If by material, I hope you mean fabric.

...after his performance of Whats New Pussycat, Jones displayed his age-defying appeal by lifting a little girl onto the stage for a picture. About 10 minutes later, he sang Sex Bomb.

Something about that bothers me.

I was skeptical. And I was dragged to see Tom Jones two years ago. And it was awesome. That man has talent. And I dragged someone to see him last year to prove a point. And that point was proven. Sorry for the naysayers. That man has talent.

Could Tom Jones appearing at The Corn Palace have qualified for an 'Ironic' tag?

/plays with matches

I used put him in the catagory of a stylist instead of a songwriter; like a Barbra Streisand with pants. He stylized many major songs writen by others.."What's new pussy cat?"..etc. I used to think being a stylist was less than being a self contained artist. But damn, he's got a set of pipes on him and style that holds up-- we're talking major talent. But; being a stylist his art is being a CEO of his music. Without a gaggle of backup producers, artists, he'd be as entertaining as Barbra Strisand's orginal works; or a Rapper without a DJ. A musical parasite that doesn't create but only adds decorations to others works that do creative musical innovations.

He's the best at knowing who to steal from and putting his own decorations on other's works I'll give him that. I guess that's an art in it's own way.

I just downloaded his "kiss" video.

/I feel sick.

And with that, you have dissed Elvis, Sinatra, Bennett and virtually any classical musician.
No, No, No, being a stylist is good. if you can create your own music; stylising anothers is a tribute.

I didn't say they were not good for what they do. But, they do not create with muscial tools. Mozart knew how to play, Bach could tickel the keys. Opera singers were an exception; they just stylized. Sinatra wrote things too.
Elvis actualy wrote some songs and knew how to play tho.
They create with corporate tools.

New artist play corporations and studios better than their musical instrument.

Pushing all those things together in a corporate sense is an Art. Jones does this well--damn well. I like him, he can take a crap song and make it magic.

His ART is not simply the songs; but acting as a director to make the sounds he wants on stage...he's one of the first 'rap artist'. Borrow from others, get a corporate talent backup: iron fist it...make you look good. Not that their's anything wrong with that. Its an art to it self, like running a CEO.

Joni Mitchell does it well but writes her own stuff, Thomas Dolby does it well and produces his own stuff.
Each does their talent: Joni gets great artist to back her up; tunes each guitar to each songs and actualy plays something and oversees the production. (Kazza "Tax Free, and Dog Eat Dog"). Joni is acting as author throughout the project. Forming it like clay with her gutair and band. Zappa did the same...sheet music for everyone note for note--he wrote it they played it. Joni also does stylized stuff that's fantastic (The Mingus Projet)..
And Crosby Stills Nash and Neil Young made her "Woodstock" much better....she was happy. But like Tom Jones her later stuff wouldn't have sung without Jaco Pastorous on bass.
Jaco made her sound and complimented it.

Classicals go through a ring of fire before anyone pays attention to them...yes, they stylize, and very good too.

The Beatles were innovators in that they self contained, writing, production, distbution.
Madonna was a bit better she contained writing, production and PROMOTION, like the Beatles.

Jeff Beck "led boots" and "pork pie hat"..were stylized, but beck played a instrument and arranged the thing.
Stevei Ray Vaugh; Hendrix, could make the Star Spangled Banner rock; and write their own stuff and make Dylan's Watchtower a classic. No, I'm not dissing the stylists; just the stylists that only do styles of other artists.
It's a compleatly new artform in the from late twencen;
sampling, gettting rights to riffs, recombining, over dubbing old tracks. It's Art IMHO. But it's art in the sense of paint by numbers; there's some good folks doing it, but in pop music (as oppposed to classical) it's a cut and paste. But Hey, Tom Jones does it well and does it best and kids that think their latest sampling holds up to anything need to take a hard listen to TJ. He's got some talent, But if the power went out; Joni Mitchel and Neil Young would eat him alive. (Provided Joni could find which Guitar was tuned to which song in the dark)
Actualy, I take that completly back; Joni playing a piano with Tom Jones singing a jazzy Mingus or Prince song would be fantastic..I can see that, which is why I like Tom Jones despite him being a stylist on stage; he's more than that IMHO, and I'd like to see more of that.

You know you're getting old when it takes you a couple of minutes to figure out what "VS" panties are (yes, it finally dawned on me)...

Say what you want about Tom Jones being an old geezer, but I seriously doubt that ANY of you will pay to see Eminem, 50 Cent, or Snoop Dogg perform when they're in their 60s.