Paul Weston
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see also Paul Weston (In Treatment)
Paul Weston (born Paul Wetstein) (March 12, 1912 – September 20, 1996) was a US pianist, arranger, composer and conductor. Weston was born in Springfield, Massachusetts . He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1933.
Weston became an arranger for Rudy Vallee's Fleischman Hour on radio. In 1936 he joined the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra as chief arranger, holding the position until 1940. He then became Dinah Shore's arranger/conductor and also worked freelance for the Bob Crosby Orchestra. His association with the Crosby unit took him to Hollywood and into film work, starting with Holiday Inn in 1941. Subsequent films as musical director include Holiday Inn (1942), Belle Of The Yukon (1944) and Road To Utopia (1945). 1957 saw Weston arrange Ella Fitzgerald's album Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook, devoted to the music of Irving Berlin.
In 1942 songwriter Johnny Mercer, Glenn Wallichs and Buddy DeSylva formed Capitol Records and engaged Weston as musical director for the label. Weston also began working on radio with Mercer and Capitol songstress Jo Stafford. Stafford signed with Columbia Records in 1950 and Weston also joined Columbia. Weston and Stafford married in 1952 and had two children, Tim and Amy.
Weston had a long career as a musical director for television including the Danny Kaye show. He teamed up with his wife to produce a series of comedy albums based on Jo's ability to sing off-key deliberately while Paul murdered the piano accompaniment. They assumed the personas of Jonathan and Darlene Edwards for these musical travesties.
The couple retired from performing in the 1970s. Weston died on September 20, 1996, in Santa Monica, California. In 2006, Jo Stafford donated her husband's library and her own to the University of Arizona.
