24 Hours

Album: 24 Hours (2008)
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Songfacts®:

  • On this slow number with a drumbeat running throughout, a man is reflecting back on his life, which has just one minute and 24 hours to go.
  • Tom Jones told Rolling Stone about the 24 Hours album: "It's all very well just singing songs, but for this record I really wanted to get properly personals. I've been getting reflective recently, looking over my journey through life, and I wanted to make something that was all about me, my stories, to get that down in song. In other words, you listen to this album and you get the real me."
  • This has been described by some music writers as a darker "Green Green Grass of Home." Jones told Mojo December 2008 that when songwriter Lisa Green came in with this song, "She said: 'This is a bit morbid, it's a song about a man on death row.' But I heard it and thought, 'This is really strong.'"
  • The album was produced in the main by Future Cut, a drum 'n' bass duo who have previously worked with Lily Allen, Estelle and Kate Nash. Jones told Mojo how he hooked up with the production outfit. He explained: "I heard the Lily Allen record, I said to my son, 'Who produced this, it sounds so bloody good?' and a lot of it was these two guys Future Cut. They're funny guys, like 30 years old, not kids, but to me they're young."
  • The 24 Hours album debuted at #105 on the Billboard 200 chart. This was the highest placing for the Welsh singer since Say You'll Stay Until Tomorrow peaked at #76 in 1977.

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