NBA Quiz: 1) Name the top five scorers on the 1998-99 San
Antonio Spurs, who defeated New York for the title. 2) Name
the four to average double figures for the 1992-93 Chicago
Bulls’ squad that defeated Phoenix for the title. [This was their
third in a row.] 3) Name the five to average double figures for
the 1989-90 Detroit Pistons’ team that beat Portland for the
championship. [Detroit’s second in a row.] Answers below.
The One and Only
LT and I saw Tom Jones on Friday night. Man, he still has it and
his voice can hit virtually every note he did in his prime, now
about 40 years ago. Tom Jones will be 66 this coming June and
his success is one of the more unusual stories in the history of the
music business.
Born Thomas Jones Woodward in rural Wales, Tom’s father was
a coal-miner. They were poor, the house had no bath and it
wasn’t too difficult to see that young Tom would evolve into
somewhat of a juvenile delinquent.
After finishing up his schooling at the age of 16 (common in
Britain), Tom got married right away and in order to support his
family took a job as a builder’s laborer (and later glove cutter)
while singing in pubs at night. His professional debut, so to
speak, was in 1957 at the Treforest Non-Political Working Men’s
Club. It would be fair to say he didn’t burst into stardom at that
point.
Jones loved Wales and was content to play local gigs. In 1963,
he formed his first band, Tommy Scott & the Senators. Soon
after Tom was discovered by Gordon Mills, a former rock singer
who had decided to concentrate on songwriting and managing.
Tom signed with Mills and the latter convinced Tom to adopt the
Tom Jones moniker (allegedly picking up the name not from his
real, formal one, but rather from the title of the film that had just
hit the theatres).
Jones and Mills went to London and initially had zero success.
Back then the record companies were focusing on the male
groups that were rocking the scene and Jones’s act and booming
voice were seen as appealing to an older audience.
Meanwhile, Mills had penned a song, “It”s Not Unusual,” which
he was saving for a female performer. Jones wanted to record it
himself and got his chance when the girl turned it down. That
was March 1965 and the tune hit #1 in the U.K., branding him as
a top male singer in the group dominated scene. “It”s Not
Unusual” hit #10 in the U.S. Ironically, many DJs who played it
“blind” thought Jones was black…so the song did well on the
R&B charts as well.
The next year was a total blur, as it so often was for stars back
then. And wouldn’t you all have loved to be sitting in Wembley
Stadium back in April of ‘65, watching a bill which featured not
only Tom Jones, but the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the
Animals. That would have been awesome. [And it’s too bad it
wasn’t filmed, as far as I know.]
Also in April, Jones recorded “What”s New Pussycat” with Burt
Bacharach and the song soared to #3 in the U.S.
May 2, Jones appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” for the first
time, again with the Stones. About five weeks later, Sullivan
invited Jones back. Then he began a one-week stint at New
York’s Paramount Theatre. Jones was hot.
Also that month, Tom recorded another Bacharach tune,
“Promise Her Anything,” for the Leslie Caron film of the same
title. I only bring this up because it’s one of my favorite Jones
songs yet it didn’t hit the Top 40.
By December, Jones was back doing Sullivan and preparing for
the premiere of the James Bond flick, “Thunderball,” for which
Tom sang the title song. And, completing the whirlwind 12
months, Jones captured the Grammy for Best New Artist of
1965.
Soon after, Jones toured Australia with Herman’s Hermits. As
the stint ended, he checked himself into a hospital, ostensibly to
have his tonsils removed, but rumor had it that he was really
getting a nose job.
And just a few more highlights, as I realize I’m giving you more
than you probably ever wanted to know about the Welshman.
In June 1966, he crashed his Jaguar in London, suffering 14
stitches to the forehead. Then in 1967, “Green, Green Grass of
Home” (which peaked at #11 in the U.S.) became the best-selling
single of his career. This was followed in 1968 by “Delilah”
(#15), a song which was to become a leading number for Jones’
impressionists.
