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 -
Live Through This
Jazz - Released by LTT brothers music on 13 Jul 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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The Sweet Sixties
Jazz - Released by The Sweet Sixties on 1 Jul 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
Pop - Released by Let The Music Play on 1 Nov 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Yesterday - The Definitive Duo
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Jasmine Records on 10 Dec 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Forever Gold - Long Ago (And Far Away) (Remastered)
Pop - Released by Play Digital on 28 Jan 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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It Is Not a Secret - Jo Stafford
Jazz - Released by ISIS on 17 Dec 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Time Out Music
Jazz - Released by love loove music on 28 Oct 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Essential Collection
Jazz - Released by Essential Collection on 23 Oct 2022
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 -
Day by Day (Remastered)
Jazz - Released by New World on 12 Sep 2020
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 -
Remastere Hits Vol. 3 (All Tracks Remastered)
Pop - Released by jjjedizionimusicali on 30 Jun 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo