OSCAR PETERSON, "MOONGLOW"

Welcome to Afterglow, I’m your host, Mark Chilla.

This week, our spotlight is on one of the finest and most underrated female vocalists from the war years, Jo Stafford. Stafford had one of the purest vocal sounds of any of the great songbook singers, and her repertoire extended from standards, to bebop, to even American folk music. And as cool and unaffected as she seemed behind the microphone, Jo Stafford also had a wry sense of humor that emerged in some novelty records she recorded in cognito. This hour, we’ll chronicle her career.

It’s the The Versatile Jo Stafford, coming up next on Afterglow

JO STAFFORD, "DAY DREAM"

Jo Stafford performing late in her career, on a track from her 1960 album for Columbia Records called Jo + Jazz, one of her only pure jazz recordings. That was the Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn tune “Day Dream.” A number of Ellington’s band members were also featured on this album, including saxophonists Ben Webster and Johnny Hodges, and trumpeter Ray Nance, with arrangements by Johnny Mandel  [:32]

Mark Chilla here on Afterglow. This week, I’m turning the spotlight on one of the most versatile singers of the Great American Songbook, the one and only Jo Stafford…

JO STAFFORD, "NO LOVE, NO NOTHIN'"

Jo Stafford possessed one of the purest, warmest voices in all of American popular song. It was a cool and unaffected sound—she had the style of a cool jazz singer in the generation before those kinds of singers existed. She started as a big band vocalist, and then turned into a solo balladeer. But unlike some other vocalists from her era, Stafford never added any artifice to her voice. She wasn’t a personality, which might be why she’s less iconic today. She didn’t heighten her girlish charm like Doris Day, nor did she ramp up her sultriness like Peggy Lee. Instead, Jo Stafford just sang, clearly and directly, and she did better than just about anyone else.

Stafford got her start as the youngest of the Stafford Sisters in Southern California, a girl group in the model of the Boswell Sisters or the King Sisters. The group didn’t last long—Jo was the only sister who wanted to pursue a career in singing. So eventually she joined forces with two other singing groups to form the ensemble The Pied Pipers. 

They were originally an octet, but then reduced their numbers to a quartet with Stafford as the only female. The Pied Pipers were discovered by Tommy Dorsey and one of his arrangers Paul Weston in the late 1930s. In 1939, Dorsey hired the Pied Pipers to backup his budding lead singer at the time, a guy by the name of Frank Sinatra.

TOMMY DORSEY AND HIS ORCHESTRA, FEATURING FRANK SINATRA AND THE PIED PIPERS, "I'LL NEVER SMILE AGAIN"

By 1940, Sinatra and the Pied Pipers, led by Jo Stafford’s beautiful alto voice, became sensations. Their song “I’ll Never Smile Again” from May of 1940, holds the distinction of being the very first number-one single ever issued by Billboard magazine. 

By 1941, Jo Stafford was a proven talent within the Dorsey organization, so much so that Dorsey gave her the opportunity to sing her own song solo, eclipsing the other female singer in the band, Connie Haines. The song was “Little Man With A Candy Cigar,” and it started her solo career. Over the next year and half, Stafford was the lead vocalist on more than a dozen songs with the Dorsey Orchestra. We’ll hear two of those Jo Stafford songs now, beginning with “Little Man With A Candy Cigar,” on Afterglow.

TOMMY DORSEY AND HIS ORCHESTRA, FEATURING JO STAFFORD, "LITTLE MAN WITH A CANDY CIGAR"

TOMMY DORSEY AND HIS ORCHESTRA WITH SY OLIVER, FEATURING JO STAFFORD, "YES, INDEED!"

JOHNNY MERCER WITH JO STAFFORD, THE PIED PIPERS, AND PAUL WESTON AND HIS ORCHESTRA, "CANDY"

Jo Stafford, Sy Oliver, and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra with the Oliver tune “Yes, Indeed!” Before that, we heard Stafford with the Matt Dennis tune “Little Man With A Candy Cigar. Both of those recordings are from the early 1940s.

In 1942, Frank Sinatra left Dorsey’s Orchestra to pursue a solo career. And a few months later the Pied Pipers did the same. About a year earlier, Stafford and the Pied Pipers had met the singer-songwriter Johnny Mercer. At that meeting, he promised them that whenever he started his own record label, he would not only sign the group, but also sign Jo as a solo artist. By the time the Pipers left Dorsey’s orchestra, Mercer had co-founded Capitol Records, and made good on his promise. The Pied Pipers and Jo Stafford were among the first artists signed.

It became clear early on that Jo Stafford was bigger than the Pied Pipers. She left the group in 1943 to go solo full time. Very quickly, Jo Stafford became one of the most successful acts from the war years, earning the nickname “GI Jo”. 

