Renowned for her exceptional technical skill and widespread appeal among vocalists right after World War II, Jo Stafford seamlessly bridged lighthearted popular music with the sophisticated realm of jazz vocal performance following the big band era. Assisted by her spouse, the accomplished arranger and Capitol executive Paul Weston, she produced recordings for Capitol and Columbia during the 1940s and 1950s. Together with Weston, she participated in one of the era’s notable comedic musical ventures, performing as the comically unskilled and pitch-imperfect duo billed as Jonathan & Darlene Edwards.
Originating from the area near Fresno, California, Stafford began singing young and received formal classical instruction, yet she also performed alongside her sisters in a style incorporating country elements, at one point linked with Joe "Country" Washburne. At age 17, she entered the seven-member vocal ensemble the Pied Pipers as its sole female member. Shortly after the ensemble affiliated with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in 1939, it shrank to four voices, including Stafford’s initial husband John Huddleston, a founding member. They featured on multiple early 1940s successes by the Dorsey group, some alongside Frank Sinatra. Stafford secured initial individual features on Dorsey tracks “Yes, Indeed!” and “Manhattan Serenade.”
In 1944 she departed the Pied Pipers to pursue a solo agreement, with June Hutton taking her place, though the group backed several of her early individual successes. Beyond her Capitol affiliation, which allowed her to preview successful tracks as co-host of founder Johnny Mercer’s radio show, Stafford achieved chart success in the mid-1940s with “Long Ago (And Far Away),” “I Love You,” and “Candy.” The last, a collaboration with Mercer and the Pied Pipers, marked her debut chart-topper. Her 1948 pairing with Gordon MacRae on “My Darling, My Darling” reached the summit as her second. Transitioning to Columbia, she captured her career’s peak successes with the 1952 release “You Belong to Me” and the 1954 track “Make Love to Me.”
During the mid-1950s, Stafford hosted her television series and produced the inaugural album from Jonathan & Darlene Edwards, American Popular Songs. She had previously adopted an alias in 1947, recording under the name Cinderella G. Stump for a version of the rustic hit “Temptation (Tim-Tay-Shun).” As her chart presence diminished in the late 1950s and she ceased live appearances, Stafford persisted in studio work for an extended period, releasing the album Getting Sentimental Over Tommy Dorsey via Reprise in 1963. She and Weston established Corinthian Records to reissue their combined output.
