M artha Tilton recalled Raym ond Scott - Part of 1937 In M usic Pictorial clue in Trivia Quiz Presorted Standard U.S. Postage PAID Atlanta, GA Permit No. 3259 BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER VOLUME 112 BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER. 2007 INTERVIEWS JO STAFFORD & M AR TH A TILTO N These newsletters take on a direction of their own. Early this year we began to re-visit some of the Big Band girl vocalists, promising in that issue to do it again. During preparation for this newsletter two letters arrived asking about the girl singers, encouraging us to continue our se­ ries in this issue. (See LETTERS TO THE EDI­ TOR.) As a result of two letters inquiring about female singers and the continuation of our series on those singers, much of the first half of this newsletter is devoted to “The Girl Singers. ” Stafford in the '50s Two other events also encouraged the direction of this issue. One was a rare public appearance BBJ: Your first professional singing work? of Jo Stafford in May at the annual Big Band Academy of America get-together in Studio City. JS: I had two older sisters, quite a bit older, 11 and The other was the recent loss of singer Martha 14 years older than I. They were already in Tilton who died in early December last year at local radio in Long Beach, California and finally came age 91. We re-acquaint ourselves with both of up to Hollywood, doing radio in and around Los them through their own words Angeles. We were together for two or three years singing on radio and background singing in motion J O S TA F F O R D pictures. We had quite a successful run of it and then The Background I graduated from them to the Pipers. In the beginning there were eight of us and we got together on what we Jo Stafford is a native of California where her Tennes­ call a “cattle call” for a musical called “Alexander’s see native parents moved before she was bom in No­ Ragtime Band.” vember of 1917. Neither of her parents had good singing voices, but as a child Jo amused herself by BBJ: Your first solo number with Tommy Dorsey singing and by age ten she could not only read music but was LITTLE MAN WITH A CANDY CI­ play the piano. Jo ’ s first professional singing j obs were GAR. What kind of song was it? with her sisters Pauline and Christine with whom she performed until 1938 when she became the only female JS: Strictly a ballad written by Matt Dennis and voice in a group of seven men who called themselves Tom Adair....a very beautiful song....and I “The Pied Pipers.” asked Tom as a special favor i f he ’ d let me record it and he said, “It’s yours, Josie!” That’s how easy it was. The following are excerpts from Jo Stafford’s com­ ments made in various interviews from the mid-nine- BBJ: You went to Capitol Records as a solo singer. ties. Our first question was about her musical history before she became a Pied Piper. JS: Very early on. When we were still with Dor­ sey, Johnny Mercer was a big fan of the Tommy VOLUME 112 BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 2007 Dorsey band and whenever he was in New York and we with off-key and off-ternpo piano and vocals. were playing there, or out here at the Palladium, he’d They caused a mild sensation with both musi­ always come to see the band. On one of those visits, he cians and fans. told me and the Pipers that he was forming this record company and if and when we ever left T ommy he ’ d like BBJ: Tell us about the Jonathan and Darlene to talk to us about coming with the record company as recordings. a quartet. He’d like to have me do some solo work, too. JS: That was a good parlor trick, to put it on with Several months after we left Tommy we did come back other records and have this sound start coming out here to California and got in touch with John. He out. People would just look at each other, and they was as good as his word and signed us to Capitol didn’t know whether to say anything or not, and some Records which was a very new company then. It was listeners were perfectly happy with it. a wonderful place to work because the whole thing was run by strictly musicians. BBJ: How did the Jonathan and Darlene idea come about? BBJ: When you left Capitol and moved to Colum­ bia, was it an emotional move? JS: For years at friend’s houses or little get- togethers, Paul had this silly version of JS: In a way it was except by that time I was so used STARDUST he used to do just for laughs. There was to Paul (Weston, of course) that I wanted to a Columbia Record convention down in Key West and continue working with him and I had it in my contract one night after the meetings they all went into a little bar that if he left the record there and the piano player was pretty much a copy of company I could go too. Jonathan Edwards. After the piano player packed up When he went to Colum­ and left, Paul sat down and played that goofy version of bia, very shortly thereafter ST ARDUST that he ’ d been doing for years out here for I went to Columbia too. fun, and a couple of the guys from Columbia said, “You’ve got to make an album.” Paul thought they BBJ: How long did you were kidding, but they thought it was pretty dam funny and Paul Weston and pretty wonderful. work together before you made it a permanent On the way back on the plane he got cold feet and union? thought: “Well, I need a partner on this; I can’t do the whole thing.” That’s when Darlene came into being. JS: Oh, we were Darlene started because of songs I’ve had to record friends for quite a few years before we really from time to time I really thought were pretty terrible got serious about each other. We were on oppo­ songs. At the end of the record date if we had a few site coasts most of the time and we’d see each minutes, the musicians in the band had an equal opinion other two or three times a year if I’d come out to record of the song and thought it ought to be given the or he’d come east to record, but we were on opposite treatment it deserved. The guys would then play it real coasts for so long. We didn’t really get to know each straight and I would sing it bad. That was where other in a romantic sense until the late ‘40s when I Darlene came from and when Jonathan and Darlene brought my radio show out here to California. Paul was hitched up together the result was five albums. the conductor so we started seeing each other seriously. We were good friends for a long time before we were Daughter Amy Weston sings in the Los Angeles romantically involved. area and son Tim Weston manages Corinthian Records, a label with a catalog of Jo Stafford, For those who don ’t know or have forgotten, Paul Weston and Jo Stafford recorded some purposely Paul Weston and Jonathan and Darlene albums. terrible albums as Jonathan and Darlene Edwards Jo Stafford will be 91 on November 12,h. 2 VOLUME 112 BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 2007 M A R TH A T IL T O N three since Helen and he was dissatisfied and still The Background looking for a singer which I didn’t know. His manager heard me sing those four bars (laughs) and said to Martha Tilton was the second of the permanent vocal­ Benny, “Why don’t you audition this girl? She sounds ists Benny Goodman hired after a series of singers were like she has a really good voice.” So I did. After the either considered or actually with the band for a short rehearsal was over I auditioned time. After the extremely popu­ and sang three or four numbers. lar Helen Ward left there were I was hired right then and there. three songs recorded by Goodman with Ella Fitzgerald. BBJ: Most people remem­ Goodman considered Bea Wain ber you for the record­ but lost her to Larry Clinton. ing of AND THE ANGELS The short tenured list included SING. Margaret McCrae, Frances Hunt, Peg LaCentra and Betty MT: Yes. That was the Van. Martha Tilton joined the big recording I had Goodman organization in mid- with Benny. If s kind of ironic. 1937. The only thing that Benny didn ’ t try to solo on. You know, Ziggy Martha Tilton’s family moved Elman did the trumpet part from Kansas to Los Angeles which was great. He did such a when she was seven years old. goodjobonthat. (Editor’snote: Tilton in the '50s Her mother played the piano Benny Goodman also did not and she recalls singing and playing the piano since she solo on Richard Maltby’s composition SIX FLATS was a little girl. The Benny Goodman association was UNFURNISHED.) the beginning of her wide public acclaim and was the basis for our first question.