By February 1969, Jones was starting a 2-year run at ABC where
his “This is Tom Jones” was a big hit. Because of this
experience, he decided to spend more and more of his time in
Las Vegas where he made a fortune with his act.
[In 1997, Business Age magazine ranked Jones as the 3rd
wealthiest rock star in the U.K. with a net worth of $460 million,
trailing David Bowie ($917 million) and Paul McCartney ($868
million).]
February 1970 produced the #5 hit, “Without Love.” And one
year later “She”s A Lady” (#2) became his last Top 10 song in
America. Jones’s career then took a dive.
But after recording some mildly successful country tunes, Jones
finally had another international hit when he recorded Prince’s
“Kiss” in the fall of 1988. “Kiss” hit #5 in the U.K. and #31 in
the U.S. It was the return of Tom Jones mania and in certain
respects, it hasn’t left us since. Heck, who can forget his
serenading of Marge on “The Simpsons” back in 1992?!
But right about now, you may be saying to yourself, what about
Jones’s interaction with his female fans? Glad you had that
thought. My friend HK passed along an article written by the
National Post’s (Canada) Mark Steyn. Steyn is brilliantly funny
and he had these thoughts on Jones hitting 60 in 2000.
“Now he’s hotter than ever. Recently, there’ve been hit songs
about Tom Jones fans, and films, and novels – one with a heroine
called Delilah. And, speaking of Delilah, at the Wales / Scotland
rugby international in March the Band of the Royal Welsh
Regiment played it and the crowd enthusiastically sang along –
50,000 beery rugger boyos bawling the all-time great anthem of
male violence. ‘I felt the knife in my hand,’ they roared in
unison, ‘and she laughed no more.’” [Boys will be boys.]
Amazingly, Jones is still married to his first wife. Of course, it’s
a different kind of relationship. All kinds of paternity suits have
been filed against Tom, most successful. And women still throw
their panties at him on stage, many of them gaining a backstage
pass afterwards, if you catch my drift. [Yes, I saw this on Friday,
too. Not the backstage pass deal, but the former.]
And I loved what Steyn had to say about Tom’s singing style.
“He still sings all the kitsch but he mixes it with newer things,
and he sings them all the same – loud. He could never have been
a British Sinatra (the original hope), but he was a belated British
answer to Frankie Laine and the other booming balladeers of the
early Fifties rather than the white soul boy he’d like to be taken
for. That’s why what works best for Tom is big open-voweled
bombast:”
“Whaaaaah, whaaaaah, whaaaaaah, Delilah?”
“What”s New, Pussycat? Whoa-o-o-o-o-oah!”
“Why can’t this crazy love be miiiiine? Whoa-o-o-oh-oh-oah!”
Tom Jones…the one-night stands, the three-way romps…the
paternity suits…the hits…still loved. And to this scribe, he’s as
good as ever.
[Sources: “VH1: Rock Stars Encyclopedia,” “Irwin Stambler’s
Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock and Soul,” “The Rolling Stone
Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll.”]
Stuff
–I feel sorry for Sheryl Crow. Lance Armstrong’s a total
dirtball. And he used steroids at least one of the years in winning
the Tour…at least that’s my opinion.
–Johnny Mac and I agree. This Michelle Kwan overkill is
absurd. Johnny also offered that the two-man luge is the
Olympic equivalent of Brokeback Mountain.
–Yes, The Great One, Wayne Gretzky, has taken quite a hit.
Looks like I was right in doubting his story. As the Daily News’
Mike Lupica put it, “We still need to know what he knew, when
he knew it.”
“Right away you hear about this story and think, the wife was
betting for The Great Gretzky! It makes the story even sexier
until you think about it a little bit. But (Rick) Tocchet is
Gretzky’s assistant coach. They are together at practices, at
games, in the locker room, in the hotel bar, on a hundred plane
rides a year. Why would he have his wife call the guy with a bet
if the guy is sitting right next to him?
