Jane Morgan's First Record

Jane Morgan

I was saddened to see that the singer Jane Morgan died yesterday, just a day after she was featured in a post on movie songs from 1957. She was 101. I stumbled across news of her death while researching an article about her early recordings. 

I knew that Morgan had been a vocalist for Art Mooney's band in the mid-1940s, when she was in her early 20s. Searching on the holdings of Internet Archive led me to what is probably her first appearance on record, and it's an interesting one, less so for the performance, more so for the disc.

Mooney was one of the first signings to the new Vogue label, a Detroit start-up that had a different slant on the record as product. As you can see at left, Vogue issued colorful picture discs. The artwork was pasted onto a aluminum core, which was coated with clear vinyl and then stamped with the record's grooves.

In this example - issued in 1946 but probably recorded in late 1945 - Mooney and vocalist "Janie" Morgan performed "Seems Like Old Times," a popular end-of-war song written by Carmen Lombardo and John Jacob Loeb, although based on an earlier song by Sam Stept and Charles Tobias.

The hit versions were by Guy Lombardo and several others, not including Mooney. The reason is not hard to figure out - the Mooney version cost more than double the Lombardo disc and all other versions . Vogues were not only priced much higher than conventional 78s, their distribution was haphazard. So if you wanted to hear Mooney and Morgan, you had to pay for the privilege - if you could actually find the record.

Billboard December 22, 1945

So the Vogue label didn't last long - barely more than a year and 60-80 releases. Then to bankruptcy court they went. Morgan - and Mooney - did much better. Art transformed his troupe from the standard-issue big band heard on this record to an old-timey brigade that had hits with "I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover" and "Baby Face" in 1948.

Morgan eventually became one of the most popular singers of the 1950s and 60s, with the Kapp label seemingly issuing a new LP with every change of the season.

This early effort shows her to be a competent, if stiff singer even at an early age. Vogues have a reputation for good quality, but this recording is anything but that. The sound was dead with no bass and Morgan's voice buried in the mix, all of which I have attempted to address in this mastering.

If you are interested in Vogue recordings, I've included two old issues of Record Research that tell the story of the label and provide a discography. The records are still highly collectible.

LINK

Five Big Movie Songs from 1957

Here's another one of those EPs that collate the current hits into one hopefully irresistible package. This one comes from the Columbia folks, who in 1957 had strong (or at least reasonably successful) songs from four notable films.

But wait - the headline above says five movie songs, not four. That's because the hit from the film Love in the Afternoon wasn't the theme but an ancient waltz called "Fascination" that was used on the soundtrack. So I've added that tune to the package - in three version, two from the hit record and one from the soundtrack EP.

But back to the Columbia EP. Their set starts off with the label's big hope from August of 1957 - the title song from An Affair to Remember. It was entrusted to the golden pipes of Vic Damone, who the year before had celebrated his new contract with the label by turning My Fair Lady's "On the Street Where You Live" into a big chart hit.

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"An Affair to Remember" has the soaring quality that Vic (and Percy Faith) did so well, and the record is a winner, although not as memorable as his famed rendition of the My Fair Lady anthem. The Affair music is by the veteran Harry Warren with lyrics by Harold Adamson and Leo McCarey, the film's director. In the film, Vic's singing is heard over the opening credits.

We move from Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr's affair to the Old West - Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas and the Gunfight at O.K. Corral. This legendary tale brought forth a typically robust ballad from the master Dimitri Tiomkin (see the celebration of his music here), working with the great lyricist Ned Washington.

Who else but Frankie Laine could supply the vocal? He is fantastic, but as I wrote a while back, "Laine's inimitable singing was a popular success, although the record did not become as iconic as High Noon."

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The next song is a decided contrast - for A Face in the Crowd, director Elia Kazan used folk singer Tom Glazer to provide the music, with lyrics from screenwriter Budd Schulberg. I don't believe the Hi-Lo's single of the title song was a hit, but it is nonetheless a good record.

The group had just moved to Columbia and was enjoying increasing success with its records. The vocal arrangements of Gene Puerling became highly influential, and the penetrating tenor voice of Clark Burroughs was a distinguishing feature of their sound.

The EP's fourth song is sung by the young Jerry Vale, who already had been at Columbia for several years by the time he was tasked with Love in the Afternoon's title song. The film features 56-year-old Gary Cooper romancing 28-year-old Audrey Hepburn. This had to take place in the afternoon so it wouldn't interfere with Coop's early bedtime.

The film had a title song by Matty Malneck, with Johnny Mercer lyrics, which Vale handled well on the single release. The biggest hit from the film, however, was written in 1904. More about that below.

LINK to the Columbia EP

Music from Love in the Afternoon

In Love in the Afternoon, Coop is followed everywhere by a band of gypsies (not the Hendrix band, although that would have been interesting). This troupe provides the soundtrack.

Perhaps realizing that it would have limited appeal, the Verve label put the music out on an EP, and a short one at that. Its three songs are "Love in the Afternoon," "Hot Paprika" and "Fascination." The latter was the hit from the score, written way back when by Fermo Dante Marchetti. ("Hot Paprika," like the title music, is by Malneck.)

"Fascination" caught the public's fancy, and the biggest hit was by vocalist Jane Morgan, singing new lyrics by Dick Manning.

The gypsies perhaps being otherwise occupied, Morgan's record company, Kapp, brought in a group called the Troubadors as backing. The resulting single has Jane's vocal on one side and the Troubadors whistling on the other.

Kapp presented this to the public complete with the picture sleeve below showing Coop in ascot and Hepburn in pigtails - "old chic and young chick," as I remarked when I first posted this nearly 17 years ago. 

All recordings are remastered in ambient stereo.

LINK to Love in the Afternoon EP and Fascination single

Jane Morgan and Fascination

Following up on my recent post of the abbreviated Love in the Afternoon soundtrack, I thought I might as well post the big hit record of "Fascination" from that soundtrack, along with its special picture sleeve. The vocal is by, and probably made the career of, Jane Morgan, an accomplished night club singer who became associated with the song.

Here, Morgan sounds wistful, which is right for the lyrics. On this and her other records, she is too bland for my taste - but she was popular at the time. She pronounces "fascination" as "fasceenation," which sounds wrong to me, but I am no expert on such things.

Morgan was backed by the Troubadors, who made other records for Kapp at the time. The aural evidence suggests they comprised violin, bass, accordion, vibraphone and guitar. This combination of accordion and vibraphone allowed them to simulate the sound of the cimbalom used on the soundtrack. I can find no other information on the Troubadors, and I don't own any of their few LPs.

This single has Morgan's vocal version of "Fascination" on one side, and a "whistling instrumental" of that tune on the other. The unidentified whistler sounds like Muzzy Marcellino of "The High and the Mighty" fame, although that's just a guess as to his identity.