[Sorry, but I had to remove the embedded YouTube video link because Studio 100 had all of the clips removed.]
Category: Music
Jonathan and Darlene Edwards
Considering Jo Stafford’s stellar career and her versatile singing talent, it’s somewhat ironic that she won her only Grammy for a comedy record. Jonathan and Darlene Edwards were the alter egos of Jo and her husband Paul Weston. They were a dreadfully earnest — or earnestly dreadful — lounge act, with Jo’s perfect pitch helping Darlene with her tin ear utterly destroy songs with stunning off-key precision.
You’ll find a wonderfully awful collection of Jonathan and Darlene here on MySpace. The link to Jo’s label, Corinthian Records, is wrong. Use this one instead.
Jo Stafford Videos
Back on Jo Stafford’s 90th birthday I posted a humorous video of her on the Steve Allen Show. YouTube has some more appearances of Jo, including the very funny “Tim-Tayshun,” and I’ve assembled them into a playlist.
“GI Jo” Stafford
With Jo Stafford gone, World War II and the Big Band era slip further away from living memory. But Jo’s recordings remain. Thanks go to D.F. Rogers for helping me compile this collection.
This Jo Stafford record is from Christmas ’42, a year after Pearl Harbor…
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUL/ManhattanSerenade.mp3]The year 1944 was a big one for Jo Stafford. She started it with the Pied Pipers, who recorded one version of the popular novelty tune “Mairzy Doats.”
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUL/MairzyDoats.mp3]Jo left the Pied Pipers to join Johnny Mercer, one of the principals behind Capitol Records, and she sang “Candy” with him.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUL/Candy.mp3]Hey, I’m getting better at this. I can tell this is Mercer and not Tex Beneke. Mercer didn’t have the control that Tex, let alone Jo, had.
On D-Day Jo had a song on the charts from the movie “Cover Girl,” called “Long Ago (And Far Away)”…
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUL/LongAgoAndFarAway.mp3]In September she could be heard on the radio singing “It Could Happen To You”…
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUL/ItCouldHappenToYou.mp3]After the war, Christmas ’45, when the Baby Boom started, there was “Symphony”…
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUL/Symphony.mp3]And in September ’46, while those babies were being born, Jo sang “There Is Always”.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUL/ThisIsAlways.mp3]Don’t Click!
Don’t click here! Promise me you won’t click here. If you do click here it’s your own fault. OK? And for goodness sake, before you click here, which I know you won’t do, turn your computer speakers off! I’ll say it one more time. Don’t click here! Thank you.
Jo Stafford and the Pied Pipers
The more I see, and hear, and know about Jo Stafford, the more impressed I am. D. F. Rogers could write a better appreciation of her than I could (hint).
Tommy Dorsey, Chuck Lowry, Jo Stafford, Frank Sinatra, Clark Yocum, John Huddleston
This appears to be the best copy of that photo you’ll find on the Net. Click to see it full size. I scanned it from an LP in my collection. That’s Jo Stafford next to Frank Sinatra in 1940, when Jo was all of 22, before she married to her first husband, John Huddleston, who’s on the right. Calling themselves the Pied Pipers, they sang with Tommy Dorsey’s band and backed up Sinatra on “I’ll Never Smile Again,” recorded March 23, 1940.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUL/NeverSmileAgain.mp3]Jo is featured more prominently with Sinatra on “Stardust,” recorded November 11, 1940.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUL/Stardust.mp3]I’ll have more of the remarkable Jo Stafford, coming up.