Help Yourself - Tom Jones, 1968

 
 

Love is like candy on a shelf
You want to taste and help yourself
The sweetest things are there for you
Help yourself, take a few
That's what I want you to do

We're always told repeatedly
The very best in life is free
And if you want to prove it's true
Baby I'm telling you
This is what you should do

Just help yourself to my lips
To my arms just say the word, and they are yours
Just help yourself to the love
In my heart your smile has opened up the door

The greatest wealth that exists in the world
Could never buy what I can give
Just help yourself to my lips
To my arms, and then lets really start to live

Allllllllll right...yeah

My heart has love enough for two
More than enough for me and you
I'm rich with love, a millionaire
I've so much, it's unfair
Why don't you take a share

Just help yourself to my lips
To my arms just say the word, and they are yours
Just help yourself to the love
In my heart your smile has opened up the door

The greatest wealth that exists in the world
Could never buy what I can give
So help yourself to my lips, to my arms
And then lets really start to live

Just help yourself to my lips
To my arms just say the word, and they are yours
Just help yourself to the love
In my heart your smile

 
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Sir Thomas Jones Woodward was born in 1940, in the tiny town of Pontypridd, somewhere in the south of Wales. Throughout the 1960s and '70s, he was considered quite the ladies' man (and maybe even to this day). As a pop solo artist, he was second to none, recording such memorable singles as What's New Pussycat?, Green Green Grass of Home, Delilah, and She's a Lady.

A lesser known single is Help Yourself, from 1968. My attention was drawn to this song through the recent movie Anchor Man with Will Ferrell. Help Yourself was originally written in Italian by Carlo Donida, and translated into English by Jack Fishman. It peaked at #5 on the UK charts, but only #35 on Billboard.

Into the '80s and '90s, Tom Jones started to experiment musically, and ended up with some very unusual collaborations. Recording the Prince song Kiss with The Art of Noise immediately comes to mind. However, singing the talking Heads song Burning Down The House with The Cardigans has got to raise a few eyebrows.