Inside the Decades-Long Feud Between Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck: ‘Nothing Friendly’

Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck are still feuding — nearly 60 years after they first fought for dominance of the pop charts!

Humperdinck, 88, fired the first shot in the latest round of the fight. “I think he’s lost his voice. I don’t think he’s got it anymore,” the British belter sniped. Welsh heartthrob Jones, 84, fired back at his former chart rival, saying, “There’s nothing friendly about him and I. He’s a p—k, quote me on that. We fell out years ago. He’s tried, but I won’t talk to him.”

The contentious crooners are best known for a string of chart-topping hits in the 1960s — Jones with “It’s Not Unusual,” “Delilah” and “She’s a Lady,” and Humperdinck for “Release Me” and “The Last Waltz.”

The adversaries once shared a record label and a manager, but at some point in the 1970s, their rivalry escalated into open warfare, apparently after one of Jones’ exes claimed Humperdinck flirted with her in 1979. When she told the “What’s New Pussycat?” singer about his rival’s advances, he “sat there in stony silence,” she recalls.

The vindictive vocalists have not spoken for more than 40 years, though Humperdinck says he reached out to offer his sympathies after Jones’ wife of 59 years, Melinda Trenchard, passed away in 2016.

He dismisses Jones’ insults, claiming, “It doesn’t bother me — the only person it hurts is himself. … If you can’t say anything good about someone, don’t say anything.”