Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917 - July 16, 2008) is a traditional American pop singer and actress occasionally, whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to early 1980s. Admired for the purity of his voice, he initially underwent classical training to become an opera singer before following a career in popular music, and in 1955 had achieved more worldwide sales records than any other female artist. His 1952 song "You Belong to Me" topped the charts in the United States and Britain, a record for being the first by female artists to reach number one on U.K. Singles Chart.
Born in Coalinga, California, Stafford made his first musical appearance at the age of twelve. While still in high school he joined his two older sisters to form a vocal trio called The Stafford Sisters, who found moderate success on radio and film. In 1938, when the sisters were part of the Twentieth Century Fox production player of Alexander's Ragtime Band, Stafford met with members of The Pied Pipers in the future and became group vocalist. Bandleader Tommy Dorsey hired them in 1939 to back-up vocals for his orchestra.
In addition to his recording with Pied Pipers, Stafford appeared in a solo performance for Dorsey. After leaving the group in 1944, he recorded a series of pop standards for Capitol Records and Columbia Records. Many of his recordings are supported by the Paul Weston orchestra. He also did a duet with Gordon MacRae and Frankie Laine. His work with United Service Organizations (USO) gave concerts to soldiers during World War II earning him the nickname "G.I.Jo". Started in 1945, Stafford was a regular host of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) radio series The Chesterfield Supper Club and later appeared on television specials - including two series called The Jo Stafford Show , in 1954 in the US and in 1961 in England
Stafford married twice: first in 1937 with musician John Huddleston (divorced couple in 1943); then in 1952 became Paul Weston, with whom he had two children. He and Weston developed a comedy routine in which they assumed the identity of an incompetent lounge act named Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, parodied famous songs. The act proved popular at parties and among the wider public when the couple released the album as Edward in 1957. In 1961, the album Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris won Stafford, the only one His Grammy Award for Best Comedy. Album, and is the first commercially successful parody album. Stafford largely retired as a player in the mid-1960s, but continued in the music business. He had a brief resurgence in popularity in the late 1970s when he recorded the cover of Bee Gees hit, "Stayin 'Alive" as Darlene Edwards. In the 1990s, he began re-releasing some of his material through Corinthian Records, a label founded by Weston. He died in 2008 in Century City, Los Angeles, and was interred with Weston at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City. His work on radio, television and music is recognized by three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Video Jo Stafford
Initial years
Jo Elizabeth Stafford was born in Coalinga, California, in 1917, to Grover Cleveland Stafford and Anna Stafford (nÃÆ' Â © e York) - second cousin of World War I hero Sergeant Alvin York. He's the third of four children. Both parents enjoy singing and sharing music with their families. Stafford's father wished to succeed in the California oil field when he moved his family from Gainesboro, Tennessee, but worked in a series of unrelated jobs. His mother was a great banjo player, playing and singing many folk songs that influenced Stafford's later career. Anna insists that her children should take piano lessons, but Jo is the only one of her sister who is very interested in her, and through this she learns to read music.
Stafford's first public singing performance was in Long Beach, where the family lived when she was twelve. She sings "Believe Me If All Those Charming Charms", a Stafford's sentimental favorites. The second is much more dramatic. As a student at Long Beach Polytechnic College with a lead in music school, he trained on stage when the Long Beach 1933 earthquake destroyed part of the school. With the encouragement of his mother, Stafford was originally planned to become an opera singer and study voice as a child, taking personal lessons from Foster Rucker, an announcer on California KNX radio station. Because of the Great Depression, he abandoned the idea and joined his older sister Christine and Pauline in the popular vocal group The Stafford Sisters. The older two Staffords have been part of a trio with unrelated third members when the action gets a big reservation at Long Beach's West Coast Theater. Pauline was too ill to appear, and Jo was recruited to take the place so they could keep the engagement. He asked his club teacher his excitement for a week not in school, saying his mother needed him at home, and this was given. The show was a success, and Jo became a permanent member of the group.
Staffords' first radio appearance was at Los Angeles KHJ station as part of The Happy Go Lucky Hour when Jo was 16, the role they got after the candidate in the audition was asked if they had their own music player (s). Christine Stafford said that Jo played the piano, and the sisters were hired, although she had never previously given a public piano show. The Staffords were later heard at KNX The Singing Crockett Family of Kentucky , and California Melodies , a network radio show aired on Mutual Broadcasting System. While Stafford worked on The Jack Oakie Show he met John Huddleston - a supporter singer in the program - and they married in October 1937. The couple divorced in 1943.
