Customer Reviews

Jonathan and Darlene's Greatest Hits

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Two extremely talented performers: singer, Jo Stafford and her husband/pianist/arranger/conductor, Paul Weston evidentally used to entertain at parties by performing as the UNtalented Jonathan and Darlene Edwards. Their "act" became so popular that recordings had to be made. Everyone knows that there are 8 notes in a scale from Do up again to Do. Not for Darlene. I have a feeling there are 23 notes in her scale and not many of them sound 'right' to normal ears. And her sense of rhythm? Whoa! Jonathan, of course, is right there next to her pumping away at his piano adding more notes & flourishes than the composer actually wrote. Some of the songs on this hysterical album were unknown to me ("You're Blase")and others are famous, such as Cole Porter's "I Love Paris." Every song is done in a version you'll never hear anywhere else....or maybe, if you're really unlucky you will hear your own Darlene and Jonathan whenever friends of yours sit down to entertain you. Perhaps you could give those friends a copy of this album and they'll never play and sing again. This very, very funny CD also comes with a clever interview featuring the Edwards couple, themselves. Here is an example: when asked about recording "Stayin' Alive," Darlene comments, "...I was just trying to get through that song. I didn't really have enough time to let my vocal talents come through because there were an awful lot of words."

Humor in music takes many forms, but rarely as laugh-out-loud funny as what singer Jo Stafford and pianist Paul Weston accomplish here, appearing as their alter-egos, Darlene and Jonathan Edwards. As Darlene, Stafford has amazing control singing deliberately off-key, and generally mutilating a sheaf of popular standards to utterly hilarious effect. Weston is equally superb at the keyboard, scrambling around with fractured rhythms, phrases that trail off into nothing, and in general matching his wife in seemingly effortless clowning and sophistication.

The city of Paris seems to elicit special inspiration from these two, and you will probably never be able to hear "I Love Paris" again without recalling Darlene's transformation of the song into a somber, out-of-tune valentine. Ditto for the adorably clunky mess made from "The Last Time I Saw Paris" and the bad and resoundingly memorable "April in Paris." In addition to these mangled "oldies," two contemporary tracks are given the star treatment: Darlene's earnest "I Am Woman" (that would probably give Helen Reddy a heart attack), and a hapless "Stayin' Alive" that ends the recording with some stunningly out-of-tune howling. This track alone will probably leave you with your mouth hanging open.

I can't think of another singer/pianist team that combined such superb musicianship with inspired comic timing. One of the funniest recordings ever.

I'm delighted that these classic performances are now available on CD. Years ago I had the pleasure (I guess) of seeing Jo Stafford and Paul Weston as "Jonathan and Darlene" on TV, giving their unique interpretation of "I Love Paris." They were just as hilarious to watch as to listen to, with Jonathan smiling blissfully as he bumbled on and around the keyboard, and Darlene leaning seductively against the piano and snapping her fingers -- just off tempo. These recordings, along with Anna Russell's incomparable dissection of Wagner's Ring Cycle, are among the few comedy records that have stood the test of time.

This CD, as well as the also available Vol.2, are for people who enjoy a humorous take on bad lounge singers and instrumentalist. Darlene (actually big-band singer Jo Stafford, a great vocalist) hits just about every note possible if not always at the right time or exactly on pitch. Jonathan (the pianist-leader of the small ensemble are "played" by Jo Stafford's real-life husband) just can't seem to get a hold on the rhythms or tempos yet he plays and conducts with gusty. These characters were created by the famous couple as a party joke and eventually they recorded many songs as Jonathan and Darlene Edwards. From music of the 20's, to disco, they remind us that not everyone can sing or play in tune or in rhythm, but everyone can enjoy music.

It took a few years, but finally the secret was publicly out: Darlene Edwards was not Margaret Truman, as many had guessed, but none other than the vocalist with the serene and silky, solid and reassuring voice on so many top-ten recordings of the '40s and '50s ("You Belong to Me" being her most remembered): Jo Stafford, accompanied by her husband (not Jonathan Edwards but Paul Weston).

From her days with Tommy Dorsey, Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers through her long association with Johnny Mercer and Capitol records, Stafford sang much quality material from the Great American Songbook, but she also recorded a lot of pop ephemera (Jumbalaya, Shrimp Boats) and sentimental schmaltz (Serenade of the Bells). If redemption were in order, the present recording certainly provides it. It's good to know that all along she had a sense of humor about the whole business.

