Jack Jones, a prolific nightclub singer whom Frank Sinatra once called “showbiz's next big star,” has died at age 86.
Jones died Wednesday night at Eisenhower Health in Rancho Mirage after a two-year battle with leukemia, his manager Milt Suchin confirmed Thursday to The Times. Suchin said Jones “passed peacefully hand in hand with his wife Eleonora and his beloved toy poodle, Ivy.”
The Grammy-winning baritone, who released more than 50 albums during his career, is best known for performing the theme song to the ABC sitcom “The Love Boat,” which ran for nine seasons from 1977 to 1986. Originally released as a single. in 1979, with a cover of Barry Manilow's “Ready to Take a Chance Again” on the B-side, Jones' disco-style tune has been covered by artists including Charo and Olivia Newton-John.
Also an actor, Jones' credits included 1959's “Juke Box Rhythm,” the 1978 horror film “The Comeback” and the 2002 television movie “Cruise of the Gods.” He even made a cameo as a nightclub singer in the 2013 film “American Hustle.”
Once considered Frank Sinatra's heir, Jones was described by Ol' Blue Eyes himself as “the best potential singer in the business. “He has a distinction, an integral quality that puts him potentially three lengths ahead of everyone else.”
In addition to two Grammy Awards, Jones has been honored with stars on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars and the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
John Allan Jones was born on January 14, 1938 in Hollywood, son of singer Allan Jones and Emmy-nominated actress Irene Harvey. It was the same day his father recorded his hit “Donkey Serenade,” which appeared in the 1937 musical film “The Firefly,” co-starring Jones' father, according to Jones. website.
Jones attended University High School in West Los Angeles while studying theater and voice with private teachers hired by his father. Among his most cherished memories from high school was the day his friend Nancy Sinatra invited his father to sing in their school auditorium. The experience solidified Jones' aspirations to become a professional singer.
Weeks after graduating from high school in 1957, Jones made his professional debut as part of his father's act, first in Elko, Nevada, and then at the Thunderbird Hotel in Las Vegas. A short time later he went solo.
His first break came when a demo he recorded for composer Don Raye found its way to Capitol Records, which signed the newcomer in 1959. There he released his debut album, “This Love of Mine,” the album. desert sun reported.
Following creative differences with the legacy label, Jones moved to Kapp Records, where she released her first hit single, “Lollipops and Roses,” in 1961, the outlet reported. The song earned him his first Grammy Award in 1962 for Best Solo Vocal Performance.
Jones was still working his “day job” as a gas station attendant when he released his first album with Kapp, and was delighted when one day, while washing a customer's windshield, he heard their song on the radio. She went on to release 19 albums with Kapp Records and then earn another Grammy, for her 1963 single “Wives and Lovers,” which peaked at No. 14 on Billboard's Hot 100.
Kapp “put the melody on the B-side of the single,” Jones said. The times in 1993, “but the disc jockeys turned it around and played it anyway.”
After the song drew criticism for its “politically incorrect” themes, Jones told The Times that he replaced the lyrics “Hey girl, do your hair, fix your makeup” with the alternative lines “Hey little one, cover your teeth, fix your false”.
In the late 1960s, Jones moved to RCA Victor and transitioned to a more contemporary sound. Their album “A Time for Us” (1969) includes covers by renowned composers such as Randy Newman, Carole King and Gilbert O'Sullivan.
Jones gave up his smoking habit in 1980, maintained control of his soft voice into his 80s, and made regular appearances in casino nightclubs, Washington Post reported.
A resident of the Coachella Valley for the past several decades, Jones received a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars in 2003. Celebrating his 80th birthday at Palm Desert's McCallum Theater in 2018, he joked that because many of his “Rivals” in singing were deceased, his ambition was “to be the best singer in the world by default,” the Desert Sun reported.
Jones is survived by his wife Eleonora Donata Peters and stepdaughters Nicole Whitty and Colette Peters; his daughter Crystal Thomas, from his marriage to Katie Lee Nuckols; his daughter Nicole Ramasco, from his marriage to Kim Ely; and three grandchildren.