The sisters found work in the film industry as backup vocalist, and soon after graduating from high school, Jo worked on the movie soundtrack. The Stafford Sisters made their first recording, "Let's Get Together and Swing" with Louis Prima, in 1936. In 1937, Jo worked behind the scenes with Fred Astaire on the soundtrack of A Damsel in Distress, setting for the movie, and with his sister he set up backing vocals for "Nice Work If You Can Get It". Stafford says that the arrangement should be adjusted because Astaire is having trouble with some syncopation. In his words: "Men with syncopated shoes can not do syncopation notes".
Maps Jo Stafford
The Pied Pipers
In 1938, Staffords was involved with Twentieth Century Fox's Alexander's Ragtime Band production. The studio brought many vocal groups to work on the film, including the Four Esquires, Rhythm Kings and King Sisters, who started singing and socializing among the shoots. The Stafford Sisters, Four Esquires and Rhythm Kings became a new vocal group called Pied Pipers. Stafford then said, "We started singing together just for fun, and this session led to the formation of an eight-voice singing group we named 'The Pied Pipers ' ." The group consists of eight members, including Stafford - John Huddleston, Hal Hooper, Chuck Lowry, Bud Hervey, George Tait, Woody Newbury, and Dick Whittinghill.
As Pied Pipers, they work on a local radio and movie soundtrack. When Alyce and Yvonne King had a party for their girlfriend's visit to Los Angeles, the group was invited to perform. King Sisters' boyfriend is stylist Tommy Dorsey Axel Stordahl and Paul Weston, who became interested in the group. Weston said the group's vocals are unique because of the time and that their vocal arrangements are very similar to orchestra instruments.
Weston persuaded Dorsey to audition the group in 1938, and the eighth were driving together to New York City. Dorsey liked them and signed them for ten weeks. After their second broadcast, sponsors - visiting from abroad - heard the group sing "Want Some Seafood Mama". Up to this point, sponsors only know that he is paying for the Dorsey program and that his ratings are excellent; the transcription discs sent to him by his advertising agency always break down. He thought the show was horrible, and pressed the advertising agency representing his brand to fire the group. They lived in New York for a few months, with one job paying them $ 3.60 each, and they recorded some material for RCA Victor Records. Weston later said that he and Stordahl felt responsible for the group, as Weston had arranged their auditions with Dorsey. After six months in New York and without a job there for them, Pied Pipers returned to Los Angeles, where four of their members left the group to find a permanent job. Shortly afterwards, Stafford received a phone call from Dorsey, who told him that he wanted to rent the group, but wanted only four of them, including Stafford. After he approved of the remaining offer Pied Pipers - Stafford, Huddleston, Lowry and Wilson - traveled to Chicago in 1939. The decision led to a success for the group, notably Stafford, who performed in a collective and solo performance with the Dorsey orchestra.
When Frank Sinatra joined the band Dorsey, Pied Pipers provided backing vocals for the recording. Their version of "I'll Never Smile Again" topped the Billboard Chart for twelve weeks in 1940 and helped found Sinatra as a singer. Stafford, Sinatra, and Pied Piper toured extensively with Dorsey during their three years as part of the orchestra, giving concerts in various places throughout the United States. Stafford made his first solo record - "Little Man with a Candy Cigar" - in 1941, after Dorsey approved his request to record a solo. His public debut as a soloist with the band took place in New York's Hotel Astor in May 1942. Bill Davidson of Collier's magazine reported in 1951 that because Stafford weighed more than 180 pounds, Dorsey reluctantly gave him a major vocal role in his orchestra , believes he is not glamorous enough for his part. However, 2005 biography of Dorsey Peter Levinson offers a different account. Stafford remembered that he was overweight, but Dorsey did not try to hide him because of it.
