Jack Jones Biography

John Allan "Jack" Jones (born January 14, 1938) is an American jazz and pop singer, popular during the 1960s. Jones was primarily a straight pop singer (even when he recorded contemporary material) whose ventures in the direction of jazz were mostly of the big band/swing variety. Jones won two Grammy Awards. He continues to perform concerts around the world and remains popular in Las Vegas. Jones is widely known for his recordings of "Wives and Lovers" (1964 Grammy Award, Best Pop Male Performance), "The Race Is On", "Lollipops and Roses" (1962, Grammy Award, Best Pop Male Performance), "The Impossible Dream", "Call Me Irresponsible", "Lady", and "The Love Boat Theme".

Musical career

The early years and Capitol Records

John Allan Jones, the only son of actors Allan Jones and Irene Hervey, was born in Los Angeles on the night his father recorded his signature song "Donkey Serenade". The young Jones attended University High School in West Los Angeles and studied drama and singing.

His first professional break was with his father, who was performing at the Thunderbird Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. He recorded several demos for songwriter Don Raye, attracting attention from the music industry. In 1959 Jones was signed to Capitol Records and released the album This Love of Mine and a few singles. One track from the album was "This Could Be The Start Of Something Big".

The Kapp years

While performing at a San Francisco club, he was discovered by Pete King, a producer and artist for Kapp Records, who quickly signed him to the label. In August 1961 he recorded the ballad "Lollipops and Roses" (a song by Tony Velona), which became a hit in the following year. Jones's biggest pop hit was "Wives and Lovers" by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

In the Kapp years, Jones recorded almost twenty albums, including Shall We Dance, This Was My Love, She Loves Me, Call Me Irresponsible, I´ve Got a Lot of Living To Do!, Bewitched, Wives and Lovers, Dear Heart, Where Love Has Gone, The Jack Jones Christmas Album, My Kind of Town, The Impossible Dream, The In Crowd, Jack Jones Sings, Lady, and Our Song. Young, handsome, and well-groomed, Jack Jones was an anomaly in the sixties, eschewing rock and roll trends and opting for the big band sound, lush romantic ballads, and the Great American Songbook, although sometimes he recorded something more pop, country, or bossa nova-oriented. For example, one of his biggest hits was "The Race Is On" by country music legend George Jones (no relation). Besides the choice of material, Jones worked with such arrangers as Billy May, Nelson Riddle, Marty Paich, Shorty Rogers, Jack Elliott, Ralph Carmichael, Bob Florence, Don Costa, and Pete King.

The RCA and MGM years

Jones moved from Kapp (in the UK, London Records) to RCA Records in 1967. His first album in the new company was called Without Her. The following releases, If You Ever Leave Me, L.A. Break Down, and Where Is Love were in roughly the same style of the Kapp records, but with a slightly more contemporary vocal styling. After A Jack Jones Christmas, he changed his musical direction and appearance from the smooth club entertainer of the 1960s Las Vegas scene to the long-haired singer of the early seventies. A Time For Us (1970) was one of the albums which marked his transition towards a middle of the road sound. Jones started to record more contemporary material, including covers of people like Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson, Carole King, Paul Williams, Richard Carpenter, Gordon Lightfoot, and Gilbert O'Sullivan.

The album Bread Winners (1972) was a tribute to Bread, with 8 songs written by David Gates and 2 by Jimmy Griffin and Robb Royer. Two of his more albums of that period were dedicated to two French songwriters: Jack Jones Sings (to Michel Legrand, 1971) and Write Me a Love Song, Charlie with songs by Charles Aznavour (1974).

The Full Life (1977) was produced by Jones and Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys; on this album, Jones recorded "God Only Knows", a Beach Boys classic, and "Disney Girls" (Johnston's most well known Beach Boys contribution " Johnston also wrote "I Write The Songs", made famous by Barry Manilow). His last LP for RCA was With One More Look At You (1977). In 1979, he moved to MGM Records, recording the album Nobody Does it Better, which featured disco track "The Love Boat", a theme from the TV series of the same name, and his Grammy winner, "Wives and Lovers". His second (and last) MGM album, Don't Stop Now, featured duets with Maureen McGovern.

