Admired for the purity of her voice, she originally underwent classical training to become an opera singer before following a career in popular music, and by 1955 had achieved more worldwide record sales than any other female artist.

In 1938, while the sisters were part of the cast of Twentieth Century Fox's production of Alexander's Ragtime Band, Stafford met the future members of the Pied Pipers and became the group's lead singer.

She and Weston developed a comedy routine in which they assumed the identity of an incompetent lounge act named Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, parodying well-known songs.

[11] With her mother's encouragement, Stafford originally planned to become an opera singer and studied voice as a child, taking private lessons from Foster Rucker, an announcer on California radio station KNX.

[16][note 3] The Staffords' first radio appearance was on Los Angeles station KHJ as part of The Happy Go Lucky Hour when Jo was 16, a role they secured after hopefuls at the audition were asked if they had their own musical accompanist(s).

[9][17] The Staffords were subsequently heard on KNX's The Singing Crockett Family of Kentucky, and California Melodies, a network radio show aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System.

[27] The group consisted of eight members, including Stafford—John Huddleston, Hal Hooper, Chuck Lowry, Bud Hervey, George Tait, Woody Newbury, and Dick Whittinghill.

[26][34][35] Stafford, Sinatra, and the Pied Pipers toured extensively with Dorsey during their three years as part of his orchestra, giving concerts at venues across the United States.

[38] Bill Davidson of Collier's reported in 1951 that because Stafford weighed in excess of 180 lb, Dorsey was reluctant to give her a leading vocal role in his orchestra, believing she was not sufficiently glamorous for the part.

[39] In November 1942, the Pied Pipers had a disagreement with Dorsey when he fired Clark Yocum, a guitarist and vocalist who had replaced Billy Wilson in the lineup, when he mistakenly gave the bandleader misdirections at a railroad station in Portland, Oregon.

[41] Following their departure from the orchestra, the Pied Pipers played a series of vaudeville dates in the Eastern United States; when they returned to California, they were signed to appear in the 1943 Universal Pictures movie Gals Incorporated.

[4][47] A key figure in helping Stafford to develop her solo career was Mike Nidorf, an agent who first heard her as a member of the Pied Pipers while he was serving as a captain in the United States Army.

[16] The success of Stafford's solo career led to a demand for personal appearances, and from February 1945, she embarked on a six-month residency at New York's La Martinique nightclub.

[48][49][50] Her performance was well-received; an article in the July 1945 edition of Band Leaders magazine described it as "sensational", but Stafford did not enjoy singing before live audiences, and it was the only nightclub venue she ever played.

[4] Beginning on December 11, 1945, Stafford hosted the Tuesday and Thursday broadcasts of NBC musical variety radio program The Chesterfield Supper Club.

[66] She presented a weekly show that aired in Eastern Europe, and Collier's published an article about the program in its April 21, 1951, issue that discussed her worldwide popularity, including in countries behind the Iron Curtain.

The shows were produced in England and featured British and American guests including Claire Bloom, Stanley Holloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Tormé, and Rosemary Clooney.

"[102] He put on an impromptu performance of the act the following year at a Columbia Records sales convention in Key West, Florida, after hearing a particularly bad hotel pianist.

[4][103] Stafford's creation of Darlene Edwards had its roots in the novelty songs that Mitch Miller, the head of Columbia's artists and repertoire department, had been selecting for her to sing.

In an article titled "Two Right Hands" in September 1957, Time reported that some people believed the performers were Harry and Margaret Truman, but the same piece identified Weston and Stafford as the Edwardses.

[14] The same year, a brief resurgence in the popularity of Jonathan and Darlene albums occurred when their cover of "Carioca" was featured as the opening and closing theme to The Kentucky Fried Movie.

[26][30] Except for the Jonathan and Darlene Edwards material, and re-recording her favorite song "Whispering Hope" with her daughter Amy in 1978, Stafford did not perform again until 1990, at a ceremony honoring Frank Sinatra.

[26][112][113] Around 1983, Concord Records tried to persuade Stafford to change her mind and come out of retirement, but although an album was planned, she did not feel she would be satisfied with the finished product, and the project was shelved.

[75] After the lawsuit was settled, Stafford and her son Tim reactivated Corinthian Records, which Weston, a devout Christian, had started as a label for religious music in the 1970s, and they began releasing some of her old material.

[22][26][39] Music critic Terry Teachout described her as "rhythmically fluid without ever sounding self-consciously 'jazzy' ",[26] while Rosemary Clooney said of her, "The voice says it all: beautiful, pure, straightforward, no artifice, matchless intonation, instantly recognizable.

"[22] Writing for the New York Sun, Will Friedwald described her 1947 interpretation of "Haunted Heart" as "effective because it's so subtle, because Stafford holds something back and doesn't shove her emotion in the listener's face.

"[22] Nancy Franklin described Stafford's version of the folk song "He's Gone Away" as "wistful and tender, as if she had picked up a piece of clothing once worn by a loved one and begun singing.

[121] In 2003, she recalled that rehearsal time was often limited before she recorded a song, and how Weston would sometimes slip musical arrangements under the bathroom door as she was in the bath getting ready to go to the studio.

Her recording of "Blues in the Night" features in a scene of James Michener's novel The Drifters (1971), while a Marine Corps sergeant major in Walter Murphy's The Vicar of Christ (1979) hears a radio broadcast of her singing "On Top of Old Smoky" shortly before a battle in Korea.

[8][22] She declined several offers of television work because she was forced to memorize scripts (as she was unable to read the cue cards without her glasses), and the bright studio lights caused her discomfort.