In November 1942, Pied Pipers had a dispute with Dorsey when he fired Clark Yocum - the lead guitarist and vocalist who replaced Billy Wilson on the front line - when he mistakenly gave stubborn directing at a railway station in Portland, Oregon. The remaining three members then stop in action of solidarity. By the time the number one song in the United States was "There Are Such Things" by Frank Sinatra and Pied Pipers. Sinatra also left Dorsey that year. After their departure from the orchestra, Pied Pipers played a series of vaudeville dates in the Eastern United States; when they returned to California, they were signed to appear in the movie Universal Pictures 1943 Gals Incorporated . From there, they joined the NBC Radio show "Bob Crosby and Company". As well as working with Bob Crosby, they also appeared on radio shows hosted by Sinatra and Johnny Mercer, and was one of the first groups to sign a contract with Mercer's new label, Capitol Records, founded in 1942. Weston - who left Dorsey's band on in 1940 to work with Dinah Shore - became a music director on the Capitol.
Solo Career
Capitol Records and United Service Organization
While Stafford was still working for Dorsey, Johnny Mercer told him, "Someday I'll have my own record company, and you'll record it for me." He later became the first solo artist to sign a contract with the Capitol after leaving Pied Pipers in 1944. A key figure in helping Stafford to develop his solo career was Mike Nidorf, the agent who first heard him as a Pied Pipers member as he served as Captain with the Army United States of America. Having previously invented artists such as Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, and Woody Herman, Nidorf was impressed by Stafford's voice, and contacted him when he was demobilized in 1944. After he agreed to let him represent him, he encouraged him to lose weight and organize a series of engaging engagements. profile, and confidence.
The success of Stafford's solo career led to a demand for personal appearance, and from February 1945 he started a six-month residency at New York's La Martinique nightclub. Her appearance was well received - an article in the July 1945 edition of Band Leaders magazine described it as "sensational" - but Stafford did not enjoy singing before the live audience, and it was the only nightclub where she had ever played. Speaking of his discomfort with live performances, Stafford told a 1996 interview with Nancy Franklin's The New Yorker , "I'm basically a singer, period, and I think I'm right lousy in front of the audience - that's not me. "
Stafford's term of office with United Service Organization (USO) during World War II - which often saw him perform for soldiers stationed in the US - led to him earning the nickname "G.I.Jo". Upon returning from the Pacific theater, a veteran told Stafford that Japan would play its notes on a loudspeaker in an attempt to make US troops miss home enough to surrender. He answered personally all the letters he received from the soldiers. Stafford was the favorite of many soldiers during World War II and the Korean War; his recordings received many games on US Army radio and in several military hospitals in the lights. Stafford's involvement with soldiers led to an interest in military history and strong knowledge of it. Years after World War II, Stafford was a guest at a dinner party with a retired naval officer. As the discussion turned to the war action off Mindanao, officers tried to improve Stafford, who held the point. He responded by saying, "Madame, I am there". A few days after the party, Stafford received a letter of apology from him, saying that he had re-read the log and that he was right. Chesterfield Supper Club, duet, and Voice of America
Starting on December 11, 1945, Stafford hosted an NBC music radio show on Tuesday and Thursday's The Chesterfield Supper Club. On April 5, 1946, all players, including Stafford and Perry Como, participated in the first commercial radio broadcast of the aircraft. The initial plan was to use a microphone held in use in the studio but when this proved problematic, the players switched to a handheld microphone, which due to the pressure of the aircraft cabin became difficult to hold. Three flights were made that day; an exercise in the afternoon, then two at night - one for broadcasts at 6:00 pm and another at 10:00 pm for West Coast broadcasts.
Stafford moved from New York to California in November 1946, continuing to host Chesterfield Supper Club from Hollywood. In 1948, he limited his appearance on the show until Tuesday, and Peggy Lee hosted Thursday's broadcast. Stafford left the show when it expanded to 30 minutes, making his final appearance on September 2, 1949. He returned to the program in 1954; it ended its operation on NBC Radio the following year. During his time with Chesterfield Supper Club, Stafford revisited some of the folk music he enjoyed as a child. Weston, his conductor in the program, suggested using some folk music for the show. With renewed interest in folk songs, there is an interest in folklore; Stafford held a contest to award prizes to the best collection of American folklore proposed by a student. The annual Jo Stafford Prize for American Folklore is handled by the American Folklore Society, with the first prize of $ 250 awarded in 1949.
Stafford continues to record. She duets with Gordon MacRae in a number of songs. In 1948, your "Say Something Sweet to Your Sweetheart" version sold over a million copies. The following year, they repeated their success with "My Happiness", and Stafford and MacRae recorded "Whispering Hope" together. Stafford began organizing a weekly program on Radio Luxembourg in 1950; working without pay, he recorded the sound part of the show in Hollywood. At that time, he hosted Club Fifteen with Bob Crosby for Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) radio.
