20th Century Masters

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Grandfather though he may be, Tom Jones still stalks the stages of the world clad in a tuxedo, the very personification of testosterone-fueled cool. Thanks to a career made mostly on the stage, where women continue to pelt him with undergarments, his image is well defined. His recorded legacy is somewhat more diffuse, though, as this set amply proves. There’s torrid main-room Vegas fare such as “It’s Not Unusual,” “Delilah,” and “She’s a Lady,” plus the coy “What’s New Pussycat” and the bombastic Bond theme, “Thunderball.” But Jones also scored, somewhat surprisingly, with country-flavored material such as “Green, Green Grass of Home” and “Detroit City.” Like the other 20th Century Masters sets, this one is inferior to a previously existing greatest-hits package–in Jones’s case, the 1998 Best of Tom Jones. Compared to that more generous collection, there’s not enough here to get your panties in a bunch, much less make you want to wing them at Mr. Jones. –Daniel Durchholz

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