JO STAFFORD Discography

JO STAFFORD (born November 12, 1917 in Coalinga, California) started her musical career in the mid-1930s, when she joined her two older sisters to form a vocal trio named The Stafford Sisters. After her sisters married, the group disbanded. Jo then teamed up with The Pied Pipers, a vocal group which toured with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. After having been their lead singer for six years, she started a solo career in 1944 (her first solo single for Capitol, Old Acquintance, having been issued in 1943).

During the Second World War, her performances and recordings for the armed forces earned her the affectionate nickname “G.I. Jo”. Starring in radio programs like The Chesterfield Supper Club and The Carnation Show further contributed to her popularity. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Jo Stafford dominated the popularity polls and sold up to 25 million records. “You have no idea how famous your mother was”, husband Paul Weston once told their two children, many years later.
Jo Stafford’s popularity began to fade soon after the beginning of the Rock and Roll era. In a 1982 interview, she made an analysis of what happened in these days. I* agree so fully that I have to quote it at length:

"When the Presleys and other first, popular, legend-in-their-own-time performers started to come along it was the first time in the U.S. where a ten-year-old had enough money to influence something to the extent that they did. So when you've got a ten-year-old picking the music it's going to be pretty simple. Just above the level of a nursery rhyme. The other music is too sophisticated for young ears. I'm not being judgmental at all; it's a simple statement of fact that that's the first time kids had enough money to influence a market and they did."

After her 10-year contract with Columbia Records had ended in 1960, she still recorded a dozen of LP’s – the remake of her 1948 album American Folksongs being the most critically acclaimed one.
In 1966, Jo Stafford went into semi-retirement – only recording a few tracks for Reader’s Digest at the end of the 1960s. Her last record was Gathered Together, a 1970 album featuring religious songs composed by husband Paul Weston. 
Jo Stafford died July 16, 2008 in Century City, Los Angeles, but her music lives on forever.
 

THIS WEBSITE

 
This website will be filled with:

• A full discography of Jo Stafford’s solo records, issued in the US between 1943 and 1971 - with catalog numbers, dates of issue, and other details.
  
• A complete survey of Jo Stafford’s recording sessions. This will be published in the course of 2019.
• The Change Log section will tell you which information has been added since your last visit.
  
• On the page called Your Story, you can tell your own story about Jo Stafford (how you became a fan, what you like about her music – everything you’d like to write about your love for Jo Stafford)

info@jostafford-discography.com is the email address for all your remarks, questions, corrections, stories, etc.

Enjoy your visit!

*ABOUT ME

I, Jörgen Breeman, compiled this discography:

• in the first place, because I want to honor Jo Stafford,
• and in the second place, because I wanted a detailed Jo Stafford discography in which the records are ranked in chronological order.

 I live in the Netherlands and was born there in the year Miss Stafford went into semi-retirement.

The story about how I became a Jo Stafford fan can be found in the Your Story section of this website.

Jörgen Breeman