Well now !!....this selection and the one below might not be everyone's cup of tea !!!..but to me it's fantastic knowing who Johnathan and Darlene really are !!..so if the sound bite might put you off give it a download and hear the artistry of two great performers doing something different..!!!..and have a good belly laugh !!
Jonathan and Darlene Edwards were a musical comedy double act developed by American conductor and arranger Paul Weston, and his wife, singer Jo Stafford. The routine was conceived in the 1950s, and involved Weston playing songs on the piano in unconventional rhythms, while Stafford sang off-key in a high pitched voice. The couple released five albums and one single as the Edwards, and their 1960 album, Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris won that year's
Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.
Weston first assumed the role of a bad lounge pianist in the mid-1950s, as a way of entertaining guests at Hollywood parties, but was urged to record an album of songs in the unconventional style after giving an impromptu performance in 1956. At the time, he was working for Columbia Records, and after hearing Weston's rendition of "Stardust" at a sales convention in Key West, Florida, Columbia executives George Avakian and Irving Townsend encouraged him to record an album of similar tracks. Avakian named Weston's character Jonathan Edwards after the 18th century Calvinist preacher of the same name and asked him to record under that alias, but fearing he would not have enough material to record a full album, Weston asked his wife to join the project. Stafford, a classically trained singer with the ability to sing both in and out of tune, readily agreed, and named her character Darlene Edwards.
Their first album, The Piano Artistry of Jonathan Edwards was released in 1957, but Weston and Stafford did not admit to being behind the act until Time magazine identified them in an article in September 1957. The Jonathan and Darlene Edwards act won the couple many fans, including some among their show business peers such as the pianist George Shearing, but their 1979 cover of the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" was disliked by the band.
1. I Love Paris
2. Dizzy Fingers
3. Take The A Train
4. You're Blase
5. Alabamy Bound
6. Nola
7. I Am Woman
8. Don't Get Around Much Anymore
9. The Last Time I Saw Paris
10. Honeysuckle Rose
11. Autumn In New York
12. Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee
13. April In Paris
14. Stayin' Alive
14. Staying Alive
6. Nola
👍 !
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