#36: Where’s The Boy I Never Met by Jane Morgan

City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: November 1959
Peak Position in Hull ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Where’s The Boy I Never Met”
Lyrics: N/A

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 charted “Love Is Like Champagne” to #2 in Hull, Quebec, and #6 in Ottawa (ON). And “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)”.

“Where’s The Boy (I Never Met)” was cowritten by Lee Pockriss and Paul Vance (born Joseph Paul Florio). Paul Vance was born in Brooklyn in 1929. At the age of 18 he wrote the R&B classic “King Size Papa” for Julia Lee and Her Boyfriends in 1948. Lee Julian Pockriss was born in 1924, in Brooklyn. He attended Erasmus Hall High School and Brooklyn College, and studied musicology at New York University. He served in the Army Air Forces during World War II as a cryptographer in the South Pacific.

Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss wrote a number of hit songs including “Catch A Falling Star” (Perry Como – 1957), “Little Miss Stuck-Up” and “Wait For Me” (Playmates, 1961 and 1960), “Tracy” (the Cuff Links – 1969) and “Playground in My Mind” (Clint Holmes – 1972). Pockriss also wrote “No” for Dodie Stevens in 1960, a top ten hit in Vancouver (BC), and Shelley Fabares number-one hit in 1962 “Johnny Angel”. “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weekie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini”, a number-one hit for Brian Hyland in 1960, was actually inspired by Paul Vance’s shy 9-year old daughter, Paula, and an actual incident at a beach locker. The duo also wrote a song titled “3 Vanilla, 2 Chocolate, 1 Pistachio Ice” for Kris Jensen. Lee Pockriss went on to write the theme songs for the 1961 film One, Two, Three, the 1964 film The Subject Was Roses, and the 1966 film, Stagecoach. In later years Pockriss wrote a number of compositions for the TV series, Sesame Street. Vance and Pockriss also wrote a parody of the Shangri-Las’ 1964 #1 hit, “Leader Of The Pack”. Their Top 30 rejoinder was titled “Leader Of The Laundromat”, recorded by The Detergents. Vance and Pockriss also wrote another of Brian Hyland’s novelty songs in 1960: “Four Heels (The Clickety Clack Song)”. Though it made the Top 30 nationally in Australia and the UK, it stalled at #73 on the Billboard Hot 1oo. And in 1961 Faron Young had a revival of his 1957 country hit, “Love Has Finally Come My Way”, in Vancouver (BC). The song was co-written by Pockriss and Vance.

Vance and Pockriss penned songs recorded variously by Petula Clark, the Kingston Trio, Julius La Rosa, Johnny Tillotson, Jimmy Dean, Tony Bennett, Doris Day, the Brother Four, the Four Preps, Frank Sinatra, Brook Benton, the Fleetwoods, Tommy Leonetti, Patti Page, Nancy Sinatra, Tommy James & The Shondells, Sandie Shaw, Bert Kaempfert and others. Paul Vance also wrote “Gina” and “What Will Mary Say” for Johnny Mathis, and “Hurry Up And Tell Me” for Paul Anka. In 2011 Lee Pockriss died at the age of 87. In 2014 Paul Vance published his biography Catch A Falling Star. He separately owned or leased 167 horses. Vance died at age 92 in 2022.

“Where’s The Boy (I Never Met)” is a song full of anticipation and confidence that there’s a lonely boy waiting just for her. Yet, she worries and wishes he would hurry and show up in her life.

“Where’s The Boy I Never Met” peaked at #3 in Hull (QC), and charted in Duluth (MN)) and Spokane (WA).

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.

June 25, 2021
Ray McGinnis

References:
“Jane Morgan,” Wikipedia.org.
“Jane Morgan,” IMDb.com.
“Roseland Ballroom,” matchpro.org.
Jane Morgan, “A Girl Named Johnny Cash,” RCA, 1970.
Steven Wolf, “Paul Vance, songwriter and horse owner, dies at 92,” Harnesslink.com, June 2, 2022.
Anita Gates, “Lee Pockriss, Songwriter Behind ‘Itsy Bitsy’ Bikini, Dies at 87,” New York Times, November 16, 2011.
Its Bitsy Bikini Songwriter Lee Pockriss Dies, BBC, November 18, 2011.
Leslie Gray Streeter, “‘Itsy Bitsy’ songwriter Paul Vance looking for another hit at 85,” Palm Beach Post, January 25, 2015.

CKCH 970-AM Hull (QC) Top Ten | November 5, 1960