The first song Tom Jones remembers hearing
Music has constantly been present throughout Tom Jones’ life, even before he became sentient. Although Jones wasn’t aware of his surroundings, according to his family, music was still an integral part of his life and built the foundations for his future career.
As a child, Jones struggled with illness and was left to his own devices for long periods of time during his early years. For two years, he was unable to attend school because of a battle with tuberculosis which left him bedbound. However, one thing that couldn’t be taken away from him was his love of entertainment, which fulfilled Jones’ life during a traumatic time.
Inadvertently, without his childhood battle with tuberculosis, Jones might never have become a singer. Typically, men of his age from Pontypridd in South Wales were destined to work their adult lives down the mines, but his past illness prevented him from following the traditional route.
Instead, Jones was forced to step into uncharted territory and became a performer in local clubs across the region, leading to him chasing a pop career. If it wasn’t for the illness, then it’s likely Jones followed the expected route, but once that was taken out of the equation, he was able to chase his dream.
Discussing the path of his life, Jones told the Sunday Mail (via Wales Online): “My mother was fantastic – she brought me through it. Doctors had told her, ‘Your son can’t worry about anything – he has to be contented. If he has things on his mind, he won’t get better.’ The one good thing about suffering TB was that it stopped me going down the mines. Maybe if I had not been ill, I’d never have become a singer. I don’t know what path I’d have taken. I’ve never known life without singing.”
For Jones, music was the obvious path to follow, but little did he expect to become a superstar. During a conversation with NME, the Welsh singing sensation opened up about the first song he remembers hearing, Tommy Dorsey’s ‘Hawaiian War Chant’. Jones recalled: “When I was a baby, my mother would wrap me up in a big shawl and strap me to her chest. It was so she could get on with the housework – they called it ‘Welsh fashion’. And apparently when this song came on the radio, I would start to wriggle in the shawl. So whenever I’d hear the ‘Hawaiian War Chant’ as a kid, my mother would say: ‘That’s the first song you ever took notice of.'”
The track was first written in the 1860s by the Hawaiian Prince Leleiohoku, and various cover versions were later recorded with Tommy Dorsey making the ‘Hawaiin War Chant’ his own in 1938. Listen to Dorsey’s take below.
