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So after much anticipation and speculation, Sir Tom Jones has failed in his bid to become the oldest male ever to have a UK Number One album.

His album Praise And Blame was beaten to the top spot yesterday by Eminem, who'll be a mere 38 this year, with Recovery. Unless Praise And Blame can rise up the chart, Sir Tom will remain behind Bob Dylan, who had a chart-topper last year at the age of 67. Tom Jones' last Number One came 11 years ago, with Reload.

He lost out to the Detroit rapper this week by about 8,000 copies. Phil Matcham of the believes there's a chance he may scoop the prize, providing more singles from the record are successful.

"It's difficult to say," he says. "In the normal state of affairs the first couple of weeks is when an album picks up its highest chart positions.

"It's definitely his most successful album for a while, the best since Reload. This is definitely shaping up to be one of his bigger hits. He likes to reinvent and take risks and it's this change of direction, to a more stripped sound, that's probably made this album so successful, rather than the leaked email and publicity a few weeks back. If the LP wasn't strong enough that story could have been detrimental."

Watch Tom Jones talking about that leaked email on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 4's Front Row.

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