Paul Weston enjoyed a long, distinguished, diverse career as a composer, arranger, bandleader, conductor, and pianist, he worked extensively in movies, radio, and television, was instrumental in the creation of the genre that became knows as "Mood Music," had a Grammy-winning musical comedy duet with wife Jo Stafford, and was involved in the founding and growth of National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the organization behind the Grammy Awards.

Born Paul Wetstein in Springfield, Massachusetts, on March 12, 1912, Weston, like so many folks who carve out unique and powerful positions for themselves in the music world, grew up in a music-loving household. Both parents enjoyed music, and Paul was exposed to a variety of sounds as a child, starting piano lessons at a young age. Eventually attending Dartmouth College, he excelled in his study of economics and formed his own band.(1) Moving to New York City after graduation, he studied at Columbia University while beginning to write extensively. It was a train accident during his college years that led him down the path that was to become his life. As his wife Jo Stafford tells it, "...he was hurt pretty badly. And he spent a lot of time after that recuperating in bed. And to pass time, he got some books on arranging. And was just studying it for [a] pastime, and learned a lot.”(2)

He sold his first arrangements to Joe Haymes in 1934, and eventually attracted the attention of Rudy Vallee, who offered Weston a job writing for his radio show. This led to his meeting Tommy Dorsey, whose band he joined and remained with as an arranger for the latter half of the 1930s.(3)

Striking out on his own in 1940, he worked with various artists, including the young Dinah Shore. He soon moved to Los Angeles to work with Bob Crosby on music for his brother Bing's film, Holiday Inn.(4) He continued to work on films and soon met Johnny Mercer, who was in the process of creating Capitol Records. The two got on well, and Weston was brought onboard as a writer/arranger, eventually becoming music director for the new label. He worked with many of its stars, including Jo Stafford, who would later become his wife, and helped the fledgling label begin its climb to prominence.

During this period, as the swing/big band era began to fade from dominance, Weston perceived the shifting tastes of the public and began experimenting with music that would accompany or be a background to life's daily activities and "that wouldn’t compete with conversation."(5) This became known as "Mood Music" (a term Weston may have disliked) and soon became very popular.(6) His 1945 Music for Dreaming is regarded by some as the beginning of the genre. Never one inclined to overly praise his own work, he explained Mood Music this way: "All I did was add strings to a dance band" he once explained. "The reason it still swung was because I used good jazz musicians."(7)

1950 saw him move to Columbia along with his soon-to-be wife Stafford. They married in 1952 and had a son and a daughter.(8) As the 1950s progressed, Weston eventually participated in the production of many top ten records, hosted his own radio show, did some acting, continued his string of Mood Music recordings, and was named musical director for NBC TV in 1957. Becoming a prominent figure in the recording capital of the world, he became a force in the group that was to create what became the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which would work to preserve and promote America's burgeoning recording industry. This included their creating the Grammys to celebrate the greatest annual achievements of their industry in the manner of the Oscars and the Emmys.(9)

In the mid-1950s, Weston began playing piano for friends and at parties as a character who would play standards in a rather unconventional (and off-key) manner. This soon took on a life of its own as some record executives really enjoyed it, and it morphed into recordings with Stafford as singer of the musical comedy act Jonathan and Darlene Edwards. They eventually released an album in 1957, The Piano Artistry of Jonathan Edwards; their identities unknown until revealed in a Time Magazine article later that year.(10) The Edwards duo became unlikely stars, and 1960's Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris won the Grammy for Best Comedy Album.(11) The act would continue to have a devoted following and the two would revisit it into the 1980s.

While Weston's talents resulted in his being involved in a very wide range of projects, a large part of his heart always remained firmly in the jazz and popular music genre. Along with Axel Stordahl and Sammy Cahn, in the mid-1940s he was one of the writers of I Should Care and Day By Day, which were very successfully recorded by Frank Sinatra and became jazz standards. In 1958 he worked on what can be considered among his finest achievements, arranging and conducting the fourth in Ella Fitzgerald's classic and historic Song Book series, Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Song Book. The eight Song Book records featured the music of America's greatest songwriters and were arranged by such giants as Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, Nelson Riddle, Billy May, and Buddy Bregman. Weston permanently engraved a spot for himself in what can be considered to be one of the most important and timeless collections of work by any singer in American music history. The record was nominated for multiple awards, and Ella won the inaugural Grammy for Best Vocal Performance, Female.

His career as musical director for television included shows featuring Danny Kaye, Jonathan Winters, Jim Nabors, and Bob Newhart, as well as his wife's Jo Stafford Show, a show for Chevy, and many specials as well.(12, 13) He was also very interested in religious music, and founded Corinthian Records to distribute it. He wrote symphonic works as well, one of which, Crescent City Suite: The Music of New Orleans from 1957, was well-received and especially appreciated in the city it was rooted in. It has been performed by many orchestras and many times in New Orleans, including at the opening of the New Orleans Superdome.(14) In 1971 he was awarded the Trustees' Award from the Grammys for his dedication to helping raise the profile of American music.

By the mid-1970s, Weston and Stafford were mostly retired, and spent a lot of time together and working with charities.Paul eventually passed away on September 20, 1996 at age 84 in Santa Monica, California. He and Stafford had been married for 44 years, and by all accounts-including hers-their marriage was a great one. "Not in the least with us,” she recalled as to whether they had problems. "I can’t speak for everybody, but we never had…the minds just met. No problems."(15) Stafford spent much of her remaining years enjoying her grandchildren and keeping Paul's legacy alive: "I think he would like his music remembered," she concluded. "That would be good for music, wouldn’t it?"(16)

Exceptionally intelligent, Paul Weston seemingly could have taken a variety of career paths but ultimately found music to be his true love. Blessed with a diverse skill set that was very well-developed, he was funny and unpretentious, well-liked, charitable, and a devoted family man. Weston was of one of the figures who built the towering edifice that is mid-20th century American popular music. His legacy is that of a man who was skilled enough to be comfortable in a wide variety of settings, especially when backing female singers, he had the foresight and creativity to help create what came to be known as Mood Music, his skills helped what starteed as a whimsical parody idea evolve into an act that won a Grammy and countless fans, his reputation led him to be in-demand in music, movies, and television and to work with many great musicians. He remains today a figure universally revered for his contributions to American music during the years when the sounds being created in Southern California were reverberating powerfully in their evolution to global dominance.

1-http://collections.music.arizona.edu/westonstafford/Paul/Biography/index.html
2-http://www.bigbandlibrary.com/paulweston.html
3-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Weston
4-https://www.jazzstandards.com/biographies/biography_121.htm
5-http://collections.music.arizona.edu/westonstafford/Paul/Biography/index.html
6-https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-paul-weston-1358629.html
7-https://www.robertfarnonsociety.org.uk/index.php/legends/paul-weston
8-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Weston
9-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Recording_Academy
10-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_and_Darlene_Edwards
11-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_and_Darlene_Edwards
12-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Weston
13-http://collections.music.arizona.edu/westonstafford/Paul/Biography/index.html
14-https://www.corinthianrecordsonline.com/product-page/paul-weston-crescent-city-suite
15-http://www.bigbandlibrary.com/paulweston.html
16-http://www.bigbandlibrary.com/paulweston.html