{"id":661813,"date":"2026-05-11T07:46:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T07:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/661813\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T07:46:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T07:46:25","slug":"the-welsh-singer-that-elvis-presley-had-to-meet-to-ask-how-the-hell-do-you-sing-like-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/661813\/","title":{"rendered":"The Welsh Singer That Elvis Presley Had To Meet To Ask: \u201cHow the Hell Do You Sing Like That?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

For someone with as regal a title as the \u201cKing of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll,\u201d Elvis Presley was surprisingly demure when meeting fellow musicians<\/a>. Those who saw him offstage often commented on how complimentary, sensitive, and receptive Presley was, including Welsh singer Tom Jones, who met Presley in the mid-1960s.<\/p>\n

By that time, Jones had only three records to his name: \u201cIt\u2019s Not Unusual\u201d, \u201cWhat\u2019s New Pussycat?\u201d, and \u201cWith These Hands\u201d. Nevertheless, when Jones arrived at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles one fateful day in 1965, Presley made sure to arrange a meeting. \u201cI was knocked sideways,\u201d Jones recalled during an appearance on TFI Friday<\/a>. \u201cGrowing up in the 50s, I was a teenager in the 50s, Elvis, you know, was the one.\u201d<\/p>\n

One can only imagine what was going through Jones\u2019 mind as he prepared to meet his musical idol from childhood, but we\u2019d wager that there were at least a few nervous butterflies fluttering around in his stomach. But if there were any lingering worries when the musicians approached one another, Presley\u2019s actions likely dissipated them.<\/p>\n

Elvis Presley Approached Tom Jones, Singing His Song<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re deep in the throes of feeling starstruck toward someone else, it\u2019s easy to belittle your own value in any interactions you may have with that person. But Tom Jones<\/a> had no time to assume that Elvis Presley was doing him a favor. As the King of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll approached the up-and-coming singer, he was singing Jones\u2019 ballad, \u201cWith These Hands\u201d. Jones said he felt \u201ctremendous\u201d hearing Presley singing his song. \u201cIt was unbelievable. He knew the words.\u201d<\/p>\n

As if that weren\u2019t exciting enough, one of the first things Presley asked Jones when he stopped singing was, \u201cHow the hell do you sing like that?\u201d He recalled while on Des O\u2019Connor Tonight<\/a>. \u201cI said, \u2018Well, coming from you, I mean, that is a compliment because, you know, you were one of the reasons that I do. So, we struck up a friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n

The musicians\u2019 mutual admiration for one another didn\u2019t stop there. During his TFI Friday appearance, Jones confirmed that Presley often used Jones\u2019 record, \u201cDelilah\u201d, to warm up his vocals. Presley believed that if he could sing along with Jones all the way through, then he was primed and ready to go for the stage.<\/p>\n

Presley even went to watch Jones perform in Las Vegas before he would become a Sin City staple himself. \u201cHe came to watch me work and told me, \u2018Look, I\u2019ve come to see you work because I want to see what you do.\u2019 He felt that we were similar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones and Presley\u2019s long-time friendship is a beautiful reminder of the cyclical nature of music, which has often turned starstruck-ness into a two-way street, allowing teachers to become students and vice versa.<\/p>\n

Photo by Liaison<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For someone with as regal a title as the \u201cKing of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll,\u201d Elvis Presley was surprisingly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,15432,75,5474,5475],"class_list":["post-661813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-elvis-presley","tag-entertainment","tag-pop-music","tag-rock-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}