Weston moved from Capitol to Columbia Records and, in 1950, Stafford followed suit. Content and very comfortable working with him, Stafford already has a clause inserted in his contract with the Capitol stating that if Weston left the label, he would automatically be released from his obligations to them. When that happened, Capitol wanted Stafford to record eight more songs before December 15, 1950, and he found himself in an unusual situation simultaneously working for two competing record companies, a particularly rare example in an industry where musicians are viewed as assets. In 1954, Stafford became the second artist after Bing Crosby to sell 25 million records for Columbia. She was presented with a diamond-studded dish to mark the event.
In 1950, Stafford began working for Voice of America (VOA), a US government broadcaster that broadcasted overseas programs to undermine the influence of communism. He presented a weekly show aired in Eastern Europe, and Collier's magazine published an article on the program in its April 21, 1951 issue of its popularity around the world, including in the countries behind the Iron Curtain. The article, entitled "Jo Stafford: His Angry Joe Stalin Songs," made him the wrath of the US Communist newspaper Daily Worker , which published a critical column on Stafford and VOA.
Marriage to Paul Weston and then career
Although Weston and Stafford had known each other since their introduction at the King Sisters party, they did not become romantically involved until 1945, when Weston went to New York to see Stafford perform at La Martinique. They married in a Roman Catholic ceremony on February 26, 1952, before Stafford entered Catholicism. The marriage was done at St. Catholic Church. Gregory in Los Angeles by Pastor Joe Kearney, former guitarist with band Bob Crosby who left the music business, trained as a pastor and heads the Catholic Labor Institute. The couple left for Europe for their honeymoon and business trip: Stafford held an engagement at London Palladium. Stafford and Weston had two children: Tim was born in 1952, and Amy in 1956. Both children follow their parents into the music industry. Tim Weston became an arranger and producer who took over Corinthian Records, his father's music label, and Amy Weston became a session singer, appearing with a trio, Daddy's Money, and singing in commercials.
In the 1950s, Stafford had a series of popular hits with Frankie Laine, six of them mapped. Their duet of Hank Williams's song "Hey Good Lookin '" made the top ten in 1951. He has the most famous hits - "Jambalaya", "Shrimp Boats", "Make Love to Me", and "You Belong to Me" - about this time. "You Belong to Me" is Stafford's biggest hit, topping charts in the United States and Britain. In England, it was the first song by a female singer on top of the chart. The record first appeared on the US charts on August 1, 1952, and remained for 24 weeks. In England, it entered the charts on November 14, 1952, at number 12, reaching number one on January 16, 1953, and remained on the charts for 19 weeks. In a July 1953 interview, Paul Weston said that his wife's big blow was really the "B" side of the "Pretty Boy" single, which Weston and Columbia Records believe were big sellers.
Stafford hosted a 15-minute The Jo Stafford Show on CBS-TV from 1954 to 1955, with Weston as his conductor and musical regulator. He appeared at NBC's Club Oasis in 1958, and on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) series The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom in 1959. In the early 1960s, Stafford organized the television special series called The Jo Stafford Show, centered around music. The show was produced in England and featured British and American guests including Claire Bloom, Stanley Holloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Tormà ©  ©, and Rosemary Clooney.
Both Stafford and Weston returned to the Capitol in 1961. During his second stint on the Capitol, Stafford also recorded for Sinatra's Reprise Records. The albums released by Reprise were released between 1961 and 1964, and most were remakes of songs from his past. Sinatra sold Reprise to Warner Brothers in 1963, and they targeted the label back to a teen audience, releasing many of the original artists who had signed up with Sinatra. In late 1965, both Stafford and Weston signed a contract with Dot Records.
