Tom Jones Country
January 1st, 1982 | By TomJones
Release Date: 01/01/1982
Produced by Gordon Mills and Steve Popvich 1982
Recorded at Britannia Studios North Hollywood, California and Sound Emporium in Nashville Tennessee
Musical arrangements by Dennise McCarthy, Gene Page and Tony Migliore
Label: Polygram Records
Catalogue Number: 3 822 884-2
Track Listing
1. I Don’t Want to Be Alone Tonight, 2. Woman’s Touch, 3. If I Ever Had to Say Goodbye to You
4. We’re Wasting Our Time, 5. Somebody’s Cryin’, 6. Marie, 7. My Last Goodbye, 8. Touch Me (Then I’ll Be Your Fool Once More), 9. We Could Be the Closest of Friends, 10. It’ll Be Me
After a brief flirtation with disco dance music at the end of the 70′s, Tom Jones moved almost exclusively into the country pop arena for roughly 8 years, mostly while recording for Mercury Records. Actually, country was not a big stretch for Jones, three of his biggest pop hits (Green, Green Grass Of Home, Detroit City, and Say You’ll Stay Until Tomorrow) were all country songs that Jones made successful on the pop charts. Say You’ll Stay… even gave Jones a No 1 hit on the US Country Chart in 1977 at the same time the single was No. 15 on the pop survey.
After the modest success of Jones Darlin album and single at the beginning of the new decade, The Voice relocated (at least for recording purposes) to Nashville and worked closely with many of the genre’s top song writers to gather material that clearky fit a country mold while maintaining some connection to the rock and pop hits of his past decade. Not every track on these albums is a classic, but each of Jones country efforts between 1980-85 included multiple examples of some of the best, albeit simple, mainstream country music in the US market.
Tom Jones Country was the height of the singers brief C&W flirtation, a Top 10 hit on the US Country Album Charts, it also boasted Jones 2nd best selling country single “Touch Me (I’ll Be Your Fool Once More)”, which hit No. 4 on the US Country Singles Charts. A classic 50′s style honky tonk torch song, Jones husky voice and emotive vocal style are well suited to this type of material. Another single, the more pop oriented “Woman’s Touch” again put the singer in the Top 20 on the US Country Singles charts later in the year.
Where Jones sometimes over does it is on the utempo material, sometimes straining to sound a little too country. Not always though, and overall this an enjoyable album from start to finish.
Another Jones album from this era to seek out is Dont Let Our Dreams Die Young, an album that veers more towards the upbeat bmaterial but Jones is polshed as ever and sounds about as authentic as any Nashville born and raised country son would. That set also features two more Jones singles hits “I’Ve Been Rained On Too” and “This Time”, the latter another old school honky tonk ballad that plays to the best of Jones strengths as a performer.