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Grammy-winning crooner John Allan Jones, aka Jack Jones in the music scene, has passed away. His stepdaughter, Nicole Whitty, confirmed the news to The Hollywood Reporter that the 86-year-old singer died on the night of Wednesday, October 24, 2024.
He was reportedly suffering from leukemia before he passed away at Eisenhower Medical in Rancho Mirage, California. His death was allegedly because of complications from the disease, said his wife, Eleonora, to The Washington Post.
Jack Jones is famous for the smooth voice that sang the themes for films and television shows like the long-running sitcom The Love Boat in the 1970s and the 80s. He's best known as the voice behind The Love Boat theme. Jones lent his voice to the show for 220 episodes.
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He released The Love Boat theme song as a single in 1979, and he recalled its legacy during a Q&A with Las Vegas Magazine in 2016. He said:
"Because of The Love Boat theme, everything was great on ships after that."
Jack Jones further talked about his making the show's theme song with Neil Sean in 2016. He said that Charlie Fox wrote the lyrics with Paul Willams and that they asked him to sing it. Although he didn't know why they wanted him to do it, he agreed in the end.
However, there was some apprehension on Jones' part, and he said he told Fox and Williams "good luck" because he didn't know if "anybody's going to watch the show about a cruise ship...wrong."
The Love Boat turned out to become one of the most successful sitcoms in history, continuing for 10 seasons as one of the highest-rated shows in the country at the time.
Exploring Jack Jones' legacy as the singer passed away at 86
Jack Jones grew up in the Hollywood circle, but despite his parents being movie stars Allan Jones and Irene Hervey, he made a name for himself in the music scene and left a lasting legacy.
The Love Boat theme aside, he set the mood for several other projects on film and TV with his voice, whether singing the theme song or making a cameo as a singer.
One of his cameos was in Airplane II: The Sequel in 1982, where Jones can be seen playing a tuxedo-clad singer serenading the audience at the lounge.
His voice can also be heard in the background in a scene in Demolition Man, where Sandra Bullock's Lt. Huxley gets ready for her virtual s*x with Sylvester Stallone's Detective Spartan.
Among his other film credits are American Hustle, where he was a Jazz Quartet singer, and the docudrama Back to Black, where he played the trumpets in Amy Winehouse's band. He can also be heard in the soundtracks of numerous titles, like Goodfellas, The Ed Sullivan Show, Good Morning Vietnam, Duplex, The Beatles: The First US Visit, and Mad Men.
Jack Jones also became a household name as a singer outside of performing soundtracks for films and shows. His ballad Lollipops and Roses, which he released in 1961, became a hit and earned him his first Grammy trophy. Two years later, his song Wives and Lovers, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, brought him his second Grammy.
In his decades-long career, Jack Jones has 20 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 list, two Best Traditional Pop Vocal Grammy wins, and five Grammy nominations.
