For a singer keenly associated with panties thrown onstage, Tom Jones’ autobiography is surprisingly chaste. The 75-year-old Welshman married at age 16 when his wife became pregnant with their only child, and they’ve been together ever since. Not to say Sir Tom avoided his station’s carnal pleasures. Accounts indicate he frequently indulged, but he doesn’t kiss and tell here. Call it a mark of gentlemanly discretion. Then again, his wife chinned him last time his infidelities made press. Fortunately, Jones’ tale transcends salacity, his pub-friendly writer’s voice capturing the conflict of having a slim shot at success while supporting a family in a small town. Manager Gordon Mills ultimately mortgages his future on Jones’ voice and the two hit it big with 1965’s “It’s Not Unusual.” Jones remains loyal – to a fault, careerwise – until Mills’ death in 1986, after which the singer (under his son’s management) enjoys a renaissance that continues today.

Over the Top and Back: The Autobiography

by Tom Jones
Blue Rider Press, 432 pp., $26.95

This article appears in December 11 • 2015.

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Greg Beets was born in Lubbock on the day Richard Nixon was elected president. He has covered music for the Chronicle since 1992, writing about everyone from Roky Erickson to Yanni. Beets has also written for Billboard,Uncut, Blurt, Elmore, and Pop Culture Press. Before his digestive tract cried uncle, he co-published Hey! Hey! Buffet!, an award-winning fanzine about all-you-can-eat buffets.