Hank Jones

TIME Magazine recently had a cover-story devoted to genealogy and chose to close the article and tie things together with a quote from Hank Jones. That's a long way from his show-business beginnings: Hank Jones has been in the entertainment field since his days at Stanford University. He and his singing partner Dean Kay were signed by Steve Sholes, Elvis Presley's A&R producer, to an RCA recording contract and, as "Hank & Dean," recorded many singles and an album, "Arrival Time," for RCA. At the same time, they won an open audition over 1,000 other talented performers and were signed to co-star on the old daytime Tennessee Ernie Ford television show on ABC, logging 400 network appearances on the program. Hank also recorded with Ernie Ford on his still-popular hymn albums on Capitol, backing Ernie up on his famous "How Great Thou Art!" track.

\tAfter his singing partner Dean Kay was drafted (and later went on to write Frank Sinatra's mega-hit "That's Life"), Hank Jones began a twenty year career as an actor in films and television. He was a featured player in many of the now classic Walt Disney films of the 1960's and 1970's, and filmed over 300 network tv shows, mostly sit-coms, and 500 network commercials in the course of his acting and singing career. Over the years , Hank has had a chance to work with legends such as Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, Bob Hope, Ringo Star, Dizzy Gillespie, Henry Fonda, Glen Campbell, Robin Williams, Ron Howard, Peter Ustinov, Walter Brennan, Elsa Lanchester, Fred MacMurray, Jimmy Dean, Vincent Price, William Frawley, Peter Lorré, Dick Clark, Minnie Pearl, The Wrecking Crew, on and on. A long-time songwriter and member of ASCAP, Hank's best known song is the cult-favorite "Midnight Swinger" recorded by Mel Tormé.

\tHank continues to record and write music today. His brand new CDs, "That Old Feeling - The Gentle Ballad Sounds Of Hank Jones" and "If You Were Mine" are already getting airplay around the country.