Recent work

Since 1980, he has recorded few albums, and now performs in various concert arenas and occasionally appears on the supper-club circuit. He released the album Live at the London Palladium in 1995, recorded in London on the Emporio label. Jones received recognition in Japan, where a lot of his old records were released on CD. In 1982 he recorded an album for Applause Records, with covers of songs by the likes of The Beatles, Billy Joel, and The Eagles.

Jones released I Am a Singer in 1987 for USA Records, and in 1992 he recorded The Gershwin Album for Sony Music, with songs written by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin. In 1997 came NEW Jack Swing (Honest Entertainment), with Jones giving a big band treatment to old standards and assorted pop/rock songs. Another recent album is Jack Jones Paints a Tribute to Tony Bennett (Honest Entertainment, released in 1999), that was nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance and Record of the Year. In March 2008, Jones celebrated his 70th birthday, and a half-century in show business with a concert at the McCallum Theatre (Palm Springs). Guests included Patti Austin, Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman. In 2010, he recorded an album focusing on the Bergmans' work called Love Makes The Changes. He also released an album featuring new renderings of some of his original hits entitled Love Ballad.

Film, television and theatre

Jones made his movie debut in Juke Box Rhythm (1959), playing Riff Manton, a young singer who is involved romantically with a princess (Jo Morrow). He sings three songs. Jones acted in such minor films as The Comeback and Cruise of the Gods. He also appeared in an episode of The Rat Patrol in the late 60's called The Do-Re-mi Raid. He had a humorous cameo in the film parody Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) as Robert Hays avoids searchlights while escaping captivity, the beams become a spotlight on Jones, performing a verse from The Love Boat theme.

He became a staple on '60s and '70s variety shows, performing on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Dick Cavett Show, The Hollywood Palace, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Jerry Lewis Show, American Bandstand, This is Tom Jones, The Dean Martin Show, The Judy Garland Show, Playboy After Dark, The Jack Benny Program, The Steve Allen Show, and The Morecambe and Wise Show in Britain. He twice hosted NBC's top rated rock and roll series Hullabaloo, and was featured in two prime-time specials, Jack Jones on the Move (1966) and The Jack Jones Special (1974). Jones provided the famous opening theme for the television series The Love Boat from 1977 through 1985, and also made several guest appearances on the show, including one with his father Allan. Prior to that, he also provided the vocals to the theme song of Funny Face, The Kind of Girl She Is. When the show returned as The Sandy Duncan Show, he was replaced by a chorus of unknown men and women. He also guested in the 1960s series The Rat Patrol (season 2, ep. 8, "The Do-Re-Me Raid", where he performed "That Tiny World" in a role as a POW being held by the Germans), Police Woman, McMillan & Wife, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, Match Game, and Night Court. The singer promoted the Chrysler New Yorker in the mid-1970s with the "It's the talk of the town" ad campaign. In 1990, Jones recorded Three Coins in the Fountain, which was used in the film Coins in the Fountain that same year. He also appeared in the Chris Elliot Fox television show "Get a Life." In the episode, Chris' parents wanted to see Jack Jones perform, but the tickets were in his pocket, under 1,000s of pounds of stuff as Chris was trying to set a world record for piling on. In these last two decades, Jones has been active in the musical theater, acting in Guys and Dolls, South Pacific and others. He went to national tour performing Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha and was acclaimed by the critics. He performed a song in an episode of "Phineas and Ferb".

Honors

In 2003, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to Jones.

Personal life

In the second half of the sixties, Jones had a well-publicized relationship with actress Jill St. John and the two were briefly married. In the early seventies, Jones married Gretchen Roberts. Subsequently, he was linked romantically to British actress Susan George. From 1976 to 1982, he was married to Kathy Simmons. From 1982 to 2005, he was married to British-born Kim Ely and they had a daughter, Nicole (born in 1991). The singer has another daughter, Crystal Thomas, from a former marriage to Lee Fuller. Jones now lives with wife Eleonora in Indian Wells, in Riverside County, California.

