Paul Weston

Paul Weston was an American pianist, arranger, composer and conductor. Weston was born Paul Wetstein in Springfield, Massachusetts.

After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1933, Weston became an arranger for Rudy Vallee’s Fleischmann’s 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 1942. Subsequent films as musical director include Belle of the Yukon and Road To Utopia. Weston arranged Ella Fitzgerald’s album Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook, devoted to the music of Irving Berlin.

Among songs he composed are I Should Care and Day by Day, both of which were collaborations with Sammy Cahn and Axel Stordahl and became major hits for Frank Sinatra. In 1942, songwriter Johnny Mercer, Glenn Wallichs and Buddy DeSylva formed Capitol Records and engaged Weston as the label’s musical director. Weston also began working on radio with Mercer and Capitol singer Jo Stafford. Stafford signed with Columbia Records in 1950 and Weston also joined Columbia. In 1952, Weston and Stafford married 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 her ability to sing off-key deliberately while Paul satirically played out of tune on the piano accompaniment. They assumed the personas of Jonathan and Darlene Edwards for these musical parodies. In addition to his contributions to popular music, Weston composed two symphonic suites, one of which, Crescent City Suite, has been performed many times in New Orleans and elsewhere. He also had two Masses and many hymns published by the Gregorian Institute of America.