{"id":2192,"date":"2024-10-26T14:09:15","date_gmt":"2024-10-26T14:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/?p=2192"},"modified":"2024-10-26T14:09:15","modified_gmt":"2024-10-26T14:09:15","slug":"jack-jones-wives-lovers-love-boat-theme-singer-dies-86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/?p=2192","title":{"rendered":"OBITUARY NEWS: Jack Jones, \u201cWives and Lovers\u201d and \u2018Love Boat\u2019 Theme Singer, Dies at 86"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jack<\/p>\n

Jack Jones, the silky Grammy-winning crooner who had hits with \u201cLollipops and Roses,\u201d \u201cWives and Lovers\u201d and \u201cThe Impossible Dream\u201d before inviting TV viewers to set a course for adventure on\u00a0The Love Boat<\/em>, has died. He was 86.<\/p>\n

Jones died Wednesday night at Eisenhower Medical in Rancho Mirage, California, after a two-year battle with leukemia, his stepdaughter Nicole Whitty told\u00a0The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jones was born into a showbiz family. His mother, Irene Hervey, was an Emmy-nominated actress who spent more than 50 years in film and on television. His father, tenor Allan Jones, portrayed the romantic male lead in\u00a0Show Boat\u00a0<\/em>(1936) and in the Marx Brothers\u2019\u00a0A Night at the Opera<\/em>\u00a0(1935) and\u00a0A Day at the Races<\/em>\u00a0(1937), and he managed a hit song of his own with\u00a0\u201cThe Donkey Serenade.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

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For eight seasons and more than 200 episodes of ABC\u2019s\u00a0The Love Boat<\/em>\u00a0starting in 1977, Jones extolled the virtues of romance on the high seas \u2014 \u201cLove, exciting and new. Come aboard. We\u2019re expecting you\u201d \u2014 with his\u00a0theme song<\/a>\u00a0for the Aaron Spelling-produced series. (Dionne Warwick took over in season nine.)<\/p>\n

Featuring words and music by Charles Fox and Paul Williams, the tune added a new layer to Jones\u2019 decades-long career.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of\u00a0The Love Boat<\/em>\u00a0theme, everything was great on ships after that,\u201d Jones told\u00a0Las Vegas Magazine<\/em>\u00a0in 2016. \u201cI did six weeks a year. They gave me the best suite on the ship, and it was the S.S. Norway. We just had a great time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones released \u201cThe Love Boat Theme\u201d as a single in 1979, with a cover of Barry Manilow\u2019s \u201cReady to Take a Chance Again\u201d on the B-side, and the song became a concert staple. But that didn\u2019t mean he wasn\u2019t above poking fun at it.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Airplane II: The Sequel<\/em>\u00a0(1982), he can be seen performing the theme song in a cameo as a tuxedo-clad lounge singer. And when Sandra Bullock gets ready for virtual sex with Sylvester Stallone in\u00a0Demolition Man<\/em>\u00a0(1993), she sets the mood by playing his song.<\/p>\n

Known for his breezy, ladies\u2019 man persona onstage, Jones was married six times, most notably to actress Jill St. John for slightly more than a year in the late 1960s. He also was romantically linked to actress Susan George.<\/p>\n

In 1959, Jones landed his first recording contract with Capitol Records, which released his debut album,\u00a0This Love of Mine<\/em>. On that was his spritely rendition of the Steve Allen composition \u201cThis Could Be the Start of Something Big.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Capitol, which was trying to turn Jones into a rockabilly singer, dropped him, but Kapp Records picked him up, and he struck gold right out of the gate with \u201cLollipops and Roses,\u201d recorded while he was on two weeks\u2019 leave from the U.S. Air Force Reserve.<\/p>\n

A romantic ballad written by Tony Velona, it proved to be ideal for Jones\u2019 velvety tones. The single reached No. 12 on Billboard\u2019s Adult Contemporary chart, earned him a Grammy in 1962 for best male solo vocal performance and made him an heir apparent to\u00a0Frank Sinatra.<\/p>\n

