby Cole’s “I’m Growing Old.” Jones performed this seated. Jones, now 84, still sounds phenomenal and has been touring around the world the past three years once concerts resumed after the Covid-19 Pandemic. Jones performed 22 songs including those by some of the greatest songwriters like Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Prince, Randy Newman, and Burt Bacharach.
The classics performed included “Sex Bomb,” “What's New Pussycat,” Delilah,” “It’s Not Unusual,” and “If I Only Knew.” The last song before the encore was Prince’s “Kiss,” which Jones recorded in 1994 with Art of Noise. This was part of Jone’s setlist last time as well as Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s “Strange Things Happen Everyday” which was in the four song encore. The first song of the encore was “One Hell of a Life,” which was very fitting for the career Jones has had which is 60 years this year since the recording of “It’s Not Unusual” and 60 years next year since its release. The show ended with two Rock N Roll Classics, Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” and Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Great Balls of Fire.”
