5: It's Not Unusual

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"My group and myself, we moved to London, and Gordon put us up in a flat in Ladbroke Grove. And he was keeping us, you know, he was paying us to stay in London. We would get the odd job here and there, but I wasn't singing as much as I was in Wales.

"I was doing some demo records for other singers, of songs that Gordon would write. So one day he wrote a song with Les Reid for Sandie Shaw, which was called It's Not Unusual. And he said, me and Les have just written this song, and will you do the demo on it for Sandie Shaw? I said, sure.

"So he was singing me the song in the car on the way to Regent Sound, which was in Regent Street, and by the time we got there, me and The Senators, who were now called The Squires, recorded It's Not Unusual.

"And when I heard it back I said, Gordon, I've got to record this song properly, you know. I have to have this song. When he wrote it, it was a milder version, you know, it was more like a bossanova Brazil 66 type thing. So he thought I would be doing more of a rock tune, you know. So I said, this song sounds like a hit to me. And he said, but we wanted it for Sandie Shaw. I said, yeah, but I want to do this.

"So we did. We recorded it once, with a rhythm section and a Hammond organ and some vocalists for vocal backing, but it wasn't happening. So Peter Sullivan, who was my recording manager then, said, this thing, we have got to make it harder, we have got to make it sound harder than the song really suggests. Because, he said, with Tom singing it, because my voice is so big, he said, It's not happening.

"So he said to Les, we need a fuller arrangement, we need something to kick off the bye-on beat that the bass drum is doing. So Les put it on brass. And it worked. We did it then with a full-blown band, and that's what made the song jump. It jumps right from the word go. And then my voice suited that arrangement more.

"We recorded it in November 1964, I think it was 11 November 1964. And I was thrilled with it, you know, I took it back to Wales, because I went back to Pontypridd for Christmas that year, and played it to everybody, all my friends. And everybody said, Wow, sound bloody smashing.

"So then it came out in February of 65 and it was number one by March 1st. Within a couple of weeks it was number one. So there I was. That was the beginning of my recording career."