Between 1943 and 1950, Jo Stafford recorded 48 consistently high quality hits for Capitol, making her the biggest star on the label, even bigger than the president himself Johnny Mercer. 

Here are a few of those Capitol hits from Jo Stafford in the 1940s, beginning with the Rodgers and Hammerstein tune “The Gentleman Is A Dope,” on Afterglow

JO STAFFORD, WITH PAUL WESTON AND HIS ORCHESTRA, "THE GENTLEMAN IS A DOPE"

JO STAFFORD, WITH PAUL WESTON AND HIS ORCHESTRA, "SOME ENCHANTED EVENING"

JO STAFFORD, WITH PAUL WESTON AND HIS ORCHESTRA, "A SUNDAY KIND OF LOVE"

Jo Stafford in 1947 with “A Sunday Kind of Love.” Before that, we heard her in 1949 with the Rodgers and Hammerstein song “Some Enchanted Evening.” And starting that set, another Rodgers and Hammerstein song, this one from the musical Allegro. That was “The Gentleman Is A Dope.” All of those recordings featured the Paul Weston Orchestra, who at the time, was Stafford’s musical director and friend. Later on, Paul Weston would become her husband.

In the 1940s, Jo Stafford showcased her range by recording not just pop songs, but spirituals, folk songs, comedy songs, and even bebop numbers. At the same time she was becoming a star in the pop market, she was also becoming a star in a completely different market. Stafford started to record spirituals, making her a star in the mostly southern, religious section of American society. One of these spiritual hits was “Whispering Hope,” which she sang with Broadway star Gordon MacRae.

JO STAFFORD AND GORDON MACRAE, "WHISPERING HOPE"

But the same year she was recording this (1949), she was also becoming a pioneering voice in bebop jazz. Stafford recorded a wordless scat tune called “Jolly Jo” with the Dave Lambert singers, one of the first vocal bebop tunes.

JO STAFFORD, FEATURING THE DAVE LAMBERT SINGERS, "JOLLY JO"

Stafford was a chameleon who could slide into any genre that Capitol Records put in front of her. 

In 1948, Stafford also recorded an album of traditional American Folk Songs, which included “Wayfaring Stranger” and “Barbara Allen.” These are songs that most big-name pop artists wouldn’t touch. 

JO STAFFORD, "POOR WAYFARING STRANGER"

The album was called American Folk Songs, at at times it’s a bit hokey, but other times absolutely sublime. It became a surprise hit for Stafford that year, influencing the next generation of folk musicians like Judy Collins. Stafford and Paul Weston’s Orchestra even re-recorded the album in 1962, in the middle of the new folk revival movement.

I’ll play for you now a track from that early-1960s remake of the American Folk Songs album. The accompaniment here is very “Copland-esque.” But take note of how effortless and beautiful Stafford’s delivery is. 

Here’s Jo Stafford with the traditional American folk tune “Shenandoah,” on Afterglow.

JO STAFFORD, "SHENANDOAH"

Jo Stafford and Paul Weston’s Orchestra with the traditional folk song “Shenandoah.” That’s from Stafford’s 1962 album American Folk Songs.

We’ll have more from singer Jo Stafford in just a bit. 

TOMMY DORSEY AND HIS ORCHESTRA, "I'M GETTING SENTIMENTAL OVER YOU"

I’m Mark Chilla, and you’re listening to Afterglow

MOSE ALLISON, "YOU BELONG TO ME"

JO STAFFORD, "YOU DON'T REMIND ME"

Welcome back to Afterglow, I’m Mark Chilla. We’ve been exploring the career of singer Jo Stafford this hour.  

By 1950, Stafford’s time at Capitol Records had come to a close. And she (along with her music director Paul Weston) made the move to Columbia Records. Two years later, Stafford and Weston were married, and remained together—both as musical and life partners—until his death in 1996.

They spent the next decade recording for Columbia—she would more or less go into retirement by the 1960s. Stafford made occasional appearances on television and radio, but she was most at ease in the recording studio. Like she did for Capitol Records, Jo Stafford exercised her versatility on Columbia by recording jazz tunes, pop tunes, country songs, gospel and religious numbers, Scottish folk songs, Christmas songs, Broadway hits, and blues. 

I’ll spend my time focusing more on the pop and jazz tunes, and let’s start with her pop work. Stafford had been a fixture on the pop charts in the 1940s, and it was no different in the 1950s. In fact, her biggest selling single came in 1952, the sentimental song by the female songwriter Chilton Price called “You Belong To Me.” 

