#20: Love Is Like Champagne by Jane Morgan

City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: June 1959
Peak Position in Hull ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Love Is Like Champagne”
Lyrics: “Love Is Like Champagne”

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”.

“Love Is Like Champagne” was cowritten by Jean Constantin, Carl Sigman and Norbert Glanzberg. The original in French was composed by Constantin and Glanzberg as “Mon manège a moi”. Sigman wrote the English lyrics. Norbert Glanzberg was born in Rohatyn, Austria-Hungary, in 1910. His parents were Jewish and he changed his name to Norbert, from his birth name Nathan, by 1930. His parents moved to Würzburg, Bavaria, in 1911. He entered the Conservatory of Würzburg in 1922, and later met Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. Before the Third Reich, Glanzberg began his career scoring films for directors including Billy Wilder and Max Ophüls. When the Nazi regime came into power in Germany in 1933, Joseph Goebbels referred to Glanzberg in the NSDAP newspaper, Der Angriff, as a degenerate Jewish artist. Glanzberg then went into exile in Paris. He performed in nightclubs under bandleaders such as Django Reinhardt, which is where he first met Edith Piaf.

In 1939, Glanzberg was enlisted into the Polish army, stationed in England. After he was discharged, he returned to France’s Free Zone in the south of the country, which had not yet been occupied by Germany. There, he met the impresario Felix Marouani who hired him to tour with Piaf as her pianist. However, during 1939, Glanzberg’s songwriting income was suddenly blocked by SACEM, France’s professional songwriters and composers association, which disbursed funds to its members. The organization self-censored music composed by Jews to comply with Germany’s Nuremberg Laws, aimed at undermining the income of Jews. As a result, Edith Piaf became his lifeline. They toured at various times between 1939 and 1942, and became lovers. Between 1942 and 1944, Glanzberg had to frequently go into hiding to avoid arrest and deportation from the Nazi’s to concentration camps in Germany.

Glazberg helped in the release of Maurice Chevalier, who was kept in custody by a resistance movement. From 1946 to 1948 he toured with Charles Trenet in South America, followed by an international tour with Tino Rossi. In 1948, Édith Piaf sang his composition, “Padam, madam”. In 1952 Yves Montand performed Moi j’m’en fous and Les grands boulevards. Between 1931 and 1968, Glanzberg wrote the musical score for 29 feature films. Living in Paris, Norbert Glanzberg died at the age of 90 in February 2001.

Carl Sigman was born in 1909 in Brooklyn. In the 1940s he co-wrote “Pennsylvania 6-5000” for Glenn Miller, and “Crazy He Calls Me” for Billie Holiday in 1949. The song was covered by Dinah Washington, Anita O’Day and many others. Other notable hits Sigman penned in the 1940s include Vaughan Monroe’s number one hit in 1947, “Ballerina”; and a number one hit in 1949 for Mel Tormé titled “Careless Hands”, and “Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think)” a Top Ten hit in 1949 for Guy Lombardo. In 1951, Sigman’s “My Heart Cries For You” was a #2 hit for Guy Mitchell. In 1957 he wrote the English lyrics for “Till”, derived from the French song “Prière Sans Espoir”. And in 1961 Sigman wrote the English translation for “Et maintenant”, which was rendered “What Now My Love?” Sigman also wrote the Christmas tune “A Marshmallow World”;  “Civilization” by the Andrews Sisters and Danny Kaye; “Ebb Tide” for Vic Damone; “Shangri-La” for the Four Coins and “(Where Do I Begin?) Love Story” for Andy Williams in 1970. Other classics by Sigman include the jazz standard “If You Could See Me Now”, and “The World We Knew (Over And Over)” a minor hit for Frank Sinatra in 1967. Sigman died at the age of 91 in 2000.

Jean Constantin was born in 1923 in Paris. Playing piano and singing his own songs, Constantin was viewed as a great performer and entertainer, being however more famous for the songs he wrote for others. He wrote several songs that became hits like Mon manège à moisung by Edith Piaf or Mon truc en plumes sung by Zizi Jeanmaire. Constantin also wrote several movie scores, most notably the soundtrack of the film classic from 1959, The 400 Blows, which was the director debut for François Truffaut.

“Love Is Like Champagne” sings of how love makes one become dizzy and do unexpected things: climb the Eiffel Tower, swim the River Seine. Love surprises: “Kiss me and I walk in sunshine. Though the world be drenched in rain…. Kiss me and I’m painting pictures
only lovers can explain.” The lyrics offer us metaphors for what love is: a) a wedding carousel, b) a magic wishing well, c) a golden wedding bell. Some of the lyrics are sung in French. They translate in English with these lines: “You make my head spin. My merry-go-round is you. I’m always at the party when you take me in your arms.”

“Love Is Like Champagne” peaked at #2 in Hull (QC), and #6 in Ottawa.

Her next release, “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.

October 14, 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.
Douglas Martin, “Carl Sigman, 91, Songsmith Who Made Generations Hum,” New York Times, September 30, 2000.
“French Resistance: Edith Piaf,” Holocaust music.ort.

CKCH 970-AM Hull (QC) Top Ten | June 6, 1959