5 June, 1965.

When the answer to the question of “what’s new pussycat?” is actually “a new pussycat”. Well, is it any wonder this popped up this morning? Yeah, the inner jukebox wouldn’t be so cheery if it had to clean up what I have this morning!

Written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, this was the theme song from the Woody Allen film of the same name, starring Peter Sellers and Allen himself. The song was originally an instrumental, with Bacharach explaining that if you have a good melody then the lyrics will always follow – which they did.

Bacharach knew he wanted Tom Jones to record this when he wrote it. However, when Jones heard the song he thought it was ridiculous. Bacharach convinced him though, saying he wanted a “big voice to sing this bloody crazy song”. At the time Jones was creating an image for himself as a ribald pop star, so the song was actually a perfect choice for him.

On its release this gave Jones a hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Released in the US first, in June 1965, it peaked at number three to become his second top 40 hit over there. Here in the UK it was released in August of the same year and was his third top 30 hit, spending ten weeks on the chart and peaking at number eleven.