Jo Stafford, the voice of the exquisitely off Darlene Edwards, died Sunday.
I remember tagging along with a friend to a CD store in San Francisco that specialized in musicals and show tunes. Not knowing what else to do there, I asked the owner "Do you have anything by Jonathan and Darlene Edwards?" He immediately turned off Judy Garland and put on Darlene's "Autumn in New York." The other customers froze in their tracks.
Her singing was hilarious because her natural voice was basically perfect. She could do anything.
Some nice person has put Jonathan and Darlene on MySpace, and you can listen to my favorite, "Take the 'A' Train." Beyond praise.
The original caption to the 1938-ish photo above:
Jo Stafford, "Queen of the Juke Boxes," and the nations most popular female singing star listens to her latest recordings on the first electronic juke-box in history which has just been introduced by the Aireon Mfg., Corp. Electronic jukes are expected to replace present-day machines which make a bedlam of the country's taverns and other social centers. It cannot blast or blare because its volume is automatically controlled by surrounding room-noise.