#1: With Open Arms by Jane Morgan

City: Hull, PQ
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: September 1959
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #42
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #39
YouTube: “With Open Arms”
Lyrics: “With Open Arms”

Florence Catherine Currier was born in 1924 in the suburbs of Boston. Her family moved to Florida when she was four-years-old. When she was five, Florence started taking voice lessons as well as piano. In the summertime, she was a child actor in theater productions at the Kennebunkport Playhouse in Kennebunkport, Maine. The Playhouse was founded by her brother. At the age of 17, in the summer of 1941, she was listed as the Treasurer of the Kennebunkport Playhouse. During her years at school, she competed in singing competitions with other students across Florida and the Southeast. Upon graduating from high school in Daytona Beach, she was accepted into the Juilliard School of Music in Manhattan. She had plans to become an opera singer, and studied opera at the school.

In order to help her pay for her schooling at Juilliard, Florence Currier sang in nightclubs, restaurants, at bar mitzvahs and other private functions. This led to a steady job as the singer at the high society Roseland Ballroom at 1658 Broadway at 51st Street. She was paid $25 a week ($383 in 2021 dollars), and worked six nights a week. While still at the music school, bandleader Art Mooney heard her in 1944 and hired her. It was Art Mooney who  changed Florence Currier’s name to Jane Morgan. The name was drawn from the first name of his vocalist, Janie Ford, and the last name of another of his vocalists named Marian Morgan.

In 1948, French bandleader Bernard Hilda invited her to come with him to Paris, and perform at his new nightclub by the Eiffel Tower named the Club des Champs-Élysées. Morgan gave two shows a night of a set of American songs. As she had learned French and Italian from her mother, Morgan brushed up on her French and soon her concert song list of Cole Porter, George Gershwin, and some popular French songs, were all performed in French.

Her recordings with Hilda, including “Mon blond”, “C’est Tout” and “La Raspa”, became hit singles in France and elsewhere in Europe. In 1949 Morgan and Hilda had a weekly variety show on French TV, and her record contracts included French Polydor, Parlophone and Philips. 

In 1952 Jane Morgan appeared as a solo act bilingual at the Ritz-Carlton Montreal. She returned to New York that year with regular performances in upscale nightclubs and her own radio show on NBC, which featured the 50-piece NBC Symphony Orchestra. Morgan  additionally had regular performances at the St. Regis Hotel across from Central Park. In 1954, Jane Morgan travelled to London for shows at the Savoy Theatre and the London Palladium.

As she was pegged as a French singer, her new label – Kapp Records – had her record “Baseball, Baseball” in 1954. Her debut album in 1956 was titled The American Girl from Paris. It featured pop standards that included “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was”, “It Might As Well Be Spring”, “I’ll Be Seeing You”, “Thanks For The Memory” and “When The World Was Young”. Her first charting single in the USA was “Two Different Worlds” in 1956.

In early 1957 Jane Morgan charted “From Our First Hello To Our Last Goodbye” on the CKWX Top Fifty in Vancouver (BC). Later that year Morgan joined The Troubadors to record “Fascination”. Although written in 1904 by F.D. Marchetti as “Valse Tzigane”, the song was modified in Paris at the Folies Bergère as a “strip” number. English lyrics were added in 1932 by Dick Manning in 1932, and French lyrics in 1942. The song was played throughout the 1957 film Love in the Afternoon. Morgan’s recording was released in late 1957 and remained on the Billboard charts for 29 weeks. It peaked at #5 in Vancouver.

Late in 1957, she had a Top 30 hit in Vancouver with “I’m New At The Game (Of Romance)”, which charted for 14 weeks. In 1958 Jane Morgan charted “I’ve Got Bells On My Heart” to #21 in Vancouver. That fall she released “The Day The Rains Came”.

In 1959 she also had a Top 30 hit in the UK with “If Only I Could Live My Life Again”. As well, she released “Love Is Like Champagne”. Her next release was “With Open Arms”.

“With Open Arms” was cowritten by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Burt Bacharach was born in 1928 in Kansas City, Missouri. The family moved to Queens, New York, in his childhood. His family was Jewish, but he said that they did not practice or give much attention to their religion. “But the kids I knew were Catholic. I was Jewish, but I didn’t want anybody to know about it,” said Bacharach in an interview. Bacharach studied music at McGill in Montreal, the Mannes School of Music in Manhattan, and the Music Academy of the West in Monticito, California. In the late 40s, during the Korean War, Burt Bacharach was drafted into the US Army. Bacharach met the popular singer Vic Damone while they were both serving in the army in Germany. Following his discharge, Bacharach spent the next three years as a pianist and conductor for Damone. He later worked in the same capacity for The Ames Brothers, Steve Lawrence and Polly Bergen. In 1956 he began to work for Marlene Dietrich and toured with her until the early 60s.