Comedy show
During the 1940s, Stafford briefly featured comedy songs under the name "Cinderella G. Stump" with Red Ingle and Natural Seven. In 1947, he recorded a parody of the violent "Temptation" style, titled "Tim-tayshun". Stafford created Stump after Weston suggested him for a role when Ingle said his female vocalist was not available for the recording sessions. After meeting Ingle in a recording studio he gave an impromptu appearance. The speed of his voice was deliberately enhanced for the song, giving it a village voice, and the listening public at first did not know that his voice was on record. Due to his light and impromptu appearance and he received a standard paycheck, Stafford waived all royalties from the record. Stafford, together with Ingle and Weston, made a personal appearance tour in 1949, and he performed "Temptation" as Cinderella G. Stump. Stafford and Ingle performed a song on network television in 1960 for Startime . Stafford recorded a second song with Ingle in 1948. "The Prisoner of Love's Song" is a parody of "Prisoner of Love", and featured in an advertisement for the Capitol release in the January 8, 1949 issue of Billboard magazine.
Throughout the 1950s, Stafford and Weston entertained party guests by performing a play in which they imitated bad lounge actions. Stafford sang off-key in a high-pitched voice and Weston played the songs on the piano with an unusual rhythm. Weston began to impress about an unskilled pianist in or about 1955, assuming a disguise "when things get a bit calm, or when people start to think themselves too seriously at a Hollywood party." He performed an impromptu performance of acting the following year at the Columbia Records sales convention in Key West, Florida, after hearing a very bad hotel pianist. The audience is very appreciative of his performance "Stardust", especially Columbia executives George Avakian and Irving Townsend, who encouraged Weston to make albums of songs like that. Avakian named Weston character Jonathan Edwards, for an 18th-century Calvinist preacher of the same name, and asked him to record under this alias. Weston worries that he may not be able to find enough material for the entire album, and he asks his wife to join the project. Stafford named his off-key vocalist Darlene Edwards.
Stafford's creation of Darlene Edwards is rooted in new songs, that Mitch Miller, the chief of the artist and Columbia repertoire department, has chosen to sing. This included songs such as "Underneath the Overpass", and because he disagreed with Miller's musical choice for him, Stafford and his studio musicians often recorded their own music, bringing the song according to their feelings about them. Because he had some studio time unused during the 1957 recording sessions, as Stafford jokes recorded a song as Darlene Edwards. Those who heard pirated recordings responded positively, and later that year, Stafford and Weston recorded the album's songs as Jonathan and Darlene, entitled The Piano Artistry of Jonathan Edwards .
As a publicity stunt, Weston and Stafford claim that Jonathan and Darlene Edwards were the New Jersey lounge acts they found, and denied any personal relationship. This trick led to much speculation about Edward's identity. In an article titled Two Right Hands in September 1957, Magazine Time reported that some people believed that his players were Harry and Margaret Truman, but the same part identifies Weston and Stafford as Edwardses. In 1958, Stafford and Weston appeared as Edward on the television program of Jack Benny Shower of Stars , and in 1960 on The Garry Moore Show . Piano Art Jonathan Edwards followed up with the popular music standard album, Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris , released in 1960 and won a Grammy Award that year for Best Comedy Album. The Academy issued two awards for that year's category; Bob Newhart also received the award for "Spoken Word Comedy" for his album The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back! Grammy is Stafford's only major award.
The couple continued to release comedy albums for several years, and in 1977 released a cover of Bee Gees "Stayin 'Alive" as a single, with Edwards' interpretation of Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman" as his "B" side. The same year saw a brief resurgence in the popularity of Jonathan and Darlene's albums when their cover of "Carioca" was featured as the opening and closing theme for The Kentucky Fried Movie. Their last release, Darlene Remembers Duke, Jonathan Plays Fats, was released in 1982. To mark the occasion, interviews with Stafford and Weston - where they assumed Edward's persona - appeared in the December 1982 edition Los Angeles Magazine .
Retirement and subsequent life
In 1959, Stafford was offered a contract to perform in Las Vegas, but refused to concentrate on his family life. Because he did not like the continuous travels to television appearances that took him away from his children, and no longer found the pleasure of the music business, he entered semi-retirement in the mid-1960s. He retired completely in 1975. Except for the material of Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, and re-recorded his favorite song "Whispering Hope" with his daughter Amy in 1978, Stafford did not perform again until 1990, at a ceremony honoring Frank Sinatra. Westons devotes more time to Share Inc. - a charity that helps people with developmental disabilities - where they have been active for years. In or about 1983, Concord Records tried to convince Stafford to change his mind and get out of retirement, but even though an album was planned, he did not feel he would be satisfied with the finished product, and the project was suspended.
