I had not previously seen the Wikipedia story.

Les Reed did write the song with the intention of getting it to Sandie Shaw and actually it would have really suited her, if you think about it.

Anyway, he got Tom Jones to do the demo (Reed's co-writer Gordon Mills managed Tom back then). Even that was unusual (excuse the pun), in that normally, you used a female demo vocalist on song intended for a female singer.

In any event, it has been claimed that it was Sandie Shaw who turned the song down, suggesting that Tom Jones's version was too good to be just another demo.

But again, it is an odd story.

The song went first to Eve Taylor, who was Sandy's manager, and then to Chris Andrews, who was Sandie's songwriter. They were producing Sandie's records at that time, and apart from one release, all he A-side songs during that year were chosen by Eve and written by Chris.

Accordingly, you would wonder if it would have been Sandie who got to turn down a song for her next single?

Perhaps it was and perhaps she had that type of influence back then. Because a few years later, when she recorded her thirteenth and biggest hit "Puppet On A String", she went on to describe it as "a horrible song - sexist drivel with a cuckoo-clock tune"!

Which makes you wonder what she really thought of "It's Not Unusual".

I remember that when Buddy Holly wrote "Love's Made A Fool Of You" for the Everly Brothers, it was claimed that they turned it down because Holly's version was so good, it could not be improved upon.

Later, it was claimed that their then manager turned it down, because he did not own the publishing rights!

Hard to know what to believe sometimes!

• RE: Tom Jones - It's Not Unusual - John 10/17/2014 13:08:31 EDT (0)
• RE: Tom Jones - It's Not Unusual - Bob Mathers 11/08/2014 10:54:59 EST (0)