IT'S NOT UNUSUAL

What's most striking about the tale Tom Jones tells of his thoughts of suicide prior to It's Not Unusual hitting the charts is how different it would have been if he'd been trying to make it in 2004 rather than 1964:

He said he was not getting any success in London - but just weeks later he was at the top of the chart with It's Not Unusual.

Tom told Wales on Sunday: "For a split second I thought, 'Aww, f*** it, if I just step to the right it'd be over'.

"I felt so down because I didn't know what to do. That very rarely happens to me.

"I didn't want to go back to Wales without proving myself. I wasn't making any money."

But the singer said thoughts of his young wife Linda and son Mark back in Wales stopped him from killing himself.

He said: "Things flash through your mind. What about your wife? What about your son? What about your mother and father? How would they feel?

"But for that split second - that's as low as I've ever got. Just before It's Not Unusual."

Nowadays, of course, his label would have dropped him ages before he'd have got to record It's Not Unusual. No wonder the underground is always being suspended due to people jumping.

music suicide tom jones