Tom Jones singing ‘I’ll Be Home For Christmas’ as Ella Fitzgerald watches on is so beautiful

22 December 2020, 13:22 | Updated: 16 November 2022, 16:04

The star was taking part in the This is Tom Jones Christmas Special in 1970 when he was joined by the legendary Miss Ella Fitzgerald.

How many people can casually say they've sung the entirely of 'I'll Be Home For Christmas' while sitting next to Ella Fitzgerald? The legend that is Tom Jones, that's who.

Tom Jones was recording a special Christmas episode of his hugely successful TV series This Is Tom Jones in December of 1970, when the beautiful moment took place.

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The pair are seen on the video sitting in front of a live studio audience in front of a banquet table filled with christmas accessories and surrounded by christmas trees and fairy lights.

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While Ella Fitzgerald sits elegantly beside him in a turquoise sequined dress, Tom addresses the camera directly as he introduces the next song.

"You know, it takes a heap of singing to make a house a home," he begins. "Going home is a nice thing to do at anytime, but the nicest time of all is to go home for Christmas. That's why no matter where i'm working, I try to make sure it doesn't interfere with my spending the holidays at home, with family."

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The lights then go down and the camera pans to a close up of Tom Jones as he starts to sing 'I'll Be Home For Christmas' in his famously deep baritone voice.

The video is taken from the Welsh singer's TV show This Is Tom Jones, a musical variety show that ran from 1969-1972 for a total of 67 episodes on ABC-TV.

Tom Jones was a huge star in the US and as a result was able to attract the very best musical talent from across the world to his TV show, which he filmed in both the US and the UK.

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Tom Jones - I'll Be Home For Christmas - This is Tom Jones Christmas TV Special 1970

Acts that performed over the years included the Bee Gees, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, The Who, Little Richard, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Cher and comedians including Richard Prior and Peter Sellers to name just a few.

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The 1970's was the height of Tom Jones' 'sex magnet' phase, when he earned the nickname of a lothario, despite being married to the same woman all of his life.

Tom Jones and his wife Linda were married for 59 years until her death in 2016, and despite Tom's numerous infidelities - he once said he was sleeping with up to 250 women a year at the height of his fame - they remained together all their lives.

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Tom had numerous high profile affairs, including liaisons with Mary Wilson of The Supremes and 1973's Miss World Marjorie Wallace, the singer explaining in his autobiography that he and his wife came to an arrangement in the late '60s when Linda stopped coming on tour with him: "She simply didn't ask," he said.

Stevie Wonder performs with Tom Jones in 1969

In the 1970's Tom told Rolling Stone he became known as a 'panty magnet' after a woman in the audience was seen offering him a pair of her knickers mid-show.

“She took them off and I said, ‘Watch you don’t catch cold,'” Jones says laughing. “But it backfired on me. Somebody wrote it up in the papers, so they were bringing them in handbags."

These days, with his hedonistic days behind him and his music and days as a judge on TV show The Voice very much his focus, it was reported in 2005 that Tom Jones had bought the rights to every one of the 67 episodes of This Is Tom Jones.

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The series is now available to buy on DVD on Amazon and is an extraordinary time capsule into the world of the very best music of an era.

Street socially distance dance to Tom Jones