“We hear that Janet Jones bet at least $100,000 with Tocchet
over the past six weeks. We hear that there has been $1.7 million
bet with this little ring of Tocchet’s – who must have taken more
hits to the head than even hockey people could have imagined if
he thought he wouldn’t get caught and blow his hockey career
and good name – over the same six-week period we are talking
about with Gretzky’s wife, a thousand bets in all. Did Tocchet
himself take all this action, all 1,000 bets? That stretches out the
imagination as much as Wayne Gretzky’s name being anywhere
near a story like this, after an impeccable public life.”
The Daily News’ Thomas Zambito adds that Tocchet’s name
surfaced “more than a year ago in a federal investigation into a
gambling ring headed by 81-year-old Genovese crime family
member Lawrence (Little Larry) Dentico.”
This particular ring took in $5 million in action before it was
broken up.
Meanwhile, while Gretzky is at the Olympics as part of the
Canadian team, wife Janet says “At no time did I ever place a
wager on my husband’s behalf, period.”
There’s a big problem with this whole case, though. While
hockey players are prohibited from making NHL wagers, legal
(as in Vegas) or otherwise, there are no rules that forbid them
from placing legal bets on other sports. It’s the whole organized
crime angle that is easily the most troubling here. Otherwise, it’s
a relatively minor deal I imagine.
But you know who I was thinking of the other day? Amy
Mickelson, Phil’s wife. There have been stories for years that
she is a far worse gambler than even Phil is…and there’s no
denying Lefty’s own penchant for big wagers.
–As I noted in the other column I do for this site, this whole
Busta Rhymes deal with his bodyguard is absolutely sickening.
Israel Ramirez was gunned down a week ago with tons of
witnesses at one of Rhymes’s video shoots and as yet no one has
come forward. Police suspect a member of rapper 50 Cent’s G-
Unit crew had a feud with Rhymes’s producer Swizz Beats and
Ramirez got caught in the middle. The New York Post
editorialized:
“Rhymes reportedly helped pay for Ramirez’s funeral…
“All well and good – but it doesn’t speak to the needs of
justice…
“Ramirez’s sons should be able to know that the person
responsible for taking their father’s life has been put someplace
where he can’t unleash more mayhem on innocent, hard-working
people.
“Shelling out some dead presidents may salve Busta’s
conscience, but he can show the Ramirez boys something of far
greater value – how a man acts responsibly.
“Busta can tell the cops what he knows – and help them bring in
Israel Ramirez’s killer.”
Of course that’s not how the rap community works. Why we
have let this whole subset of our society get so out of hand I’ll
never know. Guys like Bill Cosby are lonely souls crying in the
wind when it comes to addressing the problem. I knew a kid
from Newark, Omar H., who was gunned down a few years ago
for his jewelry. They forced him to the ground and shot him in
the back of the head. I talked to a friend of the family the other
day and no one was ever arrested after all these years. And you
just know that if you saw the gang responsible for the killing
today and asked them about it, they’d simply laugh.
And I wonder how Bono feels now, knowing he was doing that
duet at the Grammys with Mary J. Blige…who was a witness to
Ramirez’s murder.
By the way, at Ramirez’s wake, the New York Police
Department had sharpshooters positioned all over the place.
–I don’t know why, but I used to like Charles Barkley. I met
him ages ago at a bar in Scottsdale and carried on a decent
conversation with him for a while. But he has said some
incredibly stupid things over the years and just about the worst
was the other day when he was interviewing New Orleans /
Oklahoma City rookie Chris Paul and said Oklahoma “is no
place for black people.” Then he asked Paul, “Do you have cows
and chickens in your yard?”
As the New York Post’s Peter Vecsey reported:
“All races of Oklahomans, from politicians to Hornets fans to
journalists replied angrily to Barkley’s ill-bred insensitivity.
Governor Brad Henry, who is white, offered, ‘Obviously, he
doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Anyone who follows
Barkley knows he’s notorious for saying ridiculous things that
have no basis in fact, and this case is a perfect example.’”
But Hornets coach Byron Scott said, “That’s just Charles being
Charles, trying to be funny.”
Vecsey:
“Anybody but Sir Charlatan would’ve been fired long ago for
ceaselessly contaminating the airwaves with his racist comments
and warped perspective.
