The velvet “Love Boat” crooner was 86

Jack Jones – the pop singer with the velvety voice who had hits like “Wives and Lovers” and “The Impossible Dream (The Quest)”, but is perhaps best known today as a singer on television shows The Love Boat Subject – died Wednesday at Eisenhower Medical in Rancho Mirage, California. He was 86 years old. His widow, Eleonara Jones, said the cause of death was leukemia, which he had battled for two years.

Jones' death comes just seven months after the death of Steve Lawrence, a singer of similar quality and style, at the age of 88. They were two of the best singers of what was then known as easy listening music – music that fell out of favor with the boom of rock in the late 1960s and 1970s. This music has experienced a rebirth in recent decades under a new branding – traditional pop – with new stars such as Michael Bublé.

Jones had three No. 1 hits billboard's Easy Listening charts (now known as Adult Contemporary): “The Race Is On” (1965), “The Impossible Dream (The Quest)” (1966), and “Lady” (1967). Jones received a Grammy nomination for best vocal performance, male for “The Impossible Dream,” the standout ballad from the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha. The song, which also received a Grammy nomination for song of the year, was so popular on TV variety shows and nightclubs that it became a cliché.

In the early 1960s, Jones won two Grammys for best vocal performance, one male for his renditions of Tony Velona's “Lollipops and Roses” and Burt Bacharach and Hal David's “Wives and Lovers.” (The winners of the corresponding women's award in those two years were Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand, so Jones was flying high.)

“Wives and Lovers,” which reached No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1964, was also nominated for the Grammys for Record and Song of the Year. The lyrics – which warn women: “Don't think because you've got a ring on your finger / You don't have to try anymore” – are now considered hopelessly sexist. But if you can get past that, it's one of Bacharach and David's best-sounding Hits, featuring Jones' smooth vocals on a jazzy arrangement.

Jones responded to the criticism the song received by changing the lyrics to make fun of men. But he never dropped the song from his set.

“Since it’s a politically incorrect song, I’ll start with a disclaimer,” he once said. “I hear that women still call radio stations and are upset that such a sexist song is being played. It's part of history now, it won a Grammy and I meant no harm when I made it. It shaped my career and I’m grateful for that.”