Fact #140636
When:
Short story:
Tom Jones meets Elvis Presley on the set of the movie Paradise, Hawaiian Style, in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.Full article:
Tom Jones : I was at Paramount Studios and they told me Elvis was there and wanted to meet me. I said, 'Jesus Christ, Elvis!'. It was my first big year. I didn't think he'd even heard of me.
They took me to a closed set where he was filming in a mock helicopter, singing to a little girl. He looks out of the helicopter at me and sort of moves his hand. One of his guys, Joe Esposito, says to me, 'Elvis is waving at you. Why don't you wave back?' So I sheepishly wave back.
Then he starts walking over to me. I had a single out at the time, With These Hands, and as he was walking over to me he was singing it. I mean, he was doing it - the hands, everything. As he gets nearer, he is singing the song and pointing at me and he says, 'It's a great song.' And I mumble, 'Oh, thanks.'
He said, 'Man, how'd you learn to sing like that?' And I said, 'It's your fault. I was influenced by you.'
(Source : not known)
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Tom Jones : I went to Paramount studios in Hollywood to talk about a song for a movie, and they said 'Elvis is here today filming and he would like to meet you'. So I though, my God, I didn't know that he knew that I existed, because I had three singles out and one album at the time. And that was 'It's Not Unusual', 'What's New Pussycat' and a ballad called 'With These Hands'. When I go on the set where Elvis was filming, he walked towards me and singing 'With These Hands', which was my record. I couldn't believe it.
It was like a dream, that Elvis Presley was singing my song, you know, to me!
We had a picture taken, and he said to me, 'How the hell do you sing like that'?
And I said, 'Well, you are partly to blame, you know, listening to your records in the 50s'.
He said, 'What's it like in Wales then? You come from Wales?' I said 'Yeah'. And he said, 'Do all people sing like that in Wales?' I said, 'Well, not exactly', but I said, 'Welsh people have strong voices, that is where I get my strength from. My volume is where I come from'. But, I said, 'I was influenced more by American music than I was Welsh traditional music'. So I said, 'It's a combination. I have a Welsh voice, but because of American music influencing me so much, I am sounding like I do'. Because they thought I was black, you know.
When they first started playing my records in America, they thought I was black. And so did Elvis Presley.
He said, 'When I heard 'What's New Pussycat', I thought it was a black fella singing it'.
Which was strange for him to say because they thought he was black when he started.
We became friends from that day on, and that was in 1965. We were friends until just before he died. We worked Vegas a lot together, at the same time. He came to see me at The Flamingo in '68, because he said he wanted to make a comeback, live, because he hadn't sung live for years.
He wanted to sing in Las Vegas, so he felt that I was the closest thing to him; I had a similar approach. My stage presence, he felt, was very similar to his. So he said to me, 'You were very successful in Vegas, I want to watch you, I want to see what you do'. And then it gave him more confidence to make a comeback.
'I think he was the only person I've spoken to that felt the same way about music as myself, as far as versatility is concerned. Because he loved ballads as well as rock 'n' roll, he loved Gospel, he loved pop. And we would sit in the suite and talk about music… and we would sing, mostly jam…
(Source : https://www.elvispresleyphotos.com/elvis-presley-tom-jones.html)
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They took me to a closed set where he was filming in a mock helicopter, singing to a little girl. He looks out of the helicopter at me and sort of moves his hand. One of his guys, Joe Esposito, says to me, 'Elvis is waving at you. Why don't you wave back?' So I sheepishly wave back.
Then he starts walking over to me. I had a single out at the time, With These Hands, and as he was walking over to me he was singing it. I mean, he was doing it - the hands, everything. As he gets nearer, he is singing the song and pointing at me and he says, 'It's a great song.' And I mumble, 'Oh, thanks.'
He said, 'Man, how'd you learn to sing like that?' And I said, 'It's your fault. I was influenced by you.'
(Source : not known)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Jones : I went to Paramount studios in Hollywood to talk about a song for a movie, and they said 'Elvis is here today filming and he would like to meet you'. So I though, my God, I didn't know that he knew that I existed, because I had three singles out and one album at the time. And that was 'It's Not Unusual', 'What's New Pussycat' and a ballad called 'With These Hands'. When I go on the set where Elvis was filming, he walked towards me and singing 'With These Hands', which was my record. I couldn't believe it.
It was like a dream, that Elvis Presley was singing my song, you know, to me!
We had a picture taken, and he said to me, 'How the hell do you sing like that'?
And I said, 'Well, you are partly to blame, you know, listening to your records in the 50s'.
He said, 'What's it like in Wales then? You come from Wales?' I said 'Yeah'. And he said, 'Do all people sing like that in Wales?' I said, 'Well, not exactly', but I said, 'Welsh people have strong voices, that is where I get my strength from. My volume is where I come from'. But, I said, 'I was influenced more by American music than I was Welsh traditional music'. So I said, 'It's a combination. I have a Welsh voice, but because of American music influencing me so much, I am sounding like I do'. Because they thought I was black, you know.
When they first started playing my records in America, they thought I was black. And so did Elvis Presley.
He said, 'When I heard 'What's New Pussycat', I thought it was a black fella singing it'.
Which was strange for him to say because they thought he was black when he started.
We became friends from that day on, and that was in 1965. We were friends until just before he died. We worked Vegas a lot together, at the same time. He came to see me at The Flamingo in '68, because he said he wanted to make a comeback, live, because he hadn't sung live for years.
He wanted to sing in Las Vegas, so he felt that I was the closest thing to him; I had a similar approach. My stage presence, he felt, was very similar to his. So he said to me, 'You were very successful in Vegas, I want to watch you, I want to see what you do'. And then it gave him more confidence to make a comeback.
'I think he was the only person I've spoken to that felt the same way about music as myself, as far as versatility is concerned. Because he loved ballads as well as rock 'n' roll, he loved Gospel, he loved pop. And we would sit in the suite and talk about music… and we would sing, mostly jam…
(Source : https://www.elvispresleyphotos.com/elvis-presley-tom-jones.html)