“What saves him, the reason he’s given a free pass by TNT and
indulged by the likes of Bob Costas and the preponderance of the
kowtowing Caucasian media, the reason Barkley is blissfully
invited into their living rooms and the volume turned up, it says
here, is his celebrated lack of common sense and unruly urge to
act the fool.”
–Ah yes, always good to see figure skating commentator Dick
Button at the Olympics. Geez, he looks terrific for 76! We
almost lost Dick a few years back when he was skating on a
pond, fell, and banged his head, suffering a serious brain injury.
But as a story in USA Today reminded me, Button is best known
for a line at the 1988 Games, in describing a pair of ice dancers.
“That was an ANGRY tango!”
–Congratulations to Steve Fossett, 61, for another amazing feat
of human endurance. Fossett completed the longest non-stop
flight in aviation history…76 hours and 26,389 miles…with his
adventure in an experimental craft. Among his many other
accomplishments is the solo balloon ride around the globe.
Fossett survived this time by living on milkshakes and taking 10
minute power naps.
–Just a few notes on the college basketball scene. [As I was
telling Johnny Mac the other day…I’m really struggling to keep
up the interest level, now that my alma mater is out of it.]
Did you see where St. Joe’s, a mere 10-11, almost defeated #8
George Washington, losing 64-62? What’s so remarkable is that
St. Joe’s was 1 for 21 from 3-point range. 1 for 21!! Hell, GW
was only 4 for 15…so the two combined for 5 of 36 from
downtown. You talk about your basic brickfest. Actually, St.
Joe’s was a sterling 24 of 34 from two-point range.
And I have to make note of Pitt’s win the other night over West
Virginia in a battle between highly rated squads. Pitt held WVU
star Kevin Pittsnogle scoreless. Pittsnogle, who just became a
father, was 0 for 12 from the field. Yup, no sleep. Which is why
here at Bar Chat we recommend that all college hoops stars wait
until they’re out of school before having children.
[To give him his due, Pittsnogle did recover to score 25 vs.
Georgetown in the Mountaineers’ win on Sunday.]
–Colin Montgomerie’s divorce settlement cost him an estimated
$26.4 million, half his fortune, according to GolfWeek. You see,
sports fans, being a jerk always catches up with you in the end.
–I missed this one when it happened, but at the FBR Open in
Scottsdale two weeks ago, John Daly called in sick for the
Wednesday pro-am, shot a 74 in the opening round, had a 40 on
the front nine, Friday, and then without telling anyone, walked
off the course and into his car. You so much want to love this
guy, but what an a-hole. In fact, I’m throwing his name into the
folder for “Jerk of the Year.”
–For those of you who followed the play of J.B. Holmes at the
FBR, here’s what’s in his bag.
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x. Driver: Cobra 454 Comp, 7.5 degrees. 3-
wood: Cobra X Speed, 15 degrees. Hybrid club: Cobra Baffler,
23 degrees. Irons (3-PW): Titleist 695 CB. Wedges: Titleist
Vokey and Titleist Vokey Spin Mill. Putter: Scotty Cameron by
Titleist Circa 62. [And Cobra is already taking advantage of
Holmes’s huge drives and fairway woods by running a great
series of commercials.]
–Geezuz, the PGA stop at Pebble Beach this weekend was
dullsville. And how about that celebrity lineup on Saturday?
Eric Close of “Without a Trace” and Thomas Gibson of
“Criminal Minds.” Not exactly Jack Lemmon and Clint
Eastwood, let alone Hope and Crosby. Johnny Mac added that
it’s amazing how we just don’t have any funny people around.
Then again, J. Mac’s idea of bringing in some rap stars so their
posses could shoot each other up on the course would certainly
add to the excitement. Pebble provides a beautiful backdrop,
after all.
–Peter Benchley, RIP. Without “Jaws,” I may have actually
stepped foot in the ocean again. But he changed my life and that
of hundreds of millions forever. The nightmares…waking up in
a cold sweat. Thanks, Mr. Benchley.
