POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Jones Still a Sex Symbol Despite Bad Song Choices

Picture Barbra Streisand rapping on “Whoomp! (There It Is),” or Pavarotti lumbering through “Louie Louie.”

If you think they would be unsuited to those tunes, you should have seen Tom Jones in action at the Universal Amphitheatre on Thursday. Just about every song he sang was totally wrong for him.

With that rich, booming, Robert Goulet-like voice, Jones is ideal for musical theater. He should be singing selections from “Oklahoma!” and “Camelot.” Instead, he was doing rock ‘n’ roll and R&B; oldies--”Knock on Wood,” “Hold On! I’m A Comin’,” “Sweet Soul Music,” “Great Balls of Fire.” His band masterfully re-created the instrumental parts, but Jones, with no feel whatsoever for those songs, butchered the vocals.

He bottomed out on Prince’s “Kiss” and EMF’s “Unbelievable.” If he hadn’t seemed so earnest, you’d have sworn they were comedy routines.

Although this was no more than a glorified Vegas lounge act, Jones received a string of standing ovations. Most of the enraptured fans, though, were women who had a different agenda. They weren’t there to listen to Jones the singer, but to leer at Jones the macho hunk.

Just as they did in his heyday back in the ‘60s, dozens of women stormed the stage to toss their undies at his feet. As a sex symbol, Jones, 53, clearly has still got it. But not as a rock ‘n’ roll singer.