"The Ballad of Tom Jones" is a song by English band Space and Cerys Matthews, lead singer of Welsh band Catatonia. Lead singer Tommy Scott described Tom Jones as 'brilliant'. The song became a highly successful radio single, and resulted in Space performing with Jones in Jools Holland's' New Year's Eve television programme.

Space are a band from Liverpool, England, who formed in 1992 initially as a trio of Tommy Scott, Jamie Murphy and Jamie Island (drums), who was later replaced by Andy Parle. Keyboard player Franny Griffiths joined the line-up a year later, and the band signed to Gut Records in 1995, eventually rising to prominence with hit singles such as "Female of the Species", "Me and You Versus the World", "Neighbourhood", "Avenging Angels" and "The Ballad of Tom Jones", the latter a duet with Cerys Matthews of Catatonia.