–Jeff MacGregor did a story on Don King for Sports Illustrated
and while the piece was about a Friar’s Roast for King, and what
a disaster it was (just a crude, vulgar ‘celebration’ of King’s life
by pitiful comedians and Donald Trump), MacGregor did have
an interesting observation on boxer Joe Frazier, “who deserved
more affection and respect than we ever gave him.” So true, and
I’m as guilty as anyone because I was, and remain, a big time Ali
fan and we all forgave Ali for his brutal treatment of Frazier.
Yes, Joe Frazier deserved to be treated as an American hero, too.
–Bob Barker is trying to get the Los Angeles Zoo to squelch
plans for a new $19 million elephant exhibit. The zoo only has
three elephants left, two of them old and ill, and the famous
animal rights activist has a good point on this one. Barker wants
them put in a sanctuary, like the one in Tennessee I’ve written of.
Geezuz, if enough of ‘em congregate there, though, who knows
what kind of rebellion they could lead, especially now that their
work in “Lord of the Rings” is long over.
–Missouri basketball coach Quinn Snyder quit after compiling a
126-91 record there. He was making about a $1 million a year.
[I apologize for this gratuitous comment that really has nothing
to do with the story.] The ex-Dookie always gave me the creeps
because of how much time he obviously spent on his hair. I’m
also having a nightmare, however, that he could somehow end up
at Wake Forest, replacing the disgraced Skip Prosser. But Dick
Vitale, who never met a coach, at any level, he didn’t like, says
Snyder deserved better. Hey, anyone that recruited dirtball
Ricky Clemons deserves to be fired…that’s my bottom line.
–It is pretty funny that in acquiring, in essence, sportscaster Al
Michaels from ABC, NBC in turn had to give up the rights to
“Oswald the Lucky Rabbit,” a Disney character from the 1920s,
among other goodies. Michaels will now do NBC’s new Sunday
night football games.
–Former NFL lineman Roy Simmons, who played with the
Giants and Redskins in the late 1970s / early 80s, is openly gay
and HIV positive. But Simmons has now hired celebrity lawyer
Gloria Allred because he is upset he wasn’t granted access to the
media center at the Super Bowl like some other ex-football
players.
Give me a break. First off, he evidently requested media
credentials just three days before the game and why should he be
granted them in the first place? He was a nobody. [Simmons
and Allred claim other former players were treated differently.]
–Why the heck did the Raiders bring back Art Shell?
–We note the passing of the great heart surgeon Dr. Norman
Shumway at the age of 83. After Dr. Christiaan (sic) Barnard
transplanted the first human heart in Dec. 1967, Shumway
completed the first successful adult heart transplant in America
the following year. Patient Mike Kasperak died 14 days later.
But Shumway went on to do numerous successful operations,
including the first heart and lung transplant in the same patient in
1981. And of course these days you can point to amazing stories
such as Vanguard founder Jack Bogle, who looks better than ever
years after his own heart transplant. I know I’ve said this
countless times before, but for you younger folks out there, those
first heart transplants were tremendous stories and had the
attention of the entire world. Good term paper fodder for those
of you in college. [Term paper tips…another free feature of “Bar
Chat.”]
–I watched a great story on Barry Manilow for CBS’ “Sunday
Morning” this weekend and his career really has been amazing.
Who wudda thunk it?
But Gerard Baker of the London Times commented it really
shouldn’t be a surprise that Manilow is suddenly back on the top
of the Billboard charts with his retro album of hits from the
1950s; even if it is the first time in 29 years he has been #1.
“According to Billboard, the Manilow revival ranks only behind
those of Elvis Presley and Ray Charles, both of whom, it should
be noted, managed to achieve their comebacks only after death
had intervened to raise their profile. The second coming of the
60-year-old Manilow is thus officially ordained the biggest
comeback by a living human being since Napoleon’s return from
Elba.”
Baker also adds that Manilow’s newfound success has to have
something to do with the public beginning to recoil from “the
violent degradation lauded in rap music.”
