We have to admit it. When you consider great Welsh entertainers most people in the - ah - "Colonies" - think that they're English. That includes not just actors from Cymru like Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins, and Catherine Zeta-Jones, but also great singers like Dame Shirley Bassey and, yes, Sir Thomas Jones Woodward.

Of course, the problem is those who live across the water aren't always clear on the technical terms. "English" is not the same as "British, and "Great Britain" is not the same as "England". And neither is the same as the United Kingdom.

"Great Britain" is the island that contains the countries of England, Scotland, and Wales. So Tom, being Welsh, is British.

Being British, Tom is also from the United Kingdom which is a constitutional monarchy composed of the countries of Great Britain plus Northern Ireland. In fact the official name of the United Kingdom is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The famous Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey and the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea are what are known as Crown Dependencies and are not officially part of the UK. Which is a good thing because a name like the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, and Man would be a bit much to put on official documents.

But what really threw some of Tom's non-Albion friends for years (or decades) is they thought he was an American. That was because like other rock and roll stars of the English Invasion during the Swinging Sixties, Tom sang with an American accent.

But it's not just rock singers of Great Britain. There's even some Swedish singers that "sing like an American", for crying out loud! So what the devil (as the "British" would say) is going on?

Far from being a trivial topic, the American Accent Syndrome has even been studied by scholars. Out of their efforts there have arisen two basic theories. And like many conflicting scientific theories, neither is entirely exclusive of the other.

The first idea is that the Sing-Like-An-American phenomenon showed up in the 1950's when British teenagers began listening to American (ugh) rock and roll. So the likes of Cliff Richard, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and Mick Jagger began deliberately singing with American accents.

The other idea is that singing like an American is a natural effect of pronouncing the lyrics of pop songs. The singing puts constraints on the manner in which the sounds are produced. This "neutralizes" the vowels and produces the American "rhotic" r. So the words tend to come out sounding like American.

However, the natural phonemical phenomenon theory still leaves questions. After all, there were popular songs sung well before the 1950's. If you listen to recordings from the 19th century, whether Gilbert and Sullivan or music hall songs (like "Where Did You Get That Hat?") clearly they're being sung by natives of the UK. Peter Noone - "Herman" of Herman's Hermits - pointed out that almost exclusively of the Sixties Singers he sang in his native British. So the dialect of the song was something the singer could choose or not. After all, the great George Formby did not, that's NOT! NOT! NOT! sound like an American.

Tom was born in 1940 in Treforest, a small town about ten miles northwest of Cardiff. Those who remember the Paul Robeson film Proud Valley will immediately associate Wales - particularly South Wales - with coal mining.

And yes, Tom's dad was a coal miner. But with Tom's strong baritone voice it was almost inevitable that he would opt for singing rather than mining. And yes, the dropping of his last name was in part inspired by the 1963 movie Tom Jones.

Tom started off singing in the smaller clubs in Wales. But like many soon-to-be-famous singers he was "discovered" by a manager who was able to land him better venues and a recording contract.

Tom's first hit was in 1965 with "It's Not Unusual" which reached #1 on the UK charts. Of course, it really wasn't unusual that an early recording of a new singer became a hit. But what was unusual was Tom just didn't look or sing like your typical rock and roller. Instead he looked like someone that adults would like with maybe a hint of Al Martino and - dare we say it - a bit of Frankie. Like the dilemma with Bobby Darin, the question was whether Tom was a singer for teenagers that their parents also listened to. Or was he a crooner for the grown-ups that sang songs that the kids liked?

And although the next year Tom had another hit with "What's New, Pussycat?" - which the kids liked - his next #1 hit was a song first recorded by - get this - Porter Wagoner. That was "Green Green Grass of Home". This was a song with a decidedly serious theme and put Tom firmly into the "grown-up" genre. By then the kids were listening to songs like "Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles, "Last Train to Clarksville" by the Monkees, "California Dreaming" by the Mamas and the Papas, and "96 Tears" by ? and the Mysterians.

Like Cliff Richard, Tommy Steele, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Elton John, Mick Jagger (!), and Rod Stewart (!!) , Tom was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his services to music. He received his knighthood in 2006.

We have to admit it and say that the Welsh are often the recipients of some rather puerile jokes. When Stephen Fry hosted the BBC panel comedy show Qi, Rob Brydon - who grew up in Cardiff - mentioned his father grew up on the same street as Anthony Hopkins.

Stephen replied, "In England we live in houses."

Tom has not only continued to record hits for well over half a century, but he has the distinction of being the most senior performer to have a #1 album on the UK charts. In 2021 at age 80, Tom reached #1 with Surrounded By Time. So he beat the last candidate for Most Senior #1 Singer, Bob Dylan, who had achieved the distinction only the year before at a youthful 79. THAT was unusual.

References and Further Reading

Tom Jones: The Biography, Robin Eggar, Headline Book Publishing, 2000.

"Why Do British Singers Sound American? Blame the Beatles", L. V. Anderson, Slate, November 19, 2012.

"Why Non-American English Speakers Sing In An American English Accent", Huffington Post, Amber Genuske, February 2, 2012.

"Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits Talks About the Nostalgia of His Music Ahead of His Richmond show," Hays David, Richmond Times-Dispatch, July 20, 2016.

"Tom Jones questioned 'Do I have to change my ways?' on getting knighthood from Queen", Andrea Tonks, The Express, June 9, 2021.

"Tom Jones's 20 Greatest Songs", Michael Hann, The Guardian, June 4, 2020.

"Fire and Freezing", QI, Stephen Fry (actor), Alan Davies, Clive Anderson (actor), Rob Brydon (actor), Dom Joly (actor), Ian Lorimer (director), BBC, December 22, 2008.