The best in well-ripened musical cheese - Tom Jones Greatest Hits

Greatest Hits is a fascinating overview of the never-ending pop saga that is the Tom Jones Story. When it comes to sequencing and track selection it's a savvy marketing move to do away with any kind of chronological ordering of the man's history in music.

Kicking off with massive hits such as the overblown karaoke bar strut of "Sex Bomb" (featuring Mousse T) and the strip-club friendly "Kiss" (actually credited to the Art of Noise featuring Tom) is pretty much tailored to get any party started. However, this also means that most younger listeners will probably be scrambling for the fast forward button by the time the Vegas lounge croons of "It's Not Unusual and "What's New Pussycat" hit the home stereo speakers.

Overstatements to the timelessness of mid-60s country-hued drive-time hits such as "Green, Green Grass of Home" or 70s stompers like "Daughter of Darkness" and "Delilah" aside, oddities including "The Young New Mexican Puppeteer" simply have to be heard to be believed.

And if the triple-whammy coda of "Burning Down the House" (with The Cardigans), "Mama told Me Not to Come (with Stereophonics) and "Medley from the Full Monty" (with heir-apparent Robbie Williams) is anything to go by, we can look forward to decades more X-rated cheese from the raunchy Welsh rarebit.