Sir Tom Jones misses out on album chart top spot

Praise and Blame sees Sir Tom cover gospel and devotional numbers

Sir Tom Jones' hopes of becoming the oldest male musician to have a number one album in the UK have failed to become a reality - at least for now.

The 70-year-old Welshman had hoped to top this week's countdown with his latest studio album, Praise and Blame.

Yet the disc failed to knock Eminem's Recovery off the coveted top spot.

Bob Dylan remains the UK's most venerable album chart-topper, having reached number one in 2009 at the age of 67 with Together Through Life.

Sir Tom already has two UK number one studio albums under his belt - Delilah in 1968 and Reload in 1999.

His new gospel and blues-tinged album record sees him exploring issues of faith, sin and redemption.

The disc sees him cover songs originally recorded by other artists, among them Bob Dylan himself.

"I've been wanting to do this album for a long time but it's hard to get a record company to go along with you," he told the BBC News website last month.

Plan B remained at number three in this week's chart with The Defamation of Strickland Banks, while Eliza Doolittle rose one place from five to four with her self-titled debut album.

Further down the countdown, sibling pop duo Jedward entered the chart at 17 with their Planet Jedward record.

In this week's singles chart, boy band Wanted have claimed the number one spot with All Time Low.

Other new entries include Billionaire by Travie McCoy featuring Bruno Mars and Club Can't Handle Me by Flo Rida.