Singer Tom Jones recently revealed that back in 1970 when Elvis Presley heard that Paul McCartney had taken Ringo Starr, George Harrison and John Lennon to court to dissolve the Beatles, the king of Rock’n’Roll tried to recruit the famous four to be his Vegas backing group.
As crazy and as bizarre as that sounds, Sir Tom confirmed this news this to popular podcaster Marc Maron.
In 1970, Jones and Presley had also residences in Las Vegas. Jones recalled Presley approaching him to seek clarification surrounding the shock news of the Beatles dissolving.
“Is that right?” – Elvis asked Jones
“Elvis says to me, ‘Is that right? The Beatles have split up?”, Jones began. “I said, ‘Yeah’. And he said, ‘Wow, what a shame.’ I said, ‘Yeah, they’ve done some great music”.
Jones continued, “He (Elvis) said, ‘Oh no, I’m not talking about that… I thought it would be great if we had them as our backing band. Wouldn’t it be great to do a show and have The Beatles play for us, you do some of your songs, I do some of my songs”.
Jones also added, “And I said, ‘I don’t know whether that would happen, even if they were still together”.
“You could only get away with that if you were Elvis Presley”, Jones remarked.
The Beatles and Presley met once in Beverley Hills in 1965 and they were reportedly fans of each other’s music.
“We’re gonna put a record out”
Jones also revealed on this podcast that Eric Clapton could have joined his backing band if Cream did not take off so quickly.
“In London, the ’60s, you knew you were in the middle of it”, Jones told Marc Maron. “When The Beatles kicked the door down we thought, ‘We’re in it, right there, with hit records”.
Jones also added, “We’d hang out in different clubs all together. Eric Clapton, I remember talking to him outside a club, and he said, ‘Look, I’ve put this band together and we’re gonna put a record out, Cream. The first one didn’t make it, if the second one don’t, I’ll play guitar for you. I said, ‘Sure”.
Tom Jones recently released an album of music covers. The album is called “Surrounded By Time”. The album also includes Malvina Reynold’s “No Hole In My Head”. Jones gave an exclusive performance on the Late Late Show last week, singing Bob Dylan’s “One More Cup of Coffee”.
