Jo Stafford
One of the most technically gifted and popular vocalists of the immediate postwar period, Jo Stafford effortlessly walked the line between breezy pop and the more serious art of post-big-band jazz singing. With the help of her husband, top-flight arranger and Capitol A&R director Paul Weston, Stafford recorded throughout the '40s and '50s for Capitol and Columbia. She also contributed (with Weston) to one of the best pop novelty acts of the period, a humorously inept and off-key satire that saw the couple billed as Jonathan & Darlene Edwards.
Born near Fresno, California, Stafford sang from an early age and was classically trained, though she later joined her sisters in a country-tinged act (associated for a time with Joe "Country" Washburne). At the age of just 17, she became the first female voice in the seven-man vocal act known as the Pied Pipers. Soon after the group joined the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in 1939, however, it was pruned to a quartet (which also included Stafford's first husband, co-founder John Huddleston). The group appeared on several of the Dorsey band's hits of the early '40s, a few of which paired them with Frank Sinatra. Stafford gained her first solo spots on a pair of Dorsey band hits, "Yes, Indeed!" and "Manhattan Serenade." She finally left the Pied Pipers for a solo contract in 1944 (she was replaced by June Hutton), though the group provided backup for many of her initial solo hits.
Not only signed to Capitol but able to preview hit songs as the co-host of label founder Johnny Mercer's radio program, Stafford hit the charts with the mid-'40s songs "Long Ago (And Far Away)," "I Love You," and "Candy." The latter, a duet with Mercer and the Pied Pipers, became her first number one. In 1948, her duet with Gordon MacRae on "My Darling, My Darling" became her second. She later moved to Columbia and recorded the two biggest hits of her career, 1952's "You Belong to Me" and 1954's "Make Love to Me." Stafford gained her own television program during the mid-'50s, and also recorded the first LP by Jonathan & Darlene Edwards, American Popular Songs. (It wasn't the first time Stafford had used a pseudonym, however; in 1947, she billed herself as Cinderella G. Stump to record a cover of the cornpone single "Temptation [Tim-Tay-Shun].") Though she slipped from the charts in the late '50s and retired from live performance, Stafford continued to record for many years and issued the LP Getting Sentimental Over Tommy Dorsey on Reprise in 1963. She also founded Corinthian Records with Weston to reissue the couple's various recordings.
© John Bush /TiVo
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Nostalgic Memories-The Very Best Of Jo Stafford-Vol. 36
Jazz - Released by RP-DSP on 21 Nov 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jo Stafford - "You belong to me", other successes and more friends
Pop - Released by Digital World Contents S.A.S. on 15 Sep 1946
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Getting Sentimental over Tommy Dorsey
World - Released by TP4 Music on 6 Jan 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A-Round The Corner
Jazz - Released by Black & Partner Licenses LLC on 1 Apr 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
You Belong to Me
Pop - Released by Black Sheep Music on 12 Aug 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sing Along with Jonathan & Darlene Edwards/ Swing Along with Jo Stafford and Paul Weston
Jonathan Edwards, Darlene Edwards, Jo Stafford
Pop - Released by ACROBAT on 13 Feb 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Soft and Sentimental
Vocal Jazz - Released by Blue Pie Records USA on 13 Jan 1955
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Essential Duets
Vocal Jazz - Released by Vintage Masters Inc. on 1 Sep 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Old Rugged Cross (Collected Songs of Faith)
Pop - Released by PMI Limited on 7 Jun 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
At the Pier
Christmas Music - Released by At the Piers on 30 Aug 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jo Stafford in Capitol
Jazz - Released by Black Sheep Music on 13 Sep 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Christmas Roses
Christmas Music - Released by Viking Records on 2 Oct 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Make Love to Me
Pop - Released by Music Today Records on 10 Jun 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Make Love to Me
Jazz - Released by Black Sheep Music on 9 Aug 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Big City Sounds
Pop - Released by phelipo masters on 25 Apr 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
You Belong to Me
Pop - Released by JB Production CH on 12 Aug 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Waiting for Santa Claus
Christmas Music - Released by Baby One Records on 9 Dec 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ski Trails (Original Christmas Album)
Christmas Music - Released by Grand Hits Records on 31 Mar 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo