In the charged musical landscape of the late 1980s, a moment arrived that sent a tremor through the industry. Sir Tom Jones, the Welsh titan with a voice of thunder, decided to do the unthinkable: cover a song by the mercurial genius, Prince. The song was “Kiss,” a minimalist funk masterpiece. This was more than a cover; it was a high-wire act over a canyon of artistic risk, a moment that could have ended in disaster but instead became one of the most electrifying reinventions in music history.
The audacious track was featured on his 1988 album, Move Closer, a record that saw Jones deliberately steering his ship into contemporary waters. It was a daring pivot, an attempt to connect with a new generation while reminding the world of his raw power. While the album was filled with sultry ballads, “Kiss” exploded from the speakers like a funk-fueled supernova, a testament to his incredible adaptability.
“It was a gamble, a huge one,” recalls legendary music critic Eleanor Vance, who was covering the London music scene at the time. “We were all holding our breath. Prince was untouchable. For Tom, with his classic showman persona, to take on ‘Kiss’… it was either career suicide or pure genius. He delivered a knockout punch. The man didn’t just sing the song; he owned it. He looked the audience dead in the eye and said, ‘Watch this.’ And we did. We were all mesmerized.”
Where Prince’s original was sparse and coiled with a tense energy, Jones’s version was a full-blown spectacle. The arrangement was a bold statement. The rhythm was driven by a sharp, funky electric guitar and punctuated by punchy percussion that felt like a heartbeat racing with desire. Unlike the original’s stripped-back aesthetic, Jones infused the track with a sense of flamboyant bravado, layering in jazzy piano flourishes, sultry backing vocals, and subtle synthesizers that gave it a polished, yet dangerously edgy, finish.
At the center of this sonic storm was Jones’s unmistakable vocal performance. His commanding baritone didn’t just sing the lyrics; it wrestled with them, imbuing each word with theatrical energy and a palpable wink. When he effortlessly slid into the falsetto sections, it was a breathtaking display of vocal control and versatility, a raw and powerful counterpoint to Prince’s more ethereal delivery. He amplified the song’s seductive undertones, turning the playful lyrics into a bold, almost primal declaration of passion. This wasn’t just a cover; it was a conquest, a testament to an artist’s courage to step into another giant’s shoes and walk away with a classic of his own.