Discography

Singles

Year	Single	Chart positions
		US	US " AC
1962	"Lollipops and Roses"	66	6
1963	"Call Me Irresponsible"	75	-
	"Wives and Lovers"	14	9
	"Toys in the Attic"	92	-
1964	"Love with the Proper Stranger"	62	17
	"The First Night of the Full Moon"	59	12
	"Where Love Has Gone"	62	12
	"Dear Heart"	30	6
1965	"The Race Is On"	15	1
	"Seein' the Right Love Go Wrong"	46	9
	"Travellin' On"	132	-
	"Just Yesterday"	73	5
	"The True Picture"	134	27
	"Love Bug"	71	5
1966	"The Weekend"	123	20
	"The Impossible Dream (The Quest)"	35	1
	"A Day in the Life of a Fool"	62	4
1967	"Lady"	39	1
	"I'm Indestructible"	81	-
	"Afterthoughts"	-	19
	"Now I Know"	73	3
	"Our Song"	92	13
	"Open for Business as Usual"	130	26
	"Live for Life"	99	9
1968	"If You Ever Leave Me"	92	5
	"Follow Me"	117	20
	"I Really Want to Know You"	-	15
	"The Way That I Live"	-	33
	"L.A. Break Down (and Take Me In)"	106	21
1970	"Sweet Changes"	-	24
	"I Didn't Count On Love"	-	38
1971	"Let Me Be the One"	-	18
1972	"Games Of Magic"	-	?
1974	"She Doesn't Live Here Anymore"	-	45
1975	"What I Did for Love"	-	25
1977	"With One More Look at You"	-	21
1980	"Love Boat Theme"	-	37

Albums

• This Love of Mine (1959, Capitol)
• Shall We Dance? (1961, Kapp)
• This Was My Love (1961, Kapp)
• I've Got a Lot of Livin' To Do (1961, Kapp)
• Gift of Love (1962, Kapp)
• Call Me Irresponsible (1963, Kapp)
• She Loves Me (1963, Kapp)
• Wives and Lovers (1963, Kapp)
• Bewitched (1964, Kapp)
• Where Love Has Gone (1964, Kapp)
• The Jack Jones Christmas Album (1964, Kapp)
• In Love (1964, Capitol)
• Dear Heart (1965, Kapp)
• My Kind of Town (1965, Kapp)
• There's Love & There's Love & There's Love (1965, Kapp)
• For the 'In' Crowd (1966, Kapp)
• The Impossible Dream (1966, Kapp)
• Jack Jones Sings (1966, Kapp)
• Lady (1967, Kapp)
• Our Song (1967, Kapp)
• What the World Needs Now is Love! (1968, Kapp)
• Curtain Time (1968, Kapp)
• Jack Jones in Hollywood (1968, Kapp)
• Jack Jones' Greatest Hits (1968, Kapp)
• Without Her (1968, RCA)
• If You Ever Leave Me (1968, RCA)

• Where is Love? (1968, RCA)
• The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom [Soundtrack] (1968, RCA)
• L.A. Break Down (1969, RCA)
• A Jack Jones Christmas (1969, RCA)
• A Time for Us (1970, RCA)
• In Person at The Sands (1970, RCA)
• Jack Jones Sings Michel Legrand (1971, RCA)
• A Song for You (1972, RCA)
• Bread Winners (1972, RCA)
• Together (1973, RCA)
• Harbour (1974, RCA)
• Write Me a Love Song, Charlie (1974, RCA)
• What I Did for Love (1975, RCA)
• The Full Life (1977, RCA)
• With One More Look at You (1977, RCA)
• Nobody Does It Better (1979, MGM)
• Don't Stop Now (1980, MGM)
• Jack Jones (1982, Applause)
• I Am a Singer (1987, USA Music Group)
• The Gershwin Album (1992, Sony)
• Live at the London Palladium (1995, Emporio)
• New Jack Swing (1997, Honest)
• Paints a Tribute to Tony Bennett (1998, Honest)
• This Could Be The Start of Something Big (197?, Sears) <unlisted LP owned by HT of www.BlackShellac.com>
• Love Makes The Changes (2010, Aspen Records, recorded at Nola Studios for jackjonesmusic.com)
• Love Ballad (2011, Aspen Records)