It was one of the top-selling singles of 1952, and Weston’s arrangement does everything all at once: it has elements of jazz, pop, swing, R&B, and even a little bit of country.

Here’s Jo Stafford in 1952 with “You Belong To Me,” on Afterglow.

JO STAFFORD, "YOU BELONG TO ME"

JO STAFFORD, "TENNESSEE WALTZ"

Two pop hits for Jo Stafford on Columbia Records in the early 1950s. We just heard her version of the Pee-Wee King song “Tennessee Waltz” from 1951, a version that didn’t sell quite as well as Patti Page’s version from a few years earlier. Before that, we heard Stafford’s biggest hit “You Belong To Me,” a version of that song that was far more successful than Patti Page’s.

I’ll spend some time now exploring some of the jazz offerings from Stafford in the 1950s and early 1960s. Stafford was never a “jazz singer,” per se, at least not like Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughan. But she was so skilled and versatile, that when she had to wear that hat, she did it easily and confidently. 

First, here’s Jo Stafford, the Paul Weston Orchestra, and the Starlighters in 1952 with Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies,” on Afterglow.

JO STAFFORD, "BLUE SKIES"

JO STAFFORD, "OLD DEVIL MOON"

JO STAFFORD, "YOU'D BE SO NICE TO COME HOME TO"

Jo Stafford in 1960 from her album Jo + Jazz. That was the Cole Porter tune “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To.” Before that, we heard Stafford in 1958 from the album Swingin’ Down Broadway with “Old Devil Moon.” And starting that set, we heard her in 1952 with “Blue Skies.”

And now from the sublime to the ridiculous: to close off this hour, I need to focus on one somewhat remarkable aspect of Jo Stafford’s career: her comedy. As I’ve said before, Stafford was a blank slate as a singer, who could transform her voice to fit in any style. However, when she wanted to inject a little humor into her music, Stafford felt it necessary to assume a different identity. We actually have two examples of this: one from the 1940s and another from the 1950s and later.

Her first assumed identity for the sake of comedy was the hillbilly singer Cinderella G. Stump. The story goes that in 1947 Red Ingle, a comedic country singer for Capitol Records known mostly for his work with Spike Jones, was making a novelty version of the pop standard “Temptation,” which he countrified to “Tim-Tay-Shun.”

Ingle’s “girl singer” never showed up to the session, so Jo Stafford, who also worked for Capitol at the time, stepped in at the last second. She sang the tune in a pretty convincing country accent, but didn’t want any credit. So she gave herself the pseudonym of Cinderella G. Stump. Word eventually got out that it was really Jo Stafford singing, and that made “Tim-Tay-Shun” an even bigger hit.

Here’s Jo Stafford (aka Cinderella G. Stump), with Red Ingle and The Natural Seven with “Tim-Tay-Shun,” on Afterglow.

RED INGLE AND THE NATURAL SEVEN, FEATURING JO STAFFORD, "TEMPTATION (TIM-TAY-SHUN)"

One of Jo Stafford’s novelty records, that was her and Red Ingle in 1947 performing a hillbilly version of the pop standard “Temptation.”

Stafford’s other foray into comedy came in the late 1950s, and also under an assumed name. The story behind this creation goes that Stafford and her husband Paul Weston were growing tired of the awful music that Columbia music director Mitch Miller was bringing them. So they began to parody it under the adopted alter egos of Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, two high-society performers, who were also terrible musicians. 

They took their comedy act to Hollywood parties, performing standards out of tune and in poor taste, in only a way two actual incredible musicians could accomplish. Eventually, Jonathan and Darlene recorded their act, and even won a Grammy Award for best comedy album in 1961. For a singer who was almost incapable of singing a wrong note, there’s irony in the fact that Jo Stafford’s only Grammy came from when she was purposefully out of tune.

To close off this hour, here is Jonathan and Darlene Edwards (aka, real husband and wife Paul Weston and Jo Stafford), and their absurd version of “I Love Paris,” on Afterglow

JONATHAN AND DARLENE EDWARDS, "I LOVE PARIS"

The comedy duo of Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, alter egos of Paul Weston and Jo Stafford. That was their unique take on Cole Porter’s “I Love Paris.”

Thanks for tuning in to this look at the music of Jo Stafford, on Afterglow

OSCAR PETERSON, "I LOVE PARIS"

Afterglow is part of the educational mission of Indiana University, and produced by WFIU Public Radio in beautiful Bloomington, Indiana. The executive producer is John Bailey.

Playlists for this and other Afterglow programs are available on our website. That’s at indianapublicmedia.org/afterglow.

I’m Mark Chilla, inviting you to tune in next week for our mix of Vocal Jazz and popular song from the Great American Songbook, here on Afterglow