Both Weston and Stafford went on to develop the characters of Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, until they almost took on a life of their own. In their autobiography, Stafford writes, "It's interesting to note that to Paul and me Jonathan and Darlene became third person people. I found myself referring to Darlene as being real, substantial, an alter ego." This was fleshed out in the in-character interviews they gave in the 1980s. They told Bob Claster Jonathan and Darlene's first meeting had occurred in a cocktail bar in Trenton, New Jersey, where Jonathan was playing piano. Romance blossomed after Darlene came in with "a society crowd", and introduced herself. Darlene would sometimes sing at their
bridge club before playing cards, occasionally accompanied by someone on piano, but more often
a-cappella. She did not begin singing professionally until her children left home. In character he claimed to be "very imaginative on all three elements of musicmelody, harmony and rhythm", and that people had compared him to
Liberace and
Carmen Cavallaro. He said he studied music at
Pittsfield High School in
Massachusetts but was mainly self-taught. Edwards was an avid reader of
Etude Magazine as a youngster; the piano lessons his mother arranged for him ended badly because the teacher did not like his adventurous nature. Of her persona, Stafford wrote, "Darlene may not be a terrific singer, but she's certainly not a clown. She would have fairly good taste, maybe a little flamboyant, maybe a little
Helen Hokinson, maybe some flowered voile, but she would never be ridiculous." Asked by Claster who had influenced her singing style, Darlene said she tried to stay as uninfluenced as possible, and did not listen to any other singers. She wished to be remembered as "a sophisticated songstress who really searched them out." ==Critical acclaim==