Songfacts®:

• This Prince song was originally an American chart-topper for the Minneapolis multi-instrumentalist in 1986. Tom Jones' version was recorded with the British avant garde electronica group Art of Noise.
• After recording a series of country-pop numbers, Tom Jones made a left-field decision to cover this song, and in doing so revived his career. He told the Observer Music Monthly December 2008 how this came about: "If I hear a song I like I'll do it in the show, so when I heard this I sang it in an R&B style. Then I was due to go on Jonathan Ross's program in 1987 to perform the ballad 'A Boy From Nowhere,' and he wanted something upbeat too. My philosophy has always been: when in doubt, do ' Great Balls of Fire.' But Jonathan asked if I had anything new. Art of Noise were watching and they asked if I'd do a version with them. When they sent me the finished version I thought: 'If this isn't a hit, I'll bloody well pack it all in.' It was a busting hit."
• Prince and Tom Jones were both born on the same day, the 7th of June (Prince in 1958, Jones in 1940).
• Jones met Prince and thanked him for the song, but didn't ask what his thought of his version, as he wasn't sure he would like the answer. "I saw a movie once that Bette Midler did called The Rose," Jones said in his Songfacts interview. "She goes to see Harry Dean Stanton, a country singer, because she'd recorded one of his songs. She says she's a big fan of his, and just before she walks out the door he says, 'Could I say one thing to you? Don't you ever record one of my songs again.'
  
  That hit home. I thought, s--t, I'm never going to ask a songwriter what he or she thinks of my version. I'll leave that to them. That always sticks in my mind. So I just thanked him for writing it."