Sir Tom Jones

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2010

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kirsty Young's castaway is the singer Sir Tom Jones.

In a career spanning fifty years he's sold 150 million albums and his hits have included It's Not Unusual, What's New Pussycat? and Delilah. As a child it was assumed he'd follow in his father's footsteps and become a miner. But he developed TB when he was twelve and doctors warned his parents against sending their only son to the pit; they said his lungs were too weak. Now aged seventy, he has no plans to retire. "Singing's like breathing to me", he says, "my voice drives me, it tells me that I have to do it".

Producer: Leanne Buckle

Record: A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On Book: The Rise and Fall of the British Empire -Lawrence James Luxury: A Bucket and Spade.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Kirstie Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Disks from BBC Radio 4.
0:06.0	For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.
0:10.0	For more information about the program, please visit BBC.co.uk.
0:17.0	Radio 4. The My castaway this week is Sir Tom Jones. His career has spanned more than 50 years so far and in that time he's shifted a remarkable 150 million albums.
0:47.0	Growing up he was known as Tom the Voice.
0:50.0	His talent for showmanship was evident from a young age too.
0:53.0	He used to get his mom to introduce him before he'd sing at home.
0:57.0	Later on, his friend Elvis Presley said he was one of the greatest performers he'd ever seen
1:02.0	and the best singer he'd ever heard. It was assumed he'd
1:06.6	follow his father's footsteps and become a minor, but he contracted TB when he was
1:10.9	only 12 and doctors warned his parents against sending their only
1:14.8	son down the pit.
1:16.8	They said his lungs were too weak.
1:19.2	He says simply, I really love to sing. It's like breathing for me. So Tom Jones, those lungs of yours, I'm
1:26.9	wondering what we might have heard if they'd been even healthier than they are.
1:30.0	Well maybe they were built up. Maybe I realized that I had to look after them.
1:36.7	Yeah. Or maybe that the two years that I was in bed it could have, because I couldn't sing for two years they told me not to sing yeah
1:44.1	no exertion at all no exertion what about the showmanship you know life in the
1:49.0	limelight is you very comfortable with it you know you don't seem to shirk away from that. No I enjoy it. You do enjoy it. Oh yeah. I always wanted it. I mean I'm saying that thing about your mother introducing you. I mean I heard you say once that you used to go behind the kitchen window
2:04.4	and close the curtains, you know the curtains like you were on stage. How old would you have been?
2:09.9	Oh as far back as I can remember. I'm very young, four, five, something like that, and I would get up in the window and pull the drapes over. My mother would be cleaning. And I say,
2:20.0	Mom, introduce me. She said, I'm busy. I've got to get on with the housework.
	...

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