Song 122 - Mama told me not to come - Tom Jones & Stereophonics

Happy St. David's Day, I don't know whether there are any Welsh readers of the blog, but there are plenty of famous singers from Wales and I have chosen a song which is a duet between one of the most famous Welsh Singers of all time, Tom Jones and one of my favourite band Stereophonics (who are also Welsh).

They recorded Mama told me not to come for Tom Jones's 1999 Reload Album; which is an amazing album of duets Tom Jones recorded with 15 different artists to relaunch his career for the millennium. Mama told me not to come was the third single released from the album in March 2000 and reached number 4 in the chart. The album has sold over 1.2 million copies since it was released.

The song was originally written by Randy Newman for Eric Burdon. Burdon, the lead singer from the Animals, never went ahead with the planned release in 1966, but the song was released on an Animals' album in 1967.  The song would then be covered by Three Dog Night, who topped the US pop chart in 1970 with it. Newman would also release his own version of the song; which is far more mellow than the duet on Reload. 

For Newman the story behind the song was a young gentleman experiencing his first wild party in Los Angeles music scene in the 1960s; and the narrator is rather shocked from the experience. I wish I could say that as a country lass coming to the bright lights of Edinburgh to study turned me into a party girl but I have always been up for a good party.

Although we are moving away from the Oscars now that we are in March, I cannot leave this song without recognising the immense talent of Randy Newman,  especially when it comes to films. Newman has received 20 Academy Award nominations in the Best Original Score and Best Original Song categories and has won twice in the latter category, with the songs If I didn't have you from Monsters' Ink and We belong together from Toy Story 3. He has also won three Emmys, six Grammy Awards. He is in the Songwriters Hall of Fame and was named as a Disney Legend in 2007. See you thought this was a random blog with random songs!

As I am feeling generous - I will leave you with all four versions of the song and let you decide which you prefer, for me, it will always be the one that Tom Jones and Stereophonics recorded but maybe I am biased to the version I know the best. Have fun celebrating St. David's Day.

Three Dog Nights sing Mama told me not to come
Eric Burdon and Animals sing Mama told me not to come
Randy Newman's Mama told me not to come
Tom Jones and Stereophonics' Mama told me not to come