Jack Jones — the silky-voiced singer who has written hits like “Wives and Lovers” and “The Impossible Dream” but is probably best known these days for singing TV songs love boat Subject – died Wednesday at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif. for two years.
Seven months before Jones’ death, another singer of similar qualities and style, Steve Lawrence, died at the age of 88. , a music that fell out of favor with the boom of rock music. In recent decades, the music has been reborn under a new brand – traditional pop – with rising stars such as Michael Bublé.
Jones had three first hits advertising billboard‘s easy-listening charts (now called adult contemporary): “The Race Is On” (1965), “The Impossible Dream (The Quest)” (1966) and “Lady” (1967). Jones won a Grammy for Best Male Vocal Performance in a Broadway musical for the ballad “The Impossible Dream” man of la mancha. The song also won a Grammy Award for Song of the Year.
In the early 1960s, Jones starred in Tony Velona’s Lollipops and Roses, alongside Burt Bacharach and Hal David. ) won two Grammy Awards for Best Male Vocal Performance.
The latter song peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1964 and also received Grammy nominations for Record and Song of the Year. The lyrics, which warned women to “stop thinking because you have a ring on your finger/You don’t have to try anymore,” are now seen as hopelessly sexist. But if you can get over that, this is one of Bacharach and David’s best hits, with a jazzy arrangement and Jones’ gentle voice.
Jones responded to criticism of the song by changing the lyrics to mock men. But he never removed the song from his album.
“Because it’s a politically incorrect song, I put a disclaimer at the beginning,” he once said. “I hear women still call radio stations and are angry about playing such a sexist song. It’s part of history now, it won a Grammy, and I mean no harm by doing that. It made it happen my career, and I’m grateful for that.
Jones has three top 20 albums on the Billboard 200 chart: Wife and lover, dear heart and Impossible dream. The latter album stayed on the charts for more than a year.
Jones and Lawrence, along with singers such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett and Andy Williams, were the last of the old-school easy-listening music of the 1960s, when rock ‘n’ roll took over Leaderboard dominance.
As Chris Koseluk explains in hollywood reporterJones’ obituary read: “When filmmakers wanted to create an easy-listening ’60s atmosphere, Jones was one of their go-to people. His voice can be heard on the soundtrack good morning vietnam (1987), good guy (1990), reckless (1995), duplex (2003), bobby (2006) and American Hustle (2013), in which he had a guest role. “Lollipops and Roses” accompanies the end credits of the 2008 episode mad Men”.
Jones sang the song of the same name in several films, including a difficult matter (1963), Fall in love with the right stranger (1963) and Where has the love gone? (1964). He performed the final song during the 1965 Oscar telecast, which was nominated for Best Original Song. He opened the 1970 best ever The show was the last pre-recorded Grammy-branded show before live television began the following year, and featured a rendition of Joe South’s “Games People Play,” the song that year won.
Jones’s love boat The theme was created by Paul Williams and Charles Fox during the show’s first eight seasons (1977-85). (Dionne Warwick recorded the song for Season 9.) There’s an element of kitsch to the song, and sure, the show is the most brainless show on television, but Jones’ energetic voice and Williams’ beautiful lyrics (“Love/Life’s sweetest reward”) are works of which they can be proud.
Jones’ recording of ‘The Love Boat Theme’ hacked advertising billboardHit the adult contemporary charts in 1980. carpenter“What I Did for Love” is a classic 1975 Broadway hit chorus line; and the 1976 remake of “With One More Look at You” starring Barbra Streisand a star is born.
In 1998, Jones received her fifth and final Grammy nomination for the album, winning for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance Jack Jones pays tribute to Tony Bennett. Bennett, of course, is one of the few old-school traditional pop performers to have thrived in recent decades. (Fun fact: Bennett’s “I Wanna Be around” and Jones’s “Wives and Lovers” were both nominated for Record of the Year at the 1964 Grammy Awards. Both lost to Henry Mancini’s “The Days of Wine and Roses” .
Jones continued to appear in casinos, performing arts centers, and dance halls until shortly before his death. Jones was married to actress Jill St. John from 1967-69. They were one of the top celebrity couples of their era, each having highly successful careers. (They don’t look bad either.)
John Allan Jones was born on January 14, 1938 in Los Angeles. night at the opera (1935) and race day (1937). Jones has also appeared in show boat (1936) and had a hit record in 1938 with the film’s “Donkey Serenade” firefly. Jones Sr. performed the latter song on horseback for Janet MacDonald in the 1937 MGM musical. Jack Jones’ mother, Irene Hervey, was a film and television actress who was nominated for a 1969 Primetime Emmy Award for her role in the long-running sitcom my three sons.
Jones lives in Indian Wells, Calif., and has been married six times. He was married to Katie Lee Nuckols (also known as model Lee Larance) from 1960 to 1966; Jill St. John from 1967 to 1969; Gretchen Nuckols from 1967 to 1969; Gretchen Roberts from 1970 to 1971; Katherine Simmons from 1977 to 1982; from 1982 to 2005, he was married to Kim Ely.
In addition to his wife, he leaves a daughter, Crystal Thomas, from his marriage to Ms. Knuckles. Another daughter, Nicole Ramasco, from his marriage to Ms. Ely; two stepdaughters, Nicole Whitty and Colette Peters, from his marriage to Ms. Peters ; and three grandchildren.
