The crooner died on Wednesday, Oct. 23 after a two-year battle with leukemia
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Jack Jones, the Grammy-winning crooner who sang the theme song for the classic series The Love Boat, has died. He was 86 years old.
The musician died on Wednesday, Oct. 23 at Eisenhower Medical in Rancho Mirage, Calif., after a two-year battle with leukemia. His stepdaughter, Nicole Whitty, confirmed the news of his death to The Hollywood Reporter.
Jones was born in Los Angeles to Irene Hervey, an Emmy-nominated actress who worked in film and TV for more than 50 years, and singer Allan Jones, who sang the hit song “The Donkey Serenade” and portrayed the romantic male lead in Show Boat (1936) and in the Marx Brothers’ A Night at the Opera (1935) and A Day at the Races (1937).
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Known for his suave vocals, Jones earned attention from the music industry after recording demos for songwriter Don Raye, according to a bio on his website. By 1958, he shared the stage with his dad at the Thunderbird Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The following year, Jones signed to Capitol Records, where he released a handful of singles and his album This Love of Mine.
Jones was perhaps most famously known as the voice behind The Love Boat theme song, beginning in 1977. “Love, exciting and new. Come aboard. We’re expecting you,” he sang on the track from the Aaron Spelling-produced series. He also sang the theme song for the 1968 movie Anzio with “This World Is Yours” and was behind the title song for the 1963 film Love with the Proper Stranger.
Over the years, he found hits with songs like “Lollipops and Roses,” “Wives and Lovers” and “The Impossible Dream.” He also won two Grammy Awards and earned five nominations, and made memorable cameos in movies like Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) and American Hustle (2013).
In 2021, he released the album Every Other Day I Have the Blues.:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(665x0:667x2):format(webp)/jack-jones-singer-102424-06bc811ade604db685669f30b987a2d8.jpg)
Jones tied the knot six times. He was married to actress Jill St. John from 1967 to 1969 and married Gretchen Roberts in 1970. Jones was also romantically linked to actress Susan George. He was married to Kathy Simmons from 1976 to 1982 and to Kim Ely from 1982 to 2005.
In 1991, Jones and Ely welcomed daughter Nicole. He also shares daughter Crystal Thomas with Lee Fuller.
For the last several decades, Jones lived in the Coachella Valley with his sixth wife, Eleonora, whom he married in 2009.