Name: Tom Jones

Full name: Thomas Jones Woodward

Born: June 7 1940 in Pontypridd, Wales

Home: Los Angeles, California

Age: 64

Occupation: Viagra-voiced veteran of pop and lounge-lizard magnet for ladies' discarded knickers

First job: Working as labourer by day; singing in working men's clubs by night under the name Tiger Tom

Band days: Led Tommy Scott and The Senators

Big break: Being signed up by manager Gordon Mills, who changed Tommy to Tom and Scott to Jones

First hit: It's Not Unusual, 1965, aged 24. Written by Mills and Les Reed, song was rejected by Sandie Shaw's management. Jones topped the UK chart for a week in March, sold three million copies and won Ivor Novello Award

Big old hits: What's New Pussycat, August 1965; Green Green Grass Of Home, number one, November 1966; Detroit City, February 1967; Funny Familiar Forgotten Feelings, April 1967; I'll Never Fall In Love Again, number two, July 1967; I'm Coming Home, number two, November 1967; Delilah, number two, February 1968; Help Yourself, number five, July 1968; Love Me Tonight, May 1969; Without Love, March 1970; Daughter Of Darkness, number five, April 1970; She's A Lady, January 1971; Till, number two, October 1971; The Young New Mexican Puppeteer, April 1972

American times: Befriended Elvis Presley, late 1960s; moved to American Mid-West, mid 1970s; still a fixture on Las Vegas casino show circuit. No British chart entries from Say You'll Stay Until Tomorrow, number 40 in April 1977, until The Boy From Nowhere, number two, April 1987

Eighties, Nineties and Noughties hits: Kiss; If I Only Knew; Burning Down The House; Baby It's Cold Outside (with Cerys Matthews); Mama Told Me Not To Come (with Kelly Jones of The Stereophonics); Sex Bomb

Recent albums: Reload, collaborative cover versions, 1999; Mr Jones, featuring Tom Jones International, 2002; Greatest Hits, 2003

Small screen Jones: American TV series, 1969-1971; British TV series, 1991, memorably singing Unbelievable with EMF

Celluloid Jones: Sending himself up with camp cameo in Tim Burton's Mars Attacks!, 1997

The Full Monty connection: His song You Can Leave Your Hat On accompanied striptease finale to Britain's biggest-grossing movie, 1997

Stoke City connection: Delilah became Boothen End anthem at Victoria Ground. Why, why, why Delilah? No official reason

Tribute song: Space recorded The Ballad Of Tom Jones, on which singer Tommy and guest vocalist Cerys from Catatonia act out lovers mending a feud through healing powers of a Jones ballad, 1998

Not exactly a tribute: Sharon Tate murderer Charles Manson had Jones on his celebrity hit list

Longevity award: Lifetime BRIT Award, 2003

Married to: Teenage bride Melinda, for 46 years

Not to be mistaken for: Tom Jones, sexual athlete of Henry Fielding's novel; then again...

Last York gig: Barbican Centre, November 11 1998. Sold out

Where, when and why in North Yorkshire this weekend: Castle Howard, tomorrow (24th), playing open-air show with fireworks finale. Not sold out

Tickets: £35 until midnight on 0870 272 7374; £37.50 on the gates from 5pm.

Updated: 15:54 Thursday, July 22, 2004