Harold “Hal” David was born in 1921 in New York City. In 1949, his song “The Four Winds and The Seven Seas” was a #3 hit for Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye. In 1959, he cowrote “My Heart Is An Open Book”, a #3 hit for Carl Dobkins Jr. Later that year Sarah Vaughan had a Top Ten hit with “Broken Hearted Melody”. In 1961, David cowrote “Sea Of Heartbreak” for Don Gibson. The following year, his song “Johnny Get Angry” was a Top Ten hit for Joanie Sommers.

Burt Bacharach and Hal David became a force as composers working in the Brill Building starting in the late 50s. They co-wrote “The Story Of My Life” which became a #1 hit for Michael Holliday in 1958 in the UK, and “Magic Moments” for Perry Como another #1 hit in the UK and #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 later that year. In 1961 Bacharach also wrote “Tower Of Strength” for Gene McDaniels and “Baby It’s You” for The Shirelles. Bacharach and David had a banner year in 1962 with hits that included “(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance” (Gene Pitney),  “Make It Easy On Yourself” (Jerry Butler), “Don’t Make Me Over” (Dionne Warwick) and “Only Love Can Break A Heart” (Gene Pitney). In 1963 the songwriting team enjoyed more accolades with “Wishing And Hoping” (Dusty Springfield), “Blue On Blue” (Bobby Vinton), “(They Long To Be) Close To You” (The Carpenters, #1 in 1970), “Blue Guitar” (Richard Chamberlain), “Wives And Lovers” (Jack Jones), and “Anyone Who Had A Heart” (Dionne Warwick). 1964 continued their winning ways with “Walk On By” (Dionne Warwick) and “There’s Always Something There To Remind Me” (Sandie Shaw, #1 UK).

In 1965, David and Bacharach wrote “Trains, And Boats And Planes” (Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Dionne Warwick), “What’s New Pussycat?” (Tom Jones, #3 US), and “What The World Needs Now Is Love” (Jackie DeShannon, #7 US). In 1966, the songwriting team wrote “Alfie” a #9 hit for Cilla Black in the UK. Other notable hits they wrote include “The Look Of Love” (Dusty Springfield, Sérgio Mendes), “I Say A Little Prayer” (Dionne Warwick – #4 US, Aretha Franklin – #4 UK), “One Less Bell To Answer” (Fifth Dimension, #2 US), “Do You Know The Way To San Jose” (Dionne Warwick, #10 US), “This Guys In Love With You” (Herb Alpert, #1 US), and  “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” (Dionne Warwick, #6 US). They won an Academy Award for  “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” (BJ Thomas, #1 US) in the Best Song category,

In 1966, the songwriting team won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement for “Alfie”. In 1970, Bacharach and David won a Grammy Award for Best Score from an Original Caste Album for Promises, Promises. The pair also received five other Grammy Award nominations. Separately, Bacharach won a Grammy Award in 1969 for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He also won an Academy Award for Best Score for a Motion Picture.

Burt Bacharach enjoyed a resurgence in the 1980s with “Arthur’s Theme” (Christopher Cross, #1 US), which won an Academy Award for Best Song. He also found success with “Heartlight” (Neil Diamond, #5 US), and “On My Own” (Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald, #1 US). For “That’s What Friends Are For” (Dionne Warwick and friends, #1 US), Bacharach shared a Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1986. In 1998, Burt Bacharach shared a Grammy Award for Best Collaboration with Vocals with Elvis Costello for the song “I Still Have That Other Girl”. He won another Grammy Award in 2005 shared with Allen Sides in the Best Contemporary Instrumental Album category for At This Time. He died at the age of 94 in February 2023. Hal David died in 2012 at the age of 91.

“With Open Arms” is a song about a woman’s anticipation of the return of her fisherman husband. She waits “down by the river where the boats come in.” He loves his trade, and she senses “Although he’s on the shore, his heart is still a hundred miles at sea.” But when they kiss he returns his full attention to her. At dawn he heads out on his fishing boat. On the shore she recounts, “I pray all through the day, that he’ll return and make my life begin.” The lyrics offer an understated felt sense of the strong desire each partner feels for the other. Back in 1959, this was one way to convey chemistry between two lovers.

