Introduction
🎤 EXCLUSIVE: Crooner War! Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck’s 60-YEAR Feud Was ‘All Down to Mystery Woman’
The bitter, decades-long rivalry between legendary crooners Sir Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck is one of the most enduring, and perhaps confusing, feuds in music history. For over sixty years, the two titans of 1960s pop have traded barbs, refused reconciliations, and solidified their positions as lifelong adversaries. While their shared manager, Gordon Mills, and parallel rise to global fame often fuel speculation about professional jealousy, exclusive insight suggests the root cause of the “Crooner War” lies in a far more explosive personal matter: a mystery woman.
Both men—originally Tom Woodward and Gerry Dorsey—found stardom under Mills’ guidance and shared the same record label, Decca, in the mid-1960s. Their careers mirrored each other, but the camaraderie quickly dissolved into animosity. The competitive spirit over chart success and global bookings was undoubtedly a contributing factor, with both performers eager to outshine the other. However, sources close to Jones, including a former girlfriend, have hinted at a more intimate betrayal that turned professional rivalry into deep-seated personal hatred.
The story goes that the early fracture was caused by an undeniable flirtation, or perhaps more, between Humperdinck and a woman Tom Jones was intimately involved with. According to a former mistress of Jones, Engelbert made advances towards her, a claim which ignited Jones’s fury and solidified the rift. The jealousy, therefore, wasn’t just about record sales; it was an old-fashioned, highly-charged confrontation over a woman’s attention. This single, unconfirmed romantic entanglement reportedly served as the flashpoint, turning the friendly competition of two young singers into a sixty-year-long cold war.
Even in their eighties, the feud remains red hot. Jones recently dismissed his rival in stark terms, while Humperdinck has oscillated between offering an olive branch—such as condolence messages after the passing of Jones’s wife, Linda—and making jabs about Jones’s vocal prowess.
The rivalry is an extraordinary footnote in pop history, a case study in how a personal slight can overshadow decades of shared professional ground. Despite the occasional plea from Humperdinck to “put differences aside,” Jones’s response has been unwavering. This exclusive look confirms that the animosity between the two Welsh-born vocal powerhouses is not merely about who sold more records, but traces back to a dramatic, personal clash over a woman whose identity, for now, remains shrouded in mystery.