Tom Jones Reloads with Wylcef : Rolling Stone

Tom Jones's Reloaded: Greatest Hits compilation features the Welsh singer paired with the likes of the Cardigans, Stereophonics, Van Morrison and Portishead on cuts spanning his forty-year career, as well as a pair of new tracks he recorded last year with Wyclef Jean.

"'Tom Jones International' was his idea," says Jones of the track that he and Wyclef penned together. "He said 'We should do a song about you,' which had never been done before. It's what I open with on stage now. It comes to life when I do it live."

The other collaboration Jones and Jean do is a take on Leadbelly's "Black Betty." Jones has been a fan of Jean's since the latter's days in the Fugees. "When I heard what he'd done with 'Killing Me Softly,'" Jones says, "I thought he might be the man for the job. He'd stripped down a classic, made it a simpler recording and brought it more to life. He's got a wide take on music. He likes a wide variety of stuff. He's not just a hip-hop producer."

While Jones and Wyclef prepared for their recordings by hitting a series of London clubs, a duet with Van Morrison on Morrison's "Sometimes We Cry" was more hard won.

"If you're doing something Van understands and likes, he's great," Jones says. "And if the musicians are playing the way he wants them to play, he's great. But if there's a fly in the ointment he just walks away. He didn't like the drummer on the session so he said, 'I want you to change places with the percussionist.' So the drummer changed places with the percussionist and the percussionist played drums, and Van didn't like him either. Instead of trying to explain to these drummers what he did want, he walked out of the studio."

Jones continues, "I said to the guy that handles him, 'What now? What are we going to do now?' He said, 'Van doesn't like these drummers, so we have to send to London for a drummer he knows and then we'll have another go at it.' The session was at Van's studio in Bath, so we had to wait about four or five hours to get this drummer from London. But once Van heard him play and it gelled, he was good as gold."

Reloaded: Greatest Hits track listing:

It's Not Unusual (Wise Guy Remix)
Sexbomb (Peppermint Jam/Mousse T Remix)
What's New Pussycat?
Delilah
Kiss (with Art of Noise)
She's a Lady
Mama Told Me (Not To Come) (with the Stereophonics)
Tom Jones International
Thunderball
Baby, It's Cold Outside (with Cerys Matthews of Catatonia)
Black Betty
If I Only Knew
Green, Green Grass of Home
Sometimes We Cry (with Van Morrison)
Without Love (There Is Nothing)
Motherless Child (with Portishead)
With These Hands
Help Yourself
Burning Down the House (with the Cardigans)