Stafford won a contract infringement lawsuit against his former Columbia record label in the early 1990s. Since there is a clause regarding royalty payments in his contract, he guarantees the rights to all recordings he makes with the company, including those made by Weston and him as Jonathan and Darlene Edwards. After the lawsuit was resolved, Stafford and his son Tim reactivated Corinth Records, which Weston - a devout Christian - had begun as a label for religious music in the 1970s, and they began releasing some of his old material.
In 1996, Paul Weston died of natural causes; Stafford continues to operate Corinth Records. In 2006, he donated the couple's library - including music, photographs, business correspondence, and recordings - to the University of Arizona. Stafford began suffering from congestive heart failure in October 2007, from which he died at the age of 90 on July 16, 2008. He was buried with her husband at Sacred Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.
Style, appreciation and recognition
Stafford was admired by critics and the public who listened for his voice purity, and was regarded as one of the most versatile vocalists of his day. Peter Levinson says that he is a soprano coloratura, whose training operations enable him to sing a natural falsetto. His style covers a number of genres, including major bands, ballads, jazz, folk and comedy. Music critic Terry Teachout described it as a "jazzy" rhythmic rhythm, "while Rosemary Clooney said of him," The voice says everything: beautiful, pure, straightforward, no intelligence, unmatched intonation, instantly recognizable. it also describes the woman. "Writing for New York Sun, Will Friedwald described 1947's interpretation of" Haunted Heart "as" effective because it is so subtle, because Stafford holds something back and does not encourage his emotions in the listener's face. "Nancy Franklin describes Stafford's version of the folk song" He Gone Away "as" sad and gentle, as if he had taken a piece of clothing worn by a loved one and started singing. " Frank Sinatra said, "It's nice to sit on stage and listen to it". Singer Judy Collins has quoted Stafford's people's footage as an influence on her own musical career. Country singer Patsy Cline was also inspired by Stafford's work.
In the guise of Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, Weston and Stafford got the admiration of their show business associates. Pianist George Shearing is a fan and will play "Autumn in New York" in Edwards style if he knows the couple is in the audience. Ray Charles also enjoyed their performance. Art Carney - who plays Ed Norton in The Honeymooners comedy series - once wrote Edwardses fan letter as Norton. However, not everyone appreciates Edwards' actions. Mitch Miller blamed the album in 1962 Singing Together With Jonathan and Darlene Edwards for ending the album and live show together, while in 2003, Stafford told Michael Feinstein that Bee Gees did not like Edwards version of "Stayin ' Alive ".
In 1960, Stafford said there were good and bad things to work with Weston. His knowledge of him made it easy for him to organize his music, but sometimes it caused trouble. Weston knows Stafford's abilities and will write or organize complicated music because he knows he can do it. He also said he did not believe he could perform on Broadway musicals because he thought his voice was not strong enough to work on stage. In 2003, he recalled that there was often limited practice time before he recorded a song, and how Weston sometimes slipped music arrangements under the bathroom door while he was in the shower getting ready to go to the studio.
His work on radio, television and music is recognized by three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1952, Luxembourg Radio listeners chose Stafford as their favorite female singer. The New York Fashion Academy named him one of the Best Woman Dresses of 1955. Songbirds magazine has reported that, in 1955, Stafford has accumulated more worldwide sales records than any other female artist, and that he got the fifth overall rating. She was nominated in the Best Female Singer category at the 1955 Emmy Awards. She won a Grammy for Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris , and The Pied Pipers recording of "I'll Never Smile Again" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1982, as well as Stafford's "You Belong to Me" version in 1998. He was inducted into the Big Band Academy of America's Golden Bandstand in April 2007. Stafford and Weston were founding members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
Stafford's music has been referenced in popular culture. His record of "Blues in the Night" is featured in the James Michener novel The Drifters (1971), while a Marine Corps Sergeant Major at Walter Murphy The Vicar of Christ (1979) listened to the broadcast radio song "On Top of Old Smoky" shortly before the battle in Korea. Commenting on the last reference to his 1989 book Singing and the Song - which includes the chapter on Stafford - writer Gene Lees says it "somehow made the place of Stafford in American culture.You get pretty famous when your name appears in the crossword - cross, you are woven into the history of the nation when you appear in its fiction. "
Politics
Stafford was a Democrat, supporting John F. Kennedy to become president in 1960. He then appeared for President Kennedy at a dinner in honor of him given by the Southern California Democratic Committee.
Discography
Movies and TV
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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