60 Facts About Jo Stafford

Jo Elizabeth Stafford was an American traditional pop music singer, whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s.

In 1938, while the sisters were part of the cast of Twentieth Century Fox's production of Alexander's Ragtime Band, Jo Stafford met the future members of the Pied Pipers and became the group's lead singer.

Jo Stafford performed duets with Gordon MacRae and Frankie Laine.

Jo Stafford married twice, first in 1937 to musician John Huddleston, then in 1952 to Paul Weston, with whom she had two children.

Jo Stafford largely retired as a performer in the mid-1960s, but continued in the music business.

Jo Stafford had a brief resurgence in popularity in the late 1970s when she recorded a cover of the Bee Gees hit, "Stayin' Alive" as Darlene Edwards.

Jo Stafford died in 2008 in Century City, Los Angeles, and is interred with Weston at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City.

Jo Stafford had two older sisters, Christine and Pauline, and one younger sister, Betty.

Jo Stafford's father hoped for success in the California oil fields when he moved his family from Gainesboro, Tennessee, but worked in a succession of unrelated jobs.

Jo Stafford's mother was an accomplished banjo player, playing and singing many of the folk songs that influenced Stafford's later career.

Jo Stafford sang "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms", a Stafford family favorite.

Jo Stafford asked her glee club teacher for a week's absence from school, saying her mother needed her at home, and this was granted.

Christine Jo Stafford said that Jo played piano, and the sisters were hired, though she had not previously given a public piano performance.

The Jo Stafford Sisters made their first recording,"Let's Get Together and Swing" with Louis Prima, in 1936.

Jo Stafford said that her arrangement had to be adapted because Astaire had difficulty with some of the syncopation.

Jo Stafford later said, "We started singing together just for fun, and these sessions led to the formation of an eight-voice singing group that we christened 'The Pied Pipers".

Jo Stafford thought that the performance was terrible, and pressured the advertising agency representing his brand to fire the group.

Shortly afterwards, Jo Stafford received a telephone call from Dorsey, who told her he wished to hire the group, but wanted only four of them, including Jo Stafford.

The decision led to success for the group, especially Jo Stafford, who featured in both collective and solo performances with Dorsey's orchestra.

Jo Stafford recalls that she was overweight, but Dorsey did not try hiding her because of it.

Jo Stafford's performance 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 live audiences, and it was the only nightclub venue she ever played.

Jo Stafford replied personally to all the letters she received from servicemen.

Jo Stafford was a favorite of many servicemen during both World War II and the Korean War; her recordings received extensive airplay on the American Forces radio and in some military hospitals at lights-out.

Years after World War II, Jo Stafford was a guest at a dinner party with a retired naval officer.

Jo Stafford countered her by saying, "Madame, I was there".

Jo Stafford moved from New York to California in November 1946, continuing to host Chesterfield Supper Club from Hollywood.

Jo Stafford left the show when it was expanded to 30 minutes, making her final appearance on September 2,1949.

Jo Stafford returned to the program in 1954; it ended its run on NBC Radio the following year.

Jo Stafford duetted with Gordon MacRae on a number of songs.

Jo Stafford began hosting a weekly program on Radio Luxembourg in 1950; working unpaid, she recorded the voice portions of the shows in Hollywood.

Content and very comfortable working with him, Jo Stafford had had a clause inserted in her contract with Capitol stating that if Weston left that label, she would automatically be released from her obligations to them.

In 1954, Jo Stafford became the second artist after Bing Crosby to sell 25 million records for Columbia.

Jo Stafford was presented with a diamond-studded disc to mark the occasion.

In 1950, Jo Stafford began working for Voice of America, the US government broadcaster transmitting programmes overseas to undermine the influence of communism.

Jo Stafford presented a weekly show that aired in Eastern Europe, and Collier's published an article about the program in its April 21,1951, issue that discussed her worldwide popularity, including in countries behind the Iron Curtain.

The couple left for Europe for a combined honeymoon and business trip: Jo Stafford had an engagement at the London Palladium.

Jo Stafford and Weston had two children; Tim was born in 1952 and Amy in 1956.

In 1953, Jo Stafford signed a 4-year $1 million deal with CBS-TV.

Jo Stafford hosted the 15-minute The Jo Stafford Show on CBS from 1954 to 1955, with Weston as her conductor and music arranger.

Jo Stafford appeared on NBC's Club Oasis in 1958, and on the ABC series The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom in 1959.

Jo Stafford created Stump after Weston suggested her for the role when Ingle said his female vocalist was unavailable for the recording session.

Jo Stafford sang off-key in a high pitched voice and Weston played songs on the piano in unconventional rhythms.

In 1959, Jo Stafford was offered a contract to perform at Las Vegas, but declined it to concentrate on her family life.

Except for the Jonathan and Darlene Edwards material, and re-recording her favorite song "Whispering Hope" with her daughter Amy in 1978, Jo Stafford did not perform again until 1990, at a ceremony honoring Frank Sinatra.

Jo Stafford won a breach-of-contract lawsuit against her former record label Columbia in the early 1990s.

In 1996, Paul Weston died of natural causes; Jo Stafford continued to operate Corinthian Records.

Jo Stafford began suffering from congestive heart failure in October 2007, from which she died aged 90 on July 16,2008.

Jo Stafford was buried with her husband at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Jo Stafford was admired by critics and the listening public for the purity of her voice, and was considered one of the most versatile vocalists of her era.

Jo Stafford's style encompassed a number of genres, including big band, ballads, jazz, folk and comedy.

Mitch Miller blamed the couple's 1962 album Sing Along With Jonathan and Darlene Edwards for ending his sing-along albums and television show, while in 2003, Jo Stafford told Michael Feinstein that the Bee Gees had disliked the Edwards' version of "Stayin' Alive".

In 1960, Jo Stafford said working closely with Weston had good and bad points.

Jo Stafford said she did not believe she could perform in Broadway musicals because she thought her voice was not powerful enough for stage work.

Songbirds magazine has reported that, by 1955, Jo Stafford had amassed more worldwide record sales than any other female artist, and that she was ranked fifth overall.

Jo Stafford was nominated in the Best Female Singer category at the 1955 Emmy Awards.

Jo Stafford 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 was Stafford's version of "You Belong to Me" in 1998.

Jo Stafford was inducted into the Big Band Academy of America's Golden Bandstand in April 2007.

Jo Stafford's recording of "Blues in the Night" features in a scene of James Michener's novel The Drifters, while a Marine Corps sergeant major in Walter Murphy's The Vicar of Christ hears a radio broadcast of her singing "On Top of Old Smoky" shortly before a battle in Korea.

Jo Stafford appeared in films from the 1930s onwards, including Alexander's Ragtime Band.

Jo Stafford declined several offers of television work because she was forced to memorize scripts, and the bright studio lights caused her discomfort.