Researching Jack Jones

Jones is primarily a straight-pop singer (even when he recorded contemporary material) whose forays into jazz are mostly of the big-band/swing variety. He has won two Grammy Awards.

Jones continues to perform concerts around the world and remains popular in Las Vegas. He is perhaps most widely known for his recordings of "Lollipops and Roses" (1962 Grammy Award, Best Pop Male Performance), "Wives and Lovers" (1964 Grammy Award, Best Pop Male Performance), "The Race Is On", "The Impossible Dream", "Call Me Irresponsible", and "The Love Boat Theme". He also sang the opening theme tune for the 1968 film Anzio ("This World Is Yours").

He was a native of Philadelphia and the first African-American news anchor in the Philadelphia market. He first joined WCAU-TV fresh out of high school as a copy editor. While both continuing his education and working for channel 10 he first became a weekend booth announcer then rising in 1971 to reporter. It was said that John Facenda recognized his talent and mentored him. He eventually rose to the position of 11PM news anchor, but was let go in favor of Ralph Penza in 1976. He then moved to KYW-TV, then WLS-TV in Chicago. He returned to KYW-TV in 1983 and died at the age of 41 on March 5, 1991 of pancreatic cancer.

The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia posthumously inducted Jones into their Hall of Fame in 2004.

Born in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, Jones moved to London where he worked as a builders' labourer. He joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) and was elected to West Ham Council in 1904.

In the 1906 general election, Jones unsuccessfully stood for Camborne. In 1911, he became a trade union organiser, for the National Union of General Workers.

In the 1914 Poplar by-election, Jones stood unsuccessfully for the British Socialist Party (BSP) - the successor of the SDF.

As a supporter of World War I, he joined the National Socialist Party split from the BSP, which soon affiliated to the Labour Party.

In the Coupon election, he stood against an official Labour candidate in Silvertown - the official candidate being an anti-war supporter of the Independent Labour Party.

He became one of several National Socialist Party candidates elected, but the only one who stood for the party, rather than for the Labour Party. Despite this, he took the Labour Party whip in 1919.

Jones was described by Time Magazine as "the wittiest man in the House of Commons". He held his seat in each election until he resigned in February 1940. He died the following year.

He was a keen football and cricket fan, and his autobiography was entitled, "My Lively Life".

Jones was born in Rotherham, and educated at Port Talbot School, at an elementary school in Rotherham, and at Bangor University. He worked as a steel smelter, and during World War I he served in the Middle East with the East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry.

He was elected at the 1945 general election as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolton, and held the seat until the constituency abolished in 1950. He was then elected as MP for Rotherham at the 1950 general election, and held the seat until he was killed in a road accident on Halloween 1962.

Jones was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Lord Pakenham while he was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and to the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs Christopher Mayhew from May to October 1947. He was a joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Supply from October 1947 to 1950.

He was born in Seymour to carpenter Charles Alexander Jones and Sarah Anne Bryant. He attended the local primary school and became a telegraph messenger and telephone technician. In 1928 he joined the Labor Party, and in 1934 was a founding member of the Nhill branch; he also served as secretary of the Stawell branch for 23 years. On 5 May 1936 he married Alice Edna Paschke, with whom he had a daughter. During World War II he was a signalman. In 1952 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council for Ballarat Province. He served until his defeat in 1958 and did not return to parliament, although he ran unsuccessfully for both upper and lower house seats in 1961, 1964, 1967 and 1970. Jones died in 1997.