The Man who owes his knighthood to Prince.

In 1988, Tom Jones was washed-up. A permatanned medallion man whose late 60s heyday was way behind him. Regarded as a bit of a joke, he’d spent years belting out the back catalogue in Vegas. But one TV appearance changed all that. Channel 4 had a new chat show called The Last Resort, hosted by a young Jonathan Ross. Just for a lark, the old has-been was invited on and he did a version of this. Lacking the soul and subtlety of Prince’s original, it nonetheless shot into the Top Ten and Tom Jones was re-discovered by a whole new generation. A glittering second career, even bigger than his first, ensued and culminated in “Arise, Sir Tom” in 2006. This simply wouldn’t have happened if Prince hadn’t written “Kiss”. And as the world mourned Prince’s unexpected death on Thursday, I imagine Sir Tom’s tribute was particularly heartfelt.