When they gave Tom Jones a TV show, he knew what to do with it.

When I was a very young, self-defined hep cat, I waded through every sound wave of the British Invasion, bestowing accolades on the obviously eternal, swearing allegiance to the ones who struck my truest chords and learning to move beyond the faddish and minimally talented. 

Among the popular musicians my generation welcomed ashore, most faded into the mists of memory while only a select few endured.  Among the latter whom time and tides washed upon our shores, the one who seems most deserving of reevaluation all these years later is Tom Jones.

 

They Loved Him Madly - A Singer's Tribute to Duke Ellington

A 1973 tribute to Duke Ellington featuring Sarah Vaughan, Aretha Franklin, Peggy Lee, Roberta Flack, Sammy Davis Jr., Billy Eckstine, Joe Wilson and, of course, The Duke.

Ella Fitzgerald and Sammy Davis Jr. were s'wonderful

Ella And Sammy swing Gershwin's 'S Wonderful

Sammy Davis, Jr. and his many special talents

He always seemed a man out of time; his schtick puerile and cloying and he lived long enough to become a caricature, but Sammy Davis Jr. was also an artist of immense talent and importance - and, when he canned the corn and the shuck and jive, he was one of the great singers and dancers of his or any other era. 
What we will never know is what pain and humiliation he endured through the years as he tried - and succeeded - in ingratiating himself with a "crossover" audience.

Politics and social studies aside, here's a reminder of why Michael Jackson studied Sammy so carefully.