Jones took piano lessons from the age of 7 and joined his first band at 15. When he was young, he used to give piano lessons. One of his clients was a girl named Jan Smith, whom he later married. Whilst working with her, a vehicle crashed into their van, injuring Smith. She claimed compensation and used the money to buy Howard a Synthesizer, a Moog Prodigy. He was sent two synthesizers by accident, and he liked the combination of the two so much that he paid for the extra one.

He appeared as a solo artist in local venues in High Wycombe, before inviting a mime artist called Jed Hoile, who used to do improvised choreography while doused in white paint as Jones played behind him. After a well-received John Peel session he obtained support slots with China Crisis and OMD before signing to WEA in the summer of 1983.

After a promotional frenzy, his first single called "New Song" was released in September 1983 and reached the UK top five and U.S. top 30. He made his debut performance on Top Of The Pops in October 1983, watching the performance on a borrowed television resting on an ironing board before a concert at The University of Kent.

He subsequently had four more hits over the next twelve months and a UK Number 1 album, Human's Lib. This album went gold and platinum in a number of countries and he acquired a hardcore fanbase. His mother and father Thelma and John Jones ran his fan club. Jones was a close temporal and stylistic contemporary of Nik Kershaw, and the two musicians were often allied in the affections of the contemporary pop audience.

Jones combined synthesizer music with comment on animal rights and life's excesses. Philosophy, spirituality and humanistic ideals were all lyrical themes.

In the summer of 1984, he released a single called "Like To Get To Know You Well", which he said was 'dedicated to the original spirit of the Olympic Games'. Although it was not an official Olympic anthem for the Games in Los Angeles that summer, it caught on and was a huge worldwide hit.

The sleeve featured the song title in ten different languages; while Jones sang the title line in French and German on the extended version. The song appeared in the film Better Off Dead (1985) and the computer game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (2006).

Jones' second album was a 'remix' album. It contained six songs, all but one of which had been previously released, but which appeared in elongated formats, including the multilingual version of "Like To Get To Know You Well". The album was called The 12 Inch Album and the sleeve featured a miniature Jones standing next to a 12-inch ruler.

When he released his second studio album, Dream Into Action, in 1985 he introduced his own backing band, including female backing vocal trio Afrodiziak. Afrodiziak featured Caron Wheeler (who went on to greater success with Soul II Soul) and Claudia Fontaine (who became a renowned backing singer).

Playing bass guitar, meanwhile, was Jones' own brother Martin, who had to have an extra string added to his instrument to play some of Howard's bass lines, which were originally played on a keyboard without regard for the range of a real bass guitar. One of the singles released from this album, "No One Is to Blame", was later re-recorded and featured Phil Collins as drummer and producer. Dream Into Action was a huge hit worldwide.

In July 1985, Jones performed at Wembley Stadium as part of the Live Aid concert, singing his 1984 hit "Hide And Seek" while playing a piano belonging to Freddie Mercury. He also embarked on a major world tour-hitting countries such as Japan, Australia and the US where Jones was selling out huge arenas.