The Greatest Oldies Music

Oldies Musics

It’s Not Unusual – Tom Jones

TOM JONES — Bent Rej Photography

About the Song

In the realm of popular music, there are songs that capture the zeitgeist of a generation, becoming anthems that transcend time and cultural boundaries. Tom Jones’s “It’s Not Unusual” stands as one such iconic masterpiece, a soulful ballad that has captivated audiences for over five decades. Released in 1965, the song marked Jones’s meteoric rise to stardom, propelling him into the international spotlight and establishing him as a force to be reckoned with in the music industry.

“It’s Not Unusual” is a testament to the power of a well-crafted song, seamlessly blending elements of pop, soul, and orchestral arrangements to create a sound that is both timeless and captivating. The song’s opening notes, a dramatic flourish of strings and horns, immediately set the stage for a journey into emotional depths, while Jones’s powerful vocals, imbued with raw emotion and vulnerability, carry the listener through a whirlwind of love, loss, and self-discovery.

The song’s lyrics, penned by the songwriting duo of Les Reed and Gordon Mills, delve into the complexities of human relationships, exploring themes of heartbreak, longing, and the resilience of the human spirit. Jones delivers each line with a palpable intensity, his voice soaring and plunging through the octaves as he conveys the protagonist’s emotional turmoil. The lyrics, though simple in their construction, resonate deeply, capturing the universal truths of love and loss that have touched countless individuals across generations.

“It’s Not Unusual”‘s impact extends far beyond its musical brilliance. The song has become synonymous with Tom Jones’s larger-than-life persona, his charismatic stage presence, and his powerful vocal delivery. The song’s accompanying music video, featuring Jones’s signature dance moves and expressive facial gestures, further cemented its place in popular culture, becoming an indelible part of Jones’s enduring legacy.

The song’s influence on popular music is undeniable. “It’s Not Unusual” has been covered by countless artists, from Elvis Presley and Nancy Sinatra to Michael Bublé and Paloma Faith, each interpretation adding their own unique flair to the song’s enduring melody. The song’s presence in film and television is equally noteworthy, appearing in soundtracks ranging from “The Full Monty” to “Ocean’s Eleven,” further solidifying its status as a cultural touchstone.

“It’s Not Unusual” remains a timeless classic, a song that continues to captivate audiences with its emotional depth, powerful vocals, and enduring message. It is a testament to the enduring power of music to transcend boundaries, speak to the human spirit, and leave an indelible mark on popular culture.Tom Jones before The Voice - an ex bandmate reveals tales of tunes, girls and Krays - Irish Mirror Online

Video 

Lyrics: It’s Not Unusual

It’s not unusual to be loved by anyone
It’s not unusual to have fun with anyone
But when I see you hanging about with anyone
It’s not unusual to see me cry,
I wanna dieIt’s not unusual to go out at any time
But when I see you out and about it’s such a crime
If you should ever wanna be loved by anyone,
It’s not unusual it happens every day
No matter what you say
You’ll find it happens all the time
Love will never do what you want it to
Why can’t this crazy love be mine?It’s not unusual to be mad with anyone
It’s not unusual to be sad with anyone
But if I ever find
That you’ve changed at anytime
It’s not unusual to find that I’m in love with you

Related Post

STONEWALL JACKSON ASKED TOM T. HALL TO WRITE A PRISON SONG, BUT HALL COULD NOT DO IT BECAUSE HE HAD NEVER ACTUALLY BEEN TO PRISON. Tom T. Hall spent his early career turning out the kind of polished, commercial hits that Nashville publishers lived for. He could write what people expected, but he always felt like a fraud. When Stonewall Jackson approached him requesting a prison song—hoping to capture that rugged, authentic aura Johnny Cash was building—Hall hit a wall. He stared at his notepad, realized he had no genuine experience with a cell, and flatly refused to fake it. He was a songwriter, not an actor, and his pride kept him from writing about a world he didn’t know. His wife, Dixie, cut through the tension with a simple reminder: he had indeed spent a week in a county jail in Kentucky after a traffic violation. That memory was not cinematic or heroic. It was just mundane, quiet, and uncomfortable. It involved bad food, the sound of iron bars, and the slow, agonizing crawl of days where the jailer’s wife suddenly started looking like the most beautiful woman on earth. He stopped writing songs that invented generic situations and started reporting the people and places he actually encountered. The result was his first number one hit, written like a man telling a story across a kitchen table. Stonewall Jackson never got his song, but Hall finally found his own voice in the silence of that jail cell.

Elvis Presley did not go to Hollywood simply because he wanted to be a movie star. He wanted to act. He admired performers such as James Dean and Marlon Brando and hoped that, given the right material, audiences might eventually see him as more than the singer whose voice and movements had turned popular culture upside down.

Long before the private planes, expensive cars and Graceland, Elvis Presley knew what it meant to live with very little. His childhood in Tupelo stayed with him even after fame transformed his life. Money changed what Elvis could afford, but it never completely erased the memory of struggling.

