Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917 – July 16, 2008) was an American singer of traditional pop music and jazz standards whose career ran from the late 1930s to the early 1960s. Stafford was born in Coalinga, California, to Grover Cleveland Stafford and Anna York Stafford, a distant cousin of World War I hero Sergeant Alvin York. studied voice as a child in order to become an opera singer but abandoned that idea and joined her sisters Christine and Pauline in a popular vocal group, “The Stafford Sisters”.
In the 1950s, she had a string of popular hits with Frankie Laine, six of which charted; their duet of Hank Williams’ “Hey Good Lookin’” making the top ten in 1951. It was also at this time that Stafford scored her best known hits with huge records like “Jambalaya,” “Shrimp Boats,” “Make Love to Me,” and “You Belong to Me”. The last song was Stafford’s all-time biggest hit, topping the charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom (the first song by a female singer to top the UK chart).
The song “Jambalaya” made to the number 3 position on the US charts in 1952. Here it is for your listening pleasure.
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Here is a clip from Jo’s TV show, “The Jo Stafford Show”, with her guest: Peter Lawford, Benny Hill and Kenneth Connor.
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