Delilah

Album: Delilah (1968)
Charted: 2 15
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  • The Sun newspaper put out a call looking for "Delia from Llandudno," who the song's cowriter Barry Mason said was the inspiration. The search was abandoned when another co-writer on the song, Mason's ex-wife Sylvan, called the tipline to reveal that "Delia" did not exist - the name came from the Biblical story of Sampson and Delilah.

Comments: 21

  • Charles Augustus Lundquist from Syracuse, New YorkI thought when I first heard this Delilah song sung by Tom Jones that the singer used the knife to commit suicide on himself because he couldn't bear the thought of the love of his life deceiving and leaving him. I guess that it can be interpreted both ways when you really think about it.
  • Jen from UkNo. Not a 'crime of passion'. A murder.

    Crimes of passion are not pre-meditated. This man waits all night and uses a weapon.
  • Carol Mcfarlane from Kentucky, UsaNever knew the lyrics - awful. Always went for the music. Such a pity. Glorifying such a ballad.
  • Kev from Rogers, ArThis was my favorite Tom Jones song. For a while he had his own TV show in the US called "This Is Tom Jones" around 1969 or so.
  • Neil Walsh from London Nw2cannot believe that a song about a man knifing his girlfriend to death has become such a hit.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyTom Jones' "Delilah" entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart on March 10th, 1968 at position #97; two weeks earlier on February 25th another record entered the Top 100 that also had 'Delilah' in it's title...
    "Dear Delilah" by Grapefruit, it spent one week on the Top 100 at position #98.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn March 24th 1968, "Delilah" by Tom Jones peaked at #2 {for 3 weeks} on the United Kingdom's Singles chart...
    The first two weeks it was at #2, the #1 record for both those weeks was "Lady Madonna" by the Beatles; and for its third week at #2, "Congratulations" by Cliff Richard was in the top spot...
    The Tom Jones' record that preceded "Delilah" on the UK charts was his "I'm Coming Home"; it also peaked at #2, and who keep it out of the #1 spot, none other but those rascals, the Beatles, with "Hello Goodbye"!
  • Sylvan from Londonhttp://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/delilah-songwriter-sylvan-whittingham-written-10092906
    http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/delilah-writer-chris-bryant-my-10850987
    http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/its-ing-hit-what-delilah-10917883
    http://www.sylvanmason.com/songs.htm
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/12145404/Delilah-songwriter-rubbishes-claim-that-song-incites-violence.html
  • Mark from LondonWhy not feel sympathy for a bloke driven to it by a twotiming b---h?
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn April 21st 1968, Tom Jones performed "Delilah" on the CBS-TV program 'The Ed Sullivan Show'...
    One month earlier on March 10th, 1968 it entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #97; and on June 2nd it peaked at #15 (for 1 week) and it also spent 15 weeks on the Top 100...
    It reached #1 in Belgium, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Switzerland...
    R.I.P. Mr. Sullivan (1901 - 1974) and Mr. Jones, born Thomas Jones Woodward, will celebrate his 74th birthday in two months on June 7th.
  • Thomas Leonard from Pittsburgh, Pa, PaThe single remains one of only a handful of Jones hits that is never taken out of his constantly evolving live concerts sets each year due to it's popularity and identification with him. Jones performed the song at 2011's "Concert For The Queen" in Wembley Stadium, which was broadcast as TV Special in the US (several other performers including Elton John appeared)
  • Thomas Leonard from Pittsburgh, Pa, PaIn the UK, an album of the same name featuring mostly new compositions of middle of the road ballads and pop numbers was issued to promote the single and was a Top 10 success. In the US Jones record label instead attached the Delilah single to a collection of R&B covers Jones did for a UK only album (13 Smash Hits) that had never been issued in the states. The "new" album The Tom Jones Fever Zone became Jones first US Top 20 album and first of nine certified Gold Albums for a million plus US Sales. It included Jones' covers of Wilson Pickett, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, and James Brown, plus a blues heavy reworking of Willie Nelson's country hit Funny How Time Slips Away.
  • Thomas Leonard from Pittsburgh, Pa, PaAccording to the liner notes in the re-issue of the corresponding Delilah album by London Records, the single hit #1 in nine different countries in addition to charting ay #2 in the UK and #15 during a lengthy near 5 month chart run in the US.
  • Thomas Leonard from Pittsburgh, Pa, PaJones recalled in interviews in the 90s that when he debuted the song on US television on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1968 he was asked to change a line in the second verse "At break of day as that man went away I was waiting" because it indicated that the "man" Jones' character had seen in the windows with his girlfriend Delilah had stayed over night with her, something taboo for the conservative Sullivan Show producers. Jones remarked in interviews that he questioned why the producers were upset about a random lyric indicating the Delilah character's partner in infidelity had stayed over night when the entire song is about infidelity, stalking, and murder but to no avail so he changed the lyric to get the much needed TV exposure.
  • Larry from Wayne, PaThe song "The Way" by Fastball has a very similar sound to this song.
  • Jon from Great Yarmouth, United KingdomNOTHING, repeat NOTHING, can touch the Sensational Alex Harvey's version of this. It's so different to TJ's. Find it, download it, love it. You'll thank me.
  • Ade from Dudley, United KingdomDelilah, the ULTIMATE karaoke song.. Love it!

    And yes Thomas, "Nothing says success like having women take off their panties in public and throw them at you." truer words have never been spoken :)
  • Thomas from Somerville, AlNothing says success like having women take off their panties in public and throw them at you.
  • Mark from Veldhoven, NetherlandsFlogging Molly have been playing a rather funny version of this to wrap up their shows fot years. It's recorder n their live demo "Alive behind the green door".
  • Mary from Phoenix, AzI'm soooo not a big fan of Tom Jones, but I just love the way he sings this song!
  • Bianca Sanchez from Alburquerque, NmGood song. and again the first comment.
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