Classic Tunes of the Week: 9. Hit or Miss, by Odetta (1970)/Tom Jones (2012)

To continue the St. David's Day (St. David being the Christian Patron Saint of Wales) theme of the weekend, I wanted to choose a track from one of my all-time favourite singers, the legendary Tom Jones. However, rather than go one of his early standards that oft-repeated everywhere, I thought I would go with his most recent hit, a 2012 cover and re-arrangement of the Blues song, "Hit or Miss". However, I feel I cannot celebrate this, without first celebrating the equally superb and equally underrated original, by Odetta Holmes.

Odetta Holmes is to me without a doubt, one of the best folk and blues singers to have ever lived. However, while mostly famous for her civil and human rights campaigns, and her performance of traditional, usually Christian songs, Odetta was also a very talented songwriter. "Hit or Miss" was a track from one of her later albums, and probably overlooked in subsequent years as a result, having taken place after her big successful hit albums, as well as existing in a period where the musical genre of rock had been dominant for several years as the most popular with audiences. Although Folk and Blues have never really gone away, just like Classical music, they've been far from mass popular acclaim since the mid-1960s. Anyway here is a musical classic that deserves to be remembered.

9a. Hit or Miss, by Odetta Holmes (1970)

Given how great a folk song it is then, its only natural that someone will come along and want to cover it, maybe even update it for modern day tastes. With this particular cover, that's exactly what happened. Tom Jones was as much a fan of the Blues as he ever was of Rock and Roll, and over the last decade or so, he has delightfully experimented and performed his own versions of classic songs in the genre, including even some original work written for him. Tom's version of "Hit or Miss" is a classic in my mind too. Sure it doesn't have the raw and passionate soul of the original, but it greatly makes up for it with a more subtle moodier soul, as well as having a lovely bare bones rock twist, and Tom Jones' unique and sublime vocals of course. Enjoy!

9b. Hit or Miss, by Tom Jones (2012)