Paul Weston - Jonathan and Darlene Edwards

Jonathan and Darlene Edwards

1957 was a very busy year for Weston. He became the musical director for NBC-TV, a position he held for five years, a founding member and the first president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and half of a recording duo that the whole country was talking about. Paul and Jo did a skit at their parties where he would play the role of a simply horrible lounge pianist and she would vocalize in off-key melodies to the tunes he tried to play. Weston went public with his portion of the act at a Columbia Records convention, where it was an instant hit; the couple agreed to do some recordings, calling themselves Jonathan and Darlene Edwards. George Avakian, a Columbia Records executive, chose the name of Jonathan Edwards for Weston's act because of the Calvinist preacher. Weston was concerned that he might not be able to fill an album with the performances of Jonathan Edwards, so he asked Stafford to help. She became Darlene Edwards, the off-key singer. It was not immediately known to the public who had really made the records; there was much speculation as to what two famous people might be behind the music, before a 1957 Time article revealed their true identities. In 1958, the fictional couple appeared on Jack Benny's Shower of Stars, and in 1960, on The Garry Moore Show. The couple won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album of 1960 for their work as the imaginary pair. They continued to release Jonathan and Darlene albums for several years, and in 1979 released a cover of The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" backed with "I Am Woman." As Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, the couple released a "sing along" album which Mitch Miller believed put an end to his television show and sing-along records. Their last release, Darlene Remembers Duke, Jonathan Plays Fats, was issued in 1982.