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Jo Stafford

Jo Elizabeth Stafford, the third of four sisters, was born November 12, 1917 on a tract of land known as "Lease 35" in Coalinga,California. Her mother, Anna York Stafford,a distant cousin of World War I hero Alvin York was known as one of the finest five-string banjoists in Gainsboro, Tennessee. Her father, Grover Cleveland Stafford, had come West to work in the California oil fields.

Jo's professional debut was with the Stafford Sisters, a trio in which Jo, upon graduation from Long Beach Poly High, joined her sisters Christine and Pauline. They had their own weekly radio show on KHJ radio, were regular performers on David Broekman's California Melodies, the Crockett Family of Kentucky shows, and performed both solo and group vocal work for all the major motion picture studios.

After marriage broke up the Stafford Sisters trio , Jo joined a group called the Pied Pipers, and along with her seven other group members was hired by Tommy Dorsey for the Raleigh-Kool radio program in 1938. After ten weeks with Dorsey the group dissolved, but Jo was hired back with three others once again as the Pied Pipers who sang with Dorsey for three years, recorded "I'll Never Smile Again" with Frank Sinatra, and provided Jo with the opportunity of making her own solo recordings with the Dorsey band. Her first solo recording was "Little Man with a Candy Cigar."

When Johnny Mercer assembled the artists to form Capitol Records in 1943, Jo began a recording career that was to culminate in Columbia Records giving her a Diamond Award as the first recording artist to sell 25,000,000 Records.

After guesting on all the major radio shows, Jo started her own series with the Chesterfield Supper Club, to which was added the Jo Stafford Show for Revere Camera, followed by featured roles on the Carnation and Club 15 Shows.

In 1950, Jo began a series of broadcasts that brought her international recognition. In Hollywood she recorded a weekly fifteen minute Youth Program for the Voice of America to internationally promote the cause of democracy.

Soon she added another weekly half-hour musical show, also recorded in Hollywood, for broadcast over 200,000 watt Radio Luxembourg; Europe's most powerful station. During this period Frank Lee , then British director of Radio Luxembourg said: "In her own quiet way Stafford is selling America to Europe."

In 1952, coinciding with her marriage to arranger/conductor/composer Paul Weston, European demand (and a honeymoon) took them to London, where she headlined the bill at the Palladium and made appearances for the Voice of America in the British Isles and on the continent.

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Album Review

Jo Stafford: Jo Stafford

Read "Jo Stafford" reviewed by Dave Nathan


Allegro subsidiary, Cocktail Hour, has been releasing bargain priced two CD sets of some of the great singers of the American Popular Song. One of the more celebrated, Jo Stafford, is represented in that series with a compilation of songs she recorded for Capitol Records during the 1940s before moving over to Columbia where she scored with her greatest hits. As a measure of the popularity she achieved, over a career that spanned more than 25 years, Jo Stafford sold ...

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Recording

Jo and Rosey: Two New CDs

Jo and Rosey: Two New CDs

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Back in the 1950s, pop singers played a vital role in the fabric of our society. Unlike today, where many pop stars leverage dark fantasies and disturbing psychological dramas in songs to connect with audiences, singers 60 years ago were songbirds of the American Dream. They were relentlessly cheery and upbeat, and in the process lifted the spirits of a generation that had been through a Depression and World War II. Pop stars had an unspoken responsibility: to give listeners ...

1

Video / DVD

Videos: Jo Stafford

Videos: Jo Stafford

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

There was a time in the late-1940s and early '50s when Jo Stafford was America's most popular female singer, eventually matched only by Ella Fitzgerald. The maternal warmth of Stafford's voice, her soulful tones and her relaxed sense of swing made her a favorite of white and black audiences. With the advent of TV in the 1950s, Stafford was given a live show in 1954 and her grace and take-charge charm easily won over audiences. After listening yesterday to my ...

154

Obituary

Jo Stafford

Jo Stafford

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey

Jo Stafford, a perfect singer, died on Wednesday. She was ninety years old. There will be obituaries this morning in newspapers all over the world. Web sites have them already. Many people who read them will be hearing of her for the first time because in the 1960s, at the top of her game, she walked away from the music business. Tributes to Jo and memories of her showed up today across the internet. My artsjournal colleague Terry Teachout has ...

114

Obituary

Jo Stafford, 90; Singer, Recording Artist Entertained GIs During World War II

Jo Stafford, 90; Singer, Recording Artist Entertained GIs During World War II

Source: Michael Ricci

Jo Stafford, a singer who was a favorite of GIs during World War II and whose recordings made the pop music charts dozens of times in the 1950s, died Sunday of congestive heart failure at her home in Century City. She was 90. According to her son, Tim Weston, she had been in ill health since October and had been hospitalized several times since 2002. Stafford had a long career but enjoyed most of her success from the late 1930s ...

243

Obituary

Jo Stafford, 90; Pop Singer Won a Grammy for Comedy

Jo Stafford, 90; Pop Singer Won a Grammy for Comedy

Source: All About Jazz

Jo Stafford, 90, an exceptionally versatile singer who worked with Frank Sinatra, Tommy Dorsey and the Pied Pipers and shared a Grammy Award with her conductor-husband for their parody of a tone-deaf lounge act, died July 16 at her home in Century City, Calif. She had congestive heart failure. Singer Judy Collins once said Ms. Stafford's poignant interpretation of folk ballads was pivotal to her own career in folk music. Although she made several acclaimed folk recordings, Ms. Stafford was ...

78

Obituary

I'll Be Seeing You: Jo Stafford, 1917-2008

I'll Be Seeing You: Jo Stafford, 1917-2008

Source: Night Lights Classic Jazz

Jo Stafford, one of the last great vocalists from the “songbird" era of big band vocalists, passed away Wednesday at the age of 90. A World War II icon dubbed “GI Jo" and beloved by soldiers for her performances and recordings such as “Long Ago and Far Away," Stafford possessed one of the most graceful, limpid voices in the postwar popular music world, and she retained her popularity into the 1950s, scoring hits on her own and with Frankie Laine. ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Jo Stafford

Cocktail Hour
2001

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Autumn in New York

Vanguard Jazz Showcase
1998

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Spotlight On ... Jo...

Vanguard Jazz Showcase
1995

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The Very Best Of

Vanguard Jazz Showcase
1991

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Capitol Collectors...

Vanguard Jazz Showcase
1991

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Down Memory Lane

Vanguard Jazz Showcase
1990

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Videos

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