Jack Jones, Famed ‘Love Boat’ Singer, Dead at 86

Jack Jones, the singer and actor best-known for performing the famed “Love Boat” theme song, has died, his family confirmed. He was 86.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Jones’s stepdaughter Nicole Whitty said that Jones died after fighting Leukemia for the past two years.

Jones was born into a family of performers, the son of actress Irene Harvey and the actor-singer Allan Jones. He won two Grammys in the early Sixties for vocal performance on his songs “Lollipops and Roses” and “Wives and Lovers.” The artist was nominated five times in total, including the 41st Grammys in 1999 for the album Jack Jones Paints a Tribute to Tony Bennett.

Several of his songs landed on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, including “Lady,” “The Race Is On,” “Dear Heart,” and “The Impossible Dream (The Quest)”.

Jones was best known for his iconic performance of the theme song for Eighties television show The Love Boat, giving a relaxed croon about the whimsical adventure of love and singing about the feeling being “exciting and new” and “life’s sweetest reward.” Jones’ version served as the theme for Seasons One through Eight, but Dionne Warwick took over the vocals for Season Nine.

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It wouldn’t be the only theme song he leant his vocals for though. He also sang the theme for the 1968 film Anzio. Some younger listeners, meanwhile, may associate his voice with the delightfully mysterious “Into The Unknown,” the theme for Cartoon Network’s beloved cult classic Over The Garden Wall.

“Any singer loves to have a theme song that goes on and on,” Jones said of the success behind “Love Boat” during a red carpet interview before the TV Land Awards back in 2010. “I said ‘I don’t know who’s gonna watch a show about a cruise ship,’ but they did and here we are. I had no idea.”