As early as 1947 Stafford showed her light side with a hillbilly version of the exotic scorcher "Temptation," which she called "Timtayshun." (Especially hilarious if you know the original. I once played Hammond organ in Boston's combat zone for a humorless and bossy, featured exotic artist who insisted on the same 4 numbers: "Shangri-La" (the arouser), "Harlem Nocturne" (the seducer), "Misirlou" (the exciter), and finally the overpowering climax: "Temptation"--"you came, I was alone, you were my own, it was thrilling, I was willing." Wish I'd had the guts to do a Jo Stafford variation on the tune).

But her three albums (recorded in the 50s, 60s, and 70s) under the alias Darlene Edwards rank among the greatest musical send-ups of all time (slightly ahead even of Florence Foster Jenkins and Mrs. Miller). This compilation is a good representation of songs from all three albums--from "Take the 'A' Train" (I wonder what Duke and Billy Strayhorn thought at the time) to her hilarious take on the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive." Sandwiched in between are a couple of songs about Paris that all but permanently puncture the romantic mythos surrounding the city.

Musicians will undoubtedly find this collection funnier--and paradoxically impressive (try singing the melody a half step above or below the piano's pitch!)--than non-musicians. But anyone who's attended amateur recitals or performances that didn't go as planned should get sufficient chuckles out of the recording to make it a worthwhile pick-up. As painfully funny as these performances are, it's "earned" humor. Rarely do the performers resort to slapstick and over-the-top gags (P.D.Q. Bach I find decidedly unfunny for this reason). With humor, less is more, and understatement serves both of the Edwardses especially well.

Time will tell, but for some of us this musical parody could indeed turn out to be Jo Stafford's most memorable legacy (though her exquisite reading of the underrated, sublime "Haunted Heart" certainly deserves enshrinement), out-lasting even those Egyptian pyramids she sings about in "You Belong to Me." (Romantic love, as many discover, is not nearly as eternal as well-conceived and deftly-executed satiric humor.)

As a student in the 60's and 70's, I recall teachers who used the orignal album, "Jonathan & Darlene in Paris," as an example of the extraordinary talent and control required to absolutely crucify classic songs. Jo Stafford's renditions are about the most painful thing your ears will ever hear....or worse, if you've any musical training whatsoever.

In particular, her interpretation of "It's Magic" remains my favorite and can reduce me to tears in the first few notes. I can't imagine what it does to Doris Day.

My parents used to play this at their cocktail parties to see who was paying attention. If attendees didn't catch the whimsy, they were deemed dense. If they sang along in the same cadence and/or pitch they were deemed drunk enough and were served no more but applauded for their efforts.

This is actually a product of two very talented people who probably had a struggle with singing and playing terribly.

I have been looking for LPs of this for 30 yrs at flea markets, garage sales, etc.....it is here at Amazon that I found it. I am extremely gratified. It has helped me separate the chaff from the wheat in the "friend" department!!!!

Haven't laughed so hard in ages. A must hear.

Discarding shopworn notions of pitch and meter, Jonathan and Darlene free the true spirit of music, allowing it to soar stratospherically like a chicken on fire. Not allowing important phrases to be shoehorned into mere single musical measures, they re-define the space-time continuum in ways which only the true cognoscenti can truly understand. Prepare to be transfixed!

Paul Weston and Jo Stafford did such a brilliant job as Jonathan and Darlene Edwards that their first release won the Grammy Award in 1957 as the best comedy album! While every reviewer thus far has discussed Darlene's off-key singing and Jonathan's lack of rhythmic expertise, nobody has mentioned his unusual, yet dreadfully wrong harmonies, a very subtle, yet hilarious musical faux pas. Also, what makes these recordings even more hysterical is the fact that they constantly have musical "foils" -- in the French songs, a string section, in the Roaring 20s songs, a trumpet and tuba, and in the sing-along songs, a sing-along gang. These "foils" go straight ahead, despite all the musical chaos going on around them. They play it absolutely straight and it makes the Edwardses musical mayhem even funnier! These CDs reflect some of the finest and wittiest musical artistry even committed to vinyl! Such musical brilliance is very rare.