Jo Elizabeth Stafford was born on the 12th November 1917 in Coalinga, California. In the early years Jo wanted to become an opera singer and studied voice as a child, however she abandoned the idea to join her sisters Christine and Pauline in a popular vocal group, “The Stafford Sisters” who performed regularly on the Los Angeles radio station KHJ. Once the sisters married, the group broke up and Jo joined The Pied Pipers, a vocal group that included her then husband, John Huddleston. The group caught the attention of two of Tommy Dorsey’s arrangers, one of them being Paul Weston, ( real name Paul Wetstein, b March 12, 1912, d September 20, 1996) who persuaded Dorsey to sign the group for his radio show. Dorsey liked the and duly signed them. The group were sacked after only their second broadcast and returned to LA where they joined Dorsey’s big band in 1939. The group backed Frank Sinatra on some of his early recordings. In 1942 the group and Dorsey fell out and left but in 1943 they signed to the new label, Capitol Records. Stafford left the group to go solo. Capitols’ music director was Paul Weston, he and Jo Stafford married in 1952.
You Belong to me wasn’t Jo’s first number one hit. In 1947 she was walking across Capitol studio when she heard musician Country Washburn who was working on a parody of the Perry Como hit, Temptation. The singer had failed to turn up so Jo volunteered to sing instead under the alias of Cinderella G Stump. Her voice was speeded up and the result was Tim-tayshun, which her record label wouldn’t let her own up to being on. Jo herself did the recording for fun and as a result refused any royalties for the song, much to her agent’s dismay!
In the 1950’s she joined Columbia Records and had a string of hits with Frankie Laine, six of which charted, before she scored her only UK number 1, You Belong to Me a popular song that opens with the lines: “See the pyramids along the Nile/Watch the sun rise on a tropical isle…” but says that wherever the singers love may travel, “you belong to me”. The song written by Pee Wee King, Red Stewart and Chilton Price, making the song the first number one written by a country and western artist. Price wrote most of the song and gave rights to the other two in exchange for some publicity. It was originally written as a war song during World War 2 and the original version of the song was recorded by Sue Thompson on Mercury and was also covered by Patti Page, Dean Martin, Tommy Tucker, The Duprees, Patsy Cline and Bing Crosby although none of them had the success of the version by Jo Stafford. Produced by her husband, Paul Weston, the song came onto the chart in November 1952 but didn’t make top spot until 16th January 1953, its tenth week on the chart. As the chart at that time consisted of only 12 places, the song certainly took its time to climb the final rungs of the chart ladder. During her one week stint at number 1, Jo claimed for herself the honour of being the first female performer to top the UK charts and the song was the first case of artist and producer of a number 1 being husband and wife.
Jo Stafford’s chart career never reached the heights of number one again. She had three more hits, only one making the top ten in 1954, Make Love to Me. Jo and husband Paul would pursue a career putting on a skit singing act as Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, eventually recording a whole album of songs as Jonathan and Darlene entitled Jo Stafford and Paul Weston present: The Original Piano Artistry of Jonathan Edwards, Vocals by Darlene Edwards. The couple continued to release comedy records under the Jonathan and Darlene guise for many years and in 1977 released their final, one off single, a cover of The Bee Gees “Stayin Alive”.
Stafford last performed in 1990 at a ceremony honouring Frank Sinatra, her husband Paul Weston, died of natural causes in 1996.
Jo Stafford, adored by the wartime servicemen who dubbed her GI Jo, died on 13th July 2008 from congestive heart failure.
A version of the song featured in the 2001 animated film, Shrek, as part of the soundtrack, sung by Jason Wade. Rocker Tori Amos sang a version in 2003 for the soundtrack to the Julia Roberts movie Mona Lisa Smile and in 2007, 64 year old Sherman Pore sang a short rendition of it on the TV reality show American Idol as a tribute to his wife who had passed away two days earlier. A rather bizarre and sad end to the life of such a great song.
Charting The Charts 