Paul Weston (né Wetstein; March 12, 1912 – September 20, 1996) was an American pianist, arranger, composer, and conductor who worked in music and television from the 1930s to the 1970s, pioneering mood music and becoming known as "the Father of Mood Music". His compositions include popular music songs such as "I Should Care", "Day by Day", and "Shrimp Boats". He also wrote classical pieces, including "Crescent City Suite" and religious music, authoring several hymns and masses.
Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, Weston had a keen interest in music from an early age and learned to play the piano. He was educated at Springfield High School, then attended Dartmouth College and Columbia University.
At Dartmouth, Weston formed his own band and toured with the college band. He joined Columbia's dance band, The Blue Lions, but was temporarily unable to perform following a rail accident, and did some arrangements while he recovered. He sold his first arrangements to Joe Haymes in 1934. When Haymes requested more material, Weston's music was heard by Rudy Vallée, who offered him work on his radio show. Weston met Tommy Dorsey through Haymes and in 1936 became a member of Dorsey's orchestra. He persuaded Dorsey to hire The Pied Pipers after hearing them in 1938, and the group toured with the bandleader.
After leaving Dorsey in 1940, Weston worked with Dinah Shore and moved to Hollywood when he was offered film work. In California he met Johnny Mercer, who invited him to write for his new label, Capitol Records. Weston became music director there, where he worked with singer Jo Stafford and developed the mood music genre. Stafford moved with him to Columbia Records in 1950, and they were married in 1952.
Weston worked extensively in television from the 1950s to the 1970s. He helped start the Grammy Awards, which were first presented in 1959. He was honored with a Grammy Trustees Award in 1971 and spent three years as music director of Disney on Parade.
Weston and Stafford developed a comedy routine where they assumed the guise of a bad lounge act named Jonathan and Darlene Edwards. Their first album was released in 1957. In 1960, their album Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. Weston's work in music is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Early years and work
Weston was born Paul Wetstein in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Paul Wetstein, a teacher, and Anna "Annie" Grady. The family moved to Pittsfield when Weston was two, and he spent his formative years in the town. He was an economics major at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, where he graduated cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1933. Weston also learned how to play the clarinet so he could travel with the college band. Unable to be active in a band, he started doing music arranging as a way to keep some involvement with music while convalescing. Weston also worked with Fibber McGee and Molly and Paul Whiteman. Many record companies had "stockpiled" recordings of their stars prior to the strike, planning to release them over a period of time. While the older, more established record labels were able to do this, the newly formed Capitol had no opportunity to do likewise. The strike brought the new company to a standstill until Johnny Mercer began his radio show, Johnny Mercer's Music Shop, in June 1943. Stafford and Weston had first met in 1938, when he was working as an arranger for Tommy Dorsey; Weston was responsible for getting Stafford's group, the Pied Pipers, an audition with Dorsey for his radio show. The recording ban was lifted for Capitol in October 1943 after an agreement was reached between the Musicians' Union and the record company; Weston was then able to return to the recording studio. In 1944, he became the company's music director. When appointed, Weston was the youngest musical director for any major record company.
Besides his work at Capitol, Weston did conducting for many radio shows during this time. He worked with Duffy's Tavern, the radio shows of Joan Davis, and Your Hit Parade. Stafford later hosted the show from Hollywood, with Weston and his orchestra. It was around this time that Weston had a new idea for recorded music that would be similar to the soundtrack of a movie. It could be an enhancement to living but subtle enough not to stifle conversation. His album Music For Dreaming was the beginning of the "Mood Music" genre. In 1950, he left Capitol for a similar position at Columbia Records; Jo Stafford also signed with Columbia at the same time.
In mid-1949, Capitol Records issued a promotional ten-inch vinylite record for disk jockeys only, entitled What Is This Thing Called Bop?. Containing orchestration from Weston's orchestra, the disc is a lecture narrated by Tom Reddy, tracing the history of jazz from the era of Lead Belly through various other jazz genres, such as swing, before arriving at bebop, accompanied throughout by musical examples. It was shipped to every major DJ in the United States, Around the same time, the musically schooled Jo Stafford developed a mathematical formula for her single "Jolly Jo (M + H + R x 3ee-oo / 4/4 aa3 x 32 = Bop)", in which she solos a bebop vocal with backing from Weston's instrumental group and vocal assistance from Dave Lambert. and Amy (born 1956). Both returned to Capitol in 1961, leaving the company for Dot Records in late 1965.
Jonathan and Darlene Edwards
thumb|right|Weston and Stafford in the recording studio in 1952.
In 1957 Weston was named musical director for NBC-TV, a position he held for five years, 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.
He 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 in honor of the Calvinist preacher of the same name. Weston was concerned he might not be able to fill an album with the performances of Jonathan Edwards, so he asked Stafford to help. 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. The couple won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album of 1960 for their work as the imaginary pair. While Weston was the conductor for The Danny Kaye Show, his perpetual houseguest, Jonathan Edwards, made an appearance on the program without his singing wife, Darlene. The vocal for I Love a Piano was provided by Kaye as the pair started the television show on March 25, 1964.
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".
alt=|thumb|Stafford and Weston dining in 1954
Grammys
The original idea of honoring those in the recording industry came from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in 1957. Their plan was to propose bronze sidewalk markers to be placed on Hollywood Boulevard (the beginning of the current Hollywood Walk of Fame). The Chamber approached local top recording company executives with the idea, asking for help with a list of those who deserved the honor. Weston was one of the men named to this committee by the Chamber. The committee executives decided all those who had sold a million records or a quarter million record albums during their careers would be candidates for the bronze star markers. As they continued their research, the men on the committee realized that many very important people in the recording industry would not qualify for this type of recognition. This realization prompted the founding of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, whose purpose was to create an award for recording artists. It became known as the Grammy, and the first awards were given in 1959. Paul Weston's dedication to music and recording was recognized with a Trustees' Award Grammy in 1971.
Television and composing
Weston had a long career as a musical director for television, including The Danny Kaye Show, The Jonathan Winters Show, The Jim Nabors Show and for The Bob Newhart Show, a 1961 variety show. He was also the conductor and arranger for his wife's CBS television show from 1954 to 1955, The Jo Stafford Show. Although he did not provide the names of the programs, Weston once said conductors on live television shows, "should also receive a stuntman's check!"
Weston arranged Ella Fitzgerald's album Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Song Book (1957), devoted to the music of Irving Berlin.
Weston also wrote classical and religious music: one of his two symphonic suites, Crescent City Suite, has enjoyed many performances, in the "Crescent City", New Orleans, and elsewhere. It was composed in 1956 and performed in New Orleans at the Municipal Auditorium in 1957 with Weston conducting. There was enough interest in the composition for a version for school bands to be made available in 1959; a symphonic version was also issued. He was the author of many hymns and two Masses which were published by the Gregorian Institute of America. He founded Corinthian Records in the late 1970s, a company which started as a religious music label, but which later became the distributor for the couple's secular albums. Weston died on September 20, 1996, in Santa Monica, California, aged 84. He is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City. In 2006, his widow, Jo Stafford donated her husband's library and her own to the University of Arizona. She died in 2008, aged 90.