Talkin' about that little lady

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts.

06/06/71 : Tom Jones Sings She's A Lady - Tom Jones

Our seventh visit with Mr Jones and I have a sneaking suspicion it's probably an album of covers, but I can't prove it and I quite like the title track, so he just about gets away with it - and how could I resist that album cover?

The title (and opening) track is quite an interesting one because it's got quite a Motown sound to it, but (to my surprise, given how often tracks were passed round back then) it seems like none of the classic Motown bands have done a version - I reckon The Four Tops or The Temptations would have knocked it out of the park. Google AI did it's usual great job by telling me that people often confuse it with "Three Times A Lady" (they sound sooo similar) and also horrified me by telling me that Ali Campbell & Shaggy have done a version - and yes, it's just as bad as you'd expect. Back to the album, the rest of it is Tom being Tom and it's hard to complain when he delivers exactly what you're expecting, but I'd struggle to say it's particularly memorable - with the exception of "It's Up To The Woman", which is nicely over the top.

We're at #9 in the charts this week on his fourth week of a five week run, with this being as high as it got. The top five this week were Paul & Linda McCartney (this is really not a good album), The Rolling Stones, Simon & Garfunkel, Motown Chartbusters Vol 5 and Andy Williams, with the highest new entry being Ray Conniff (#34).

Wikipedia tells us it's "a studio album by Tom Jones" - it gets tricky to say exactly which number it is because they did all sorts of weird stuff regarding UK and US releases, but it seems to be his tenth album released here. And that's pretty much your lot, but if we look at the title track's entry, it tells us it was written by Paul Anka and was Tom's highest charting single in the US, getting to #2 and selling a million copies. A quick Google search also tells us that Tom stopped playing it because he wasn't happy because the lyrics had dated. However, compared to a lot from that time (and plenty other times as well), they're actually pretty positive with "she always knows her place"  being the main offender but that line is immediately followed by "she's got style, she's got grace, she's a winner". Back to the album, there's no word on the critical reception but it did OK commercially, getting to #17 in the US.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a decent copy of this for £2.50 but if you fancy splashing out then you're unlucky because the most you can spend on it is £10.39! And I think that's pretty understandable because whilst it's all perfectly listenable, apart from a couple of tracks there's very little here to make it stand out from the crowd.

13/06/71 - Surprisingly enjoyable

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I wanna keep the door from closing, yeah

Image
Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 26/12/25 : I Barely Know Her - Sombr Christmas week gives us some odd albums - last year we had Lana del Rey's album from '12, which hasn't left the chart all year. I'm pleased to say we're somewhat more up to date this year with an album that came out in August - I met it as a new entry  and was somewhat nonplussed by it, but I have mentioned it a couple of times since because it's just not gone away, which is somewhat unusual. So let's see what I make of it on a second listen (this trick totally failed to convince me of the virtues of Addison Rae earlier today). Well, well, well - Sombr at least intrigues on second listen. I'd struggle to describe it - it's kinda poppy indie with a woozy vibe to it, but it feels like it has depths to it and I reckon the more you listen to it, the more you pick up on. Intriguing indeed - I'd love to tell you more but that's all I got for the time ...
Read more

And all at once I owned the earth and sky

Image
A new year to start the New Year - starting my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 30/12/01 : Swing When You're Winning -   Robbie Williams There's a reasonable argument I should reject this album, but it was such a surprising cultural moment that even I don't feel I can, so it means we're starting the year with one that "we" own. This is our fifth visit with Mr Williams - I'm determined not to enjoy it, but I also have to admit I'm not going to hate it nearly as much as I would like to.  You know what? This is perfectly fine. Completely inessential, but he's not doing anyone any harm. For the most part, it's classic Sinatra-or-thereabouts tracks which Robbie does a decent job with on the vocals (along with some slightly peculiar guests) and they've obviously got some decent musicians in to lay down the backing tracks. He rarely does anything wildly original with them but, most importantly, he doesn't ruin them either - I don't...
Read more

In your grace, I looked for some meaning - but I found none

Image
Continuing my trip up The Guardian's  50 best albums of 2025 . #3 :  Essex Honey - Blood Orange Dev Hynes’ fifth album as Blood Orange felt uniquely keyed into the fragmented, distracted headspace that comes after someone passes, in his case, his mother. Essex Honey’s restive nature was summed up in its painful opening lines, which you could read as the dying’s acceptance of death starkly contrasting the living’s ability to meet them on those terms: “In your grace, I looked for some meaning,” Hynes sings on Look at You. “But I found none, and I still search for a truth.” That search is wide-reaching: The Field refashions the Durutti Column’s Sing to Me as a racing hymnal made for the stereo of a Ford Escort. There are tough little Robert Rental-style post-punk gems in The Train (Kings Cross) and Countryside that bristle with frustration. Vivid Light is a plainly soulful duet with Zadie Smith; Life, featuring Tirzah’s unmistakable vocals, basks in languid, flute-dappled funk. T...
Read more