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Could Have Been The Best Jaye P. Morgan CD Available

09/26/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I know this isn't labeled her "best" or "greatest" at RCA, and is merely meant to present some of the cuts she made for that label, but to have over a third of the contents represent failed singles (I Thought It Was Over, Take A Chance, My Blind Date, and Easy Does It) and obscure cuts (Echo Of Love, Graduation Ring, and Then I'll Be Happy) seems a bit extreme. Especially when they give us her first 10 RCA hits and, after skipping over the next five, her final two in 1956.



In doing that Collectors' Choice Music/BMG missed a golden opportunity to have, on the market, the best Jaye P. Morgan CD bar none. But what is here, coupled with the two pages of liner notes by Robert W. Rice and the discography of the contents, makes this a solid 4-star volume.



It starts of with her first RCA hit, and my personal favourite, That's All I Want For You which, with the backing of the Hugo Winterhalter orchestra, made it to # 3 Billboard Pop Top 100 in late 1954/early 1955 b/w Dawn (not included here). She followed that up a few months later, again with the Winterhalter orchestra, with the double-sided hit Danger! Heartbreak Ahead (# 12) b/w Softly, Softly which is registered as a "follow-along" hit. That summer she paired with the late, great Perry Como on Chee Chee-oo Chee (Sang The Little Bird) which reached # 12 in July b/w Two Lost Souls, from the musical Damn Yankees, which also charted at # 18. Both were backed by Mitchell Ayres & His Orchestra.



Later that summer she was back with Winterhalter on The Longest Walk, a solid # 6 in September b/w the old Al Jolson hit, Swanee, which was regarded as a "follow-along" hit as well. She then capped off a pretty successful 1955 when If You Don't Want My Love, once more with Winterhalter backing, topped out at # 12 in December b/w Pepper-Hot Baby, which peaked at # 14, with the backing of Joe Thomas & His Orchestra, and on December 24 saw Not One Goodbye begin its climb up the charts to # 48 in early 1956, backed by Hugo Winterhalter and with My Bewildered Heart as the flipside.



Two more double-sided hits followed in 1956, along with one single-sided hit, but unfortunately none are included here: Get Up! Get Up! (You Sleepyhead), a cover of a Lavern Baker hit b/w Sweet Lips (# 83 and # 85 respectively in April); Lost In The Shuffle (# 69) b/w Play For Keeps (# 79) which peaked in June; and Johnny Casanova which went to # 81 in July b/w The West Point Dress Parade. But the October hit, Just Love Me (# 97) is here, although not the B-side, The Call Of The Wild. All these 1956 hits and their flipsides had the backing of Hugo Winterhalter.



The last hit in 1956 is also here, a duet with Eddy Arnold on Mutual Admiration Society from the musical Happy Hunting, which made it to # 47 in December b/w If'n (not here). She was then off the charts for all of 1957 and 1958, but came back in 1959/60 with three - all omitted: Are You Lonesome Tonight? (# 65) b/w Miss You (# 78) in March 1959 with Ray Ellis & His Orchestra; and I Walk The Line (# 66 in September 1960 b/w Wondering Where You Are).



Born Mary Margaret Morgan in Mancos, Colorado on December 3, 1931, and the sister of The Morgan Brothers singing group, Jaye P. sang with the Frank DeVol orchestra from 1950 to 1953, and in 1953/54 had her first two solo hits with the small Derby label on Just A Gigolo (# 22 in September 1953) and Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries (# 26 in December 1953/January 1954), both backed by the DeVol orchestra)."