Rare Video Showing Tom Jones Singing With Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Had A Lot Of Discourse Behind The Scenes

A video featuring Welsh singer Tom Jones and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young performing together recently made rounds on social media. Tom, known for hits like “It’s Not Unusual” and “What’s New Pussycat?” was asked to duet with the four-man group on the This Is Tom Jones show.

The collaboration was unusual, as CSN&Y and Tom were culturally and creatively contrasting. The group famous for their anti-war anthem “Wooden Ships,” and “Long Time Gone” based on Robert Kennedy’s assassination, had to share the stage with Tom who usually had panties thrown at him by ladies in the audience.

Tom Jones sings ‘Long Time Gone’ with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Tom and CSN&Y played the latter’s hit song “Long Time Gone” with Stills on the electric piano trying to keep up with Tom’s energetic singing. Crosby looked blown away as well, while Young could not help but express how impressed he was. Despite the performance seeming like a delightful experience for the five men, Young was allegedly not so pleased about it.

Jimmy McDonough noted in Young’s biography, Shakey, that the singer’s manager Elliott Roberts was regretful about the bizarre appearance. “It was very highly rated, sold a lotta records, but in retrospect it was embarrassing, just a bad call,” Robert admitted. “Neil went, ‘The Tom Jones Show! What possessed you?’ Neil never forgave me for that. He ripped me about it for a very, very long time. Years.”

CSN&Y were at the peak of their career at the time, as with Tom who also dueted with Janis Joplin in the same year. Just before their collaboration, Young quit Buffalo Springfield the night before they were to play on The Johnny Carson Show because he thought Carson’s audience to be less enlightened than Tom’s. “I thought it was belittling what the Buffalo Springfield was doing,” Young later explained. “The audience wouldn’t have understood us. We’d have been just a fucking curiosity to them.”

Sadly, the group split in 2016 due to a bitter feud with Crosby. “There will never be another Crosby, Stills & Nash record or show. Right now, I don’t want anything to do with Crosby at all,” Nash told Billboard at the time. “It’s just that simple. I was letting Crosby be who he is. I let people play their hand in front of me, and I let him do it and then I make a decision.”