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Video: Tom Jones And The Squires performing No Matter What I Say, in 1964.

Born Thomas John Woodward on 7 June 1940, Tom began singing at an early age. It wasn't unusual in the valleys towns of South Wales.

But the boy was clearly something special: he'd regularly sing at family gatherings, weddings and his mother's Women's Guild meetings.

He also sang in his school choir, although it's said he was once told off for drowning out the rest of them as they sang Men Of Harlech in school assembly.

By the late 1950s Tom had become entranced by the new rock 'n' roll sounds coming from the radio. In his teens he was becoming something of a tearaway, missing school, drinking and chasing girls.

Read the full Tom Jones biography.