Joni James (birth name Giovanna Camilla Babbo) was born non the day in 1930 and rose to become one of the most popular singers of the Fifties and Early Sixties. She had 23 top 40 hits from 1952 to 1960, and has sold over 100 million records. She started her career with a local dance group in South Chicago, moved to join a chorus line at a Chicago hotel before deciding to try her luck with a singing career. She changed her name to Joni James on the advise of one of her managers. After being spotted in a television commercial, she was signed by MGM in 1952 and soon had her hit "Why Don't You Believe in Me?," which sold over two million copies.
"Why Don't You Believe Me?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUkWyaCQXds
"How Important Can It Be?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTawWjUfngA
"Have You Heard"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxkgA5Z4FmE
"Your Cheatin' Heart"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFUpLAN3gNA
"Almost Always"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_boal0Mf4tA
"My Love, My Love"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwVjr-t7EAw
"You Are My Love"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaKp0PyBmlY
"You Belong to Me"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXfs0YEG1Pk
"There Goes My Heart"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZGZwqYFWAM
"When I Fall in Love"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSmctsEIIwA
"You Don't Know Me"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0rLwcBW-lA
"You're Breaking My Heart"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwOkViC4ZA8
"Vaya con Dios"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMPJoHcS_lA
"Secret Love"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fENKshMhL-w&list=PL6F8BBF7574D78ED5&index=12
"Cold, Cold Heart"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwJLim-up5w&list=PL6F8BBF7574D78ED5&index=16
"Let Me Call You Sweetheart"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCzCo2GlX_k&list=PL6F8BBF7574D78ED5&index=18
"On a Slow Boat to China"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aJFIuUg4ng&list=PL6F8BBF7574D78ED5&index=20
"The Party's Over"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRuZnSSqXrg&list=PL6F8BBF7574D78ED5&index=24
My mother was a Camilla, as well, with a unrelated nickname (since she liked Milly/Millie or Cammie less than Camilla...I can see why, though I've always thought Camilla is a pretty good name, rather better than Todd in the '70s at very least, when it was everyone's default name of a fictional/dramatic character with a lodged pole).
ReplyDeleteI think Todd is a noble name. Much better than Ralph, my given name.
DeleteWell, I took some comfort in its sinister tinge (meaning "fox", and the Old English ties to evil Mr. Fox figures, in part sparking, perhaps, from the German death terminology). Ralph definitely got an even worse rap in the last century, or its latter half...and even the Brit pronunciation is sadly suspect...sorry about that. Are you a Jerrold/Gerald by middle name? For some reason, my parents named my sister and then always called her, as everyone did, by her middle name. And, thanks for the benison!
DeleteNope, my middle name is Harold but I have been called Jerry since Day One. The Ralph is for my father and the Harold is for a friend of parents who was killed in World War II, Harold Speed, whose nickname was Jerry -- don't know why but I do know that it was not from his middle name. Thus, my name is an unknowable mystery. BTW, Jack's middle name is Harold, in part for me and in part for Kitty's father.
DeleteA good voice with a gentle brassy attack, sometimes like a muted trumpet...and she was robbed as the first to record "You Belong to Me", unless her small label first recording was Much worse than her MGM Records version After Jo Stafford's cover was the massive hit.
ReplyDeleteWhy have I never heard of her?
ReplyDeleteI think she hit her stride just a few years before our time, Patti, just as the pop musical landscape was changing. Your folks surely would have known of her.
DeleteI'm slightly embarrassed to not remember hearing her, Patti...my parents didn't have any records by her (that survived their parties or the 1967 flood in Fairbanks)...she had a sustained and multi-"gold" and "platinum" career, apparently.
ReplyDeleteJo Stafford's voice is more saxophonic...a trading verses duet on "You Belong to Me" by both would be Something to hear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jU2eZzb9fA
ReplyDeleteThe Stafford version was also the first #1 hit single released in the UK attributed to a woman artist, which seems insane (Vera Lynn?) till one learns apparently no one in Britain bothered with that kind of chart till 1952. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Belong_to_Me_(1952_song)#:~:text=%22You%20Belong%20to%20Me%22%20is,UK%20and%20US%20singles%20charts.
ReplyDeletePublic access TV, but "James"/Babbo is gracious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qea90w-7UlQ "In October 2001, just a few weeks after 9/11, she appeared at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, accompanied by the Count Basie orchestra." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joni_James
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ReplyDeleteDomesticating foxes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFClIlkLoVA
ReplyDelete