“There’s a steadily growing rebellion against the lyrics of such as
50 Cent:
First we get the talking, then we get the touchin / If we get past
the phone games we’ll be f—– / I kill like the French therefore
my tongue in your ear / Do it like the…… [you get the picture]
“Who better to lead that rebellion than Barry? If you’re looking
for a change of tone, you could not do better, I would submit,
than:
Oh Mandy / Well, you came and you gave without taking / But I
sent you away, oh Mandy…
“I had known for a while that Americans were in a state of some
dismay about the state of their country. But who knew it was
this bad? That in turning away from today’s traumas, they would
look for inspiration to 1977, and the voice of that generation.
“But then again, as my wife would put it, there may be a simpler
explanation for all this. Really good music, performed by really
talented musicians, just never goes out of style.”
–Every time I read a New York Knicks box score I glance at
Quentin Richardson’s output. Here are his field goal percentages
the last four seasons, this from a guy who is supposed to be
known for his outside shooting.
.372
.398
.389
.344 [2005-06]
Richardson will make $6.8 million this year and a guaranteed
$7.4mm, $8.1mm, and $8.8mm the three years after this one.
Why don’t more people complain about this instead of executive
pay and huge profits at Exxon ?! At least those folks are
producing something we use and need, for crying out loud.
And the Knicks just acquired Jalen Rose, who will be paid $15.6
million this year and $16.9 million next. All this for another
worthless athlete.
At least Tim Duncan, who is making $15.8 million this season, is
a proven MVP.
–26.9 inches of snow in New York City…a record…and at least
20 inches here at the world headquarters of StocksandNews. I’m
ready for baseball.
–The Wall Street Journal had a piece on compensation for some
of the biggest conductors in the world.
Daniel Barenboim…Chicago Symphony…$1,974,000 [2004]
James Levine…Metropolitan Opera…$1,912,000
Lorin Maazel…New York Philharmonic…$1,909,000
Michael Tilson Thomas…San Fran. Symphony…$1,584,000
Christoph Eschenbach…Philadelphia Orchestra…$1,422,000
Leonard Slatkin…National Symphony Orchestra…$1,113,000
And Jalen Rose makes $16 million?!
–Sports Illustrated’s “Sign of the Apocalypse”
“A Tacoma judge made her courtroom cheer ‘Go Seahawks’
before sentencing a man convicted of manslaughter to 13 ½ years
in jail.”
–We note the passing of Akira Ifukube, who wrote the score for
the original version of the movie “Godzilla,” first released in
1954. RrrEEEaa!!
Top 3 songs for the week of 2/13/71: #1 “One Bad Apple” (The
Osmonds…LT’s favorite…no, seriously) #2 “Knock Three
Times” (Dawn…LT’s third favorite…Manilow is #2) #3 “Rose
Garden” (Lynn Anderson…goodness gracious, people, what
were we thinking back then?)…and…#6 “My Sweet Lord”
(George Harrison) #8 “Your Song” (Elton John…OK, have to
admit that along with “Bennie and the Jets,” my favorite Elton
tune)…highest debut, #57 “Doesn’t Somebody Want To Be
Wanted” (The Partridge Family …cracked top ten four weeks
later…men of America were falling in love with Susan Dey)
NBA Quiz Answers:
1) 1998-99 San Antonio Spurs
Tim Duncan…21.7 ppg
David Robinson…15.8
Sean Elliott…11.2
Avery Johnson…9.7
Mario Elie…9.7
2) 1992-93 Chicago Bulls
Michael Jordan…32.6
Scottie Pippen…18.6
Horace Grant…13.2
B.J. Armstrong…12.3
[Scott Williams, next…5.9]
3) 1989-90 Detroit Pistons
Isiah Thomas…18.4
Joe Dumars…17.8
James Edwards…14.5 [forgot this solid player]
Mark Aguirre…14.1
Bill Laimbeer…12.1
[Vinnie Johnson…9.8…one of my favorite players of all time.
Dennis Rodman…8.8; John Salley…7.2]
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