“With Open Arms” peaked at #1 in Hull (QC), #6 in Burlington (VT), Detroit, Lansing (MI), and Dearborn (MI), #8 in Ottawa, and #9 in Minneapolis/St. Paul. “With Open Arms” was a number-one hit in Hull, staying in the Top Ten for 22 weeks from July to November in 1959.

In 1960, Jane Morgan released a single titled “Where’s The Boy (I Never Met)”. She released an English-version of the 1960 Italian Eurovision Song Contest entrant, “Romantica”, originally performed by Renato Rascel. The single was a Top 40 hit for Morgan in the UK. On the West Coast, Morgan had a Top 30 hit in Vancouver with “Lord And Master”. The lyrics included “You are my Lord and master. I am the slave of your heart.”

In 1961, Jane Morgan performed “The Second Time Around” at the 33rd Academy Awards, a Best Song nominee from the film High Time. One more single titled “It Takes Love” made the pop charts in Vancouver (BC) in the summer of 1961.

In the the 60s Morgan appeared in numerous Broadway, including Kiss Me Kate, Can-Can, The King and I, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Anniversary Waltz, Bells Are Ringing, Hello Dolly, Affairs of State and more.

Morgan performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal in 1964. That year she was on Broadway as a lead singer in a run of the Ziegfield Follies. And in 1969, Morgan succeeded Janis Paige in Mame. She recalled later, “Being on Broadway was one of the most exciting things in my life because I had always dreamed of it.”

In 1966 Jane Morgan appeared at the 38th Academy Awards and sang Best Song nominee “I Will Wait For You”, from the film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. That year she began to have hits on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. These included classy covers of Len Barry’s “1-2-3” and Bob Lind’s “Elusive Butterfly”. In March 1968 she appeared on ABC for a tribute to Edith Piaf in The Jane Morgan Special.

In 1970 Jane Morgan recorded his 32nd and final album titled In Nashville. In addition to tracks like “Make The World Go Away”, was a spoof on the Johnny Cash single “A Boy Named Sue”, titled “A Girl Named Johnny Cash”. On February 15, 1971, she performed a duet-medley with Johnny Cash on his TV show, with Cash singing lines from “A Boy Named Sue”, and Morgan interspersing lines from “A Girl Named Johnny Cash”.

Morgan performed for French President Charles de Gaulle, and for five U.S. Presidents: John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush. During her career she appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show on over fifty occasions. Jane Morgan also also was a guest on The Colgate Comedy Hour, The Jack Benny Show, The Patti Page Oldsmobile Show, twice on The Jackie Gleason Show, The Jonathan Winters Show, The George Jessel Show, The Laraine Day Show, American Bandstand, The Red Skelton Show, The Joey Bishop Show, The Gary Moore Show, The Val Doonican Show, The David Frost Show, The Bob Newhart Show, six times on Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall,  three times on both The Jimmy Dean Show and The Dean Martin Show, nine times on The Mike Douglas Show, and fifteen occasions as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, twelve occasions on The Merv Griffin Show. Her career also included a few dramatic roles in episodes of Peter Gunn and It Takes A Thief, as well as What’s My Line.

Jane Morgan retired from performing in 1973, but has appeared occasionally over the years at special events and benefits. In 2011 she got her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On May 3, 2024, Jane Morgan turned 100-years-old.

November 22, 2024
Ray McGinnis

References:
“Jane Morgan,” Wikipedia.org.
“Jane Morgan,” IMDb.com.
“Roseland Ballroom,” matchpro.org.
Jane Morgan, “A Girl Named Johnny Cash,” RCA, 1970.
Richard Barber, “Burt Bacharach at 88: ‘Why Would I Ever Want To Stop?’,” Telegraph, June 10, 2016.
Lauren Huff, “Dionne Warwick says loss of Burt Bacharach is ‘like losing a family member’: Bacharach, who discovered Warwick in 1961, died on Wednesday at age 94,” Entertainment Weekly, February 9, 2023.
Richard Williams, “Hal David Obituary: Lyricist Behind Some of the Greatest Pop Hits of the 20th Century,” Guardian, September 2, 2012.

CKCH 970-AM Hull (QC) Top Ten | October 24, 1959