With the crusty old goat trying to get hip to the max with Wyclef Jean, and with a sparkling new Brit award under his belt,
Tom Jones is currently enjoying something of a renaissance.
Well, in truth the revival has been gathering pace since 2000's duets collection Reload, but the voice is still as strong as ever.
With a certifiable dog of an album released last year (the Wyclef-produced
Mr Jones - the aural equivalent of watching your parents trying to roll a 'blunt' to get down with 'the kids'), it looked for a while as though the crown was slipping. Enter the fray, then, Greatest Hits, a collection that restores Jones' reputation as a national treasure and neatly puts him back on top.
Aside from a medley recorded with Robbie Williams at the Brits in 1998, there aren't too many surprises amongst the tracklisting. Hell, the Brits duet even appeared on Tom's Ultimate Hits collection that same year. But with classics like
Help Yourself and
Delilah in the Jones canon, there's never a bad time to reminisce.
This 23 song collection is a chronological run-through of the highlights of Jones' career, from the 1965 chart-topping
It's Not Unusual through to the singles from Reload. Having said that, seasoned Tom-watchers will doubtless grumble about the song selection. Where, for example, is his electrifying debut
Chills And Fever? And why on earth include ropey cuts like
Daughter Of Darkness and
The Young New Mexican Puppeteer? But there are enough bona fide classics amongst these 23 songs to silence the quibblers.
Greatest Hits is a part cynical cash-in, and part celebration of a great body of work. So what if there are already over a dozen similar best-of albums out there? This is a must for any newcomers to Jones The Voice who want to rediscover his mighty back catalogue.
