The lyric Tom Jones wishes he had written: “A sentiment I always felt”
First and foremost, Tom Jones is a performer who inhabits a song rather than writes them with a pen. While plentiful songwriters can sit down to scribe a hit, very rarely do they have the voice to bring them to life, which is why artists like Jones are necessary. However, there’s still one lyric the Welsh singer wishes he had written.
During an interview with American Songwriter, Jones explained the secret of a good cover. He revealed: “I get inside the song. What is the song all about? What is it saying? What’s the message? Then I try and feel it as much as I can. If the song is big, I go big, but if it’s not, I go smaller. I try and be as natural as possible. I just put myself into it like an actor does with a part. When an actor reads a script, they have to live that part, become that person. It’s the same thing with a song, but it’s a much shorter thing as opposed to a movie or a play. “
Although few of his biggest hits have come directly from Jones’ pen, his masterful way of exerting tone and emotion through his voice is essential. While the Welshman is not a prolific songwriter, he can still appreciate a beautiful lyric, and for him, there’s none more moving than Barry White’s ‘You’re the First, the Last, My Everything’.
Initially, ‘You’re the First, the Last, My Everything’ was intended to be a country song when written by Peter Radcliffe in the 1950s. However, Radcliffe never found a home for the track, which went unreleased until White altered the material into a disco song. He also changed some lyrics but largely played with the musical structure.
Speaking to The Times, Jones said: “Ahh, the first, ‘my last, my everything/ And the answer to all my dreams/You’re my sun, my moon, my guiding star/ My kind of wonderful, that’s what you are/ I know there’s only, only one like you/There’s no way, they could have made two/You’re all I’m living for/ Your love I’ll keep for evermore/You’re the first, you’re the last, my everything’. Barry White perfectly describes this man’s adoration towards his love interest in You’re the First, the Last, My Everything — a sentiment I always felt, and still feel, towards my late wife”.
Jones previously discussed the tragic loss of his wife during a conversation with Far Out and explained how she grounded him. “I didn’t think that I was going to make it,” Jones said. “It really was just the lowest point of my life. We talked for two weeks in hospital in Los Angeles, and my son was there. She said you two have got to look after one another now and hold each other up.”
The ‘It’s Not Unusual’ singer continued: “Because she was my strength, you see, she didn’t take any bullshit from me. I remember I had this house on St. George’s Hill in the late ’60s, early ’70s, I had some friends over from the States, and we were all playing snooker. I think I must have been getting too large, with champagne, cigars and blowing my own trumpet”.
Jones poignantly added: “She said, ‘Excuse me, you don’t really think you’re Tom Jones, do you?’ I said, ‘Of course, I am,’ and she said, ‘It was Tommy Woodward (his birth name) I married, don’t give me this crap’. This fella I was playing snooker with from New York said he’d never heard anyone speak to me like that, and I said, ‘She’s the only one who can, but she’s telling the truth’.”
In that sense, Jones’ admiration for Barry White’s lyric is less about envy and more about recognition. The words articulate a devotion that defined his own life away from the spotlight, a rare constancy in an industry built on transience. While he may not have written the line himself, his connection to it gives it an added layer of authenticity every time he sings it or speaks about it.
For a performer who has built a career on interpreting other people’s material, perhaps the ultimate compliment is wishing you had written a song because it mirrors your own truth so precisely. Jones did not need to put pen to paper to make ‘You’re the First, the Last, My Everything’ feel personal. Through his voice and his lived experience, he has already made it his own.
Listen to ‘You’re The First, The Last, My Everything’ below.