After he found success a year later with \u201cCall Me Irresponsible,\u201d which Sinatra had recorded, Jones collected another Grammy in 1964 for\u00a0\u201cWives and Lovers.\u201d\u00a0The bouncy Burt Bacharach-Hal David\u00a0composition rose to No. 14 on Billboard\u2019s Hot 100 and was nominated for Record of the Year but lost to Henry Mancini\u2019s \u201cDays of Wine and Roses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kapp \u201cput the tune on the B-side of the single,\u201d Jones told the\u00a0Los Angeles Times<\/em>\u00a0in 1993, \u201cbut disc jockeys turned it over and played it anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the years, \u201cWives and Lovers\u201d became another one of his standards. But with lyrics that basically instructed women to kowtow to their husbands to keep them faithful \u2014 \u201cDon\u2019t think because there\u2019s a ring on your finger, you needn\u2019t try anymore\u201d \u2014 it didn\u2019t age well. By the \u201990s, there was a growing outcry to ban the song. Jones addressed the backlash by altering the words to poke fun at men. But he never abandoned the tune.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince it\u2019s a politically incorrect song, I start it out with a disclaimer,\u201d he said. \u201cI hear that women still call up radio stations, angry that such a sexist song is being played. It\u2019s now part of history, it won a Grammy, and I meant no harm when I did it. It made my career, and I\u2019m grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>
From left: Singer Allan Jones, actress Irene Hervey, Jack Jones and actress Jill St. John circa 1968.<\/span>\u00a0Courtesy Everett Collection<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

John Allan Jones was born in Los Angeles on Jan. 14, 1938. He said he arrived on the same day that his dad recorded \u201cDonkey Serenade\u201d for RCA Victor. (His father had performed the song on horseback for Jeanette MacDonald in the 1937 MGM musical\u00a0The Firefly<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

Jones was still in his teens when he started recording demos in search of a singing career. By 1958, he was sharing the stage with his dad at the Thunderbird Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if anyone showed you my video bio, but at the beginning of it there\u2019s a shot of a newspaper in Las Vegas, and there was my father, and I was underneath him for smaller billing,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI got that clip from a friend of mine, a drummer, who was helping a guy refurbish a house. They were digging under the floorboards and found this newspaper, and that was the newspaper from when my dad and I were playing the Thunderbird.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taking it full circle, they performed one last time together in 1980 when they appeared as father and son on an episode of\u00a0The Love Boat<\/em>. As Jones remembered it, the storyline was based on a true story.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt supposedly happened to Robert Alda and\u00a0Alan Alda<\/a>,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were supposed to be doing something together, working together, and Alan pulled out to do something that was a big break for him or something like that. And there was a parting of the ways, probably a little less dramatically than it was on the show we did. And the idea was that the wives tricked us into being on the ship together so we could talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, Jones scored nine top 10 singles, including three No. 1s \u2014 \u201cThe Race Is On\u201d in 1965, \u201cThe Impossible Dream\u201d in 1966 and \u201cLady\u201d in 1967.<\/p>\n

Jones received another Grammy nom for \u201cThe Impossible Dream,\u201d the signature song from Broadway\u2019s\u00a0Man of La Mancha<\/em>, and another in 1998 for the album\u00a0Jack Jones Paints a Tribute to Tony Bennett<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When filmmakers wanted to create that easy-listening \u201960s vibe, Jones was one of their go-to guys. He can be heard on the soundtracks for\u00a0Good Morning, Vietnam<\/em>\u00a0(1987),\u00a0Goodfellas<\/em>\u00a0(1990),\u00a0Reckless<\/em>\u00a0(1995),\u00a0Duplex<\/em>\u00a0(2003),\u00a0Bobby<\/em>\u00a0(2006) and\u00a0American<\/em>\u00a0Hustle (2013), on which he had a cameo. \u201cLollipops and Roses\u201d accompanied the end credits on a 2008 episode of\u00a0Mad Men<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In addition to his stepdaughter Nicole, survivors include his wife, Eleonara, whom he married in 2009; his daughters, Crystal and Nicole; another stepdaughter, Colette; grandchildren Grace, Mercer and Agnes; and his poodle, Ivy.<\/p>\n

A Las Vegas headliner for seven decades, he released more than 50 albums during his career and continued to perform into his 80s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want a song to make the audience laugh or make it cry, make a very poignant statement,\u201d Jones said. \u201cLike John Sebastian\u2019s \u2018I Had a Dream.\u2019 The lyric starts, \u2018I had a dream, I dreamed we were all, all right.\u2019 That\u2019s such a wonderful thought.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jack Jones, the silky Grammy-winning crooner who had hits with \u201cLollipops and Roses,\u201d \u201cWives and Lovers\u201d and \u201cThe Impossible Dream\u201d before inviting TV viewers to set a course for adventure on\u00a0The Love Boat, has died. He was 86. Jones died Wednesday night at Eisenhower Medical in Rancho Mirage, California, after a two-year battle with leukemia, 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