You Missed

Country

A BROKEN CONSOLE GAVE MARTY ROBBINS’ “DON’T WORRY” A SOUND NOBODY COULD RECREATE. SO AN ENGINEER BUILT A DEVICE TO COPY THE MISTAKE — AND FUZZ GUITAR WAS BORN. Grady Martin sat in a Nashville studio with a six-string Danelectro bass, expecting to lay down a standard session. Instead, a transformer inside the recording console gave up the ghost. It sputtered and spat, shredding the signal into a jagged, compressed roar that defied the clean, polished aesthetic of the era. Rather than pulling the plug, Robbins and engineer Glenn Snoddy kept the take. They knew the electricity felt raw, dangerous, and entirely alive. When the record hit the airwaves in 1961, musicians swarmed the booth asking how they had coaxed such a sound from the iron. The truth was far more mundane: it was a mechanical failure that vanished as soon as the broken desk was repaired. Snoddy spent months chasing that phantom resonance, tearing apart circuits and twisting wires in a desperate attempt to capture the lightning he had accidentally bottled during those few minutes of tracking. Eventually, he teamed with Revis Hobbs to manufacture the defect. They built a transistor circuit to replicate the clipping signal, birthing the Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone. What started as a piece of dying equipment in a country studio became the sonic signature of rock and roll. The distortion lived on, divorced from the original machine, lingering in the static of every feedback-heavy solo that followed long after the console was discarded.

Country

BUCK OWENS WAS SO TERRIFIED OF MANHATTAN THAT HE ALMOST TURNED DOWN THE CHANCE TO PLAY THE MOST FAMOUS STAGE IN THE WORLD. By the spring of 1966, Buck Owens was the undisputed king of the airwaves. His records didn’t just top the charts; they defined a new, muscular strain of country music born in the dance halls of Bakersfield. While Nashville was busy adding strings and polishing edges to court pop audiences, Buck stayed true to the biting twang of his Telecaster and the relentless drive of his band, the Buckaroos. He was a force of nature in California, but the thought of carrying that raw sound into the hallowed halls of New York City rattled him to his core. He actually instructed his manager to decline the invitation to Carnegie Hall. He didn’t believe the Manhattan crowd would understand the Bakersfield sound, fearing his music would die in that cavernous, high-brow room. When he finally walked onto that stage on March 25, he didn’t bring a watered-down version of his act. He brought Don Rich on fiddle, Tom Brumley on steel, and a rhythmic precision that had been tempered by thousands of hours of playing roadhouses. They tore through the set with a jagged, high-octane intensity that didn’t require a single edit for the live album. There was no pretense, no apology, and no Nashville smoothing. By the time they finished, the urban elite were left with nothing to do but listen to the honest, unvarnished truth of a working man’s music vibrating off the walls.

Oldies Musics

STONEWALL JACKSON ASKED TOM T. HALL TO WRITE A PRISON SONG, BUT HALL COULD NOT DO IT BECAUSE HE HAD NEVER ACTUALLY BEEN TO PRISON. Tom T. Hall spent his early career turning out the kind of polished, commercial hits that Nashville publishers lived for. He could write what people expected, but he always felt like a fraud. When Stonewall Jackson approached him requesting a prison song—hoping to capture that rugged, authentic aura Johnny Cash was building—Hall hit a wall. He stared at his notepad, realized he had no genuine experience with a cell, and flatly refused to fake it. He was a songwriter, not an actor, and his pride kept him from writing about a world he didn’t know. His wife, Dixie, cut through the tension with a simple reminder: he had indeed spent a week in a county jail in Kentucky after a traffic violation. That memory was not cinematic or heroic. It was just mundane, quiet, and uncomfortable. It involved bad food, the sound of iron bars, and the slow, agonizing crawl of days where the jailer’s wife suddenly started looking like the most beautiful woman on earth. He stopped writing songs that invented generic situations and started reporting the people and places he actually encountered. The result was his first number one hit, written like a man telling a story across a kitchen table. Stonewall Jackson never got his song, but Hall finally found his own voice in the silence of that jail cell.

Country

A KENTUCKY BASEMENT DEMO RECORDED ON A HANDHELD DEVICE BROKE NASHVILLE’S POLISHED MACHINE AND CHANGED COUNTRY RADIO FOREVER. In 1999, the Nashville establishment was drowning in pop-leaning, heavily produced crossover records that kept their distance from the rural grit of Kentucky. When label executives finally arrived at Troy Gentry’s mother’s house, they weren’t looking for a revolution; they were just checking the inventory. Sitting on folding chairs, they held a cheap handheld recorder, capturing the raw, bluegrass-leaning bones of “Hillbilly Shoes.” It was supposed to be a polite audition, but Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry were playing with an intensity that didn’t know how to keep quiet. They didn’t want the polish. They wanted the friction of George Jones rubbed against the serrated edge of Lynyrd Skynyrd. When they hit the studio, they injected electric teeth into those bluegrass skeletons, layering thick rock riffs and sawing fiddles over a rhythm section that hit like a physical force. The song hit Billboard charts two weeks before it was even scheduled for release, effectively forcing the label’s hand and moving the entire release date of their debut album forward. By the time the 2000 CMA Awards rolled around, the industry had no choice but to recognize the shift. The duo snatched the Vocal Duo of the Year title, ending an eight-year dynasty. That trophy was a heavy, cold reminder that authentic, boot-mudded country had finally reclaimed its rightful territory.