Joni James

Born Giovanna Carmella Babbo in Chicago on September 22, 1930, Joni James trained in drama and ballet during her teenage years. After high school she toured Canada with a regional dance company and later performed as a chorus girl at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in her hometown. A substitute engagement at an Indiana roadhouse prompted her to shift toward singing, and an appearance in a television commercial led MGM executives to offer her a contract in 1952. The release “Why Don’t You Believe Me” moved more than a million copies, held the top spot on the U.S. charts for six weeks, and came just short of the British Top Ten.

The sudden success produced a rapid succession of hits the following year, including the two-sided single “Have You Heard” / “Wishing Ring,” “Purple Shades,” Hank Williams’ “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” “Is It Any Wonder,” “Almost Always,” “My Love, My Love,” “You’re Fooling Someone,” “Nina-Non (A Christmas Lullaby),” and “You’re My Everything.” Momentum faded by 1954, yet she reentered the Top Ten in 1955 with both “How Important Can It Be?” and “You Are My Love.” Although further entries never climbed that high again, she maintained presence inside the Top 100 through the end of the decade.

In 1964 James withdrew from performing to care for her husband, musical director Anthony Acquaviva, and remained largely out of public view for the next thirty years. During the mid-1990s she resumed live appearances and oversaw the reissue of her original MGM catalog. She died on February 20, 2022, at a hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida, at the age of 91.