Jane Morgan
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Jane Morgan (born May 3, 1924 in Newton , Massachusetts ; actually Florence Catherine Currier , now Jane Weintraub ) is an American pop singer who had her greatest success in the second half of the 1950s. Her best known song is The Day the Rains Came , a cover version of the French chanson Le jour où la pluie viendra in English and a number one hit in Great Britain .
Life
From Boston to Paris
Florence Currier was the daughter of the first cellist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the time , who also directed his own orchestra and string quartet . At the age of five, she began to sing opera arias under the guidance of her mother. Some time after her father's untimely death, she and her mother moved to Daytona Beach , Florida . Here she won several music competitions. After graduating from high school , she went to the Juilliard School of Music in New York , where she studied opera singing. In the evenings she performed in night clubs and at parties. Band leader Art Mooney heard her in one of her performances and invited her to sing with his band. Mooney thought the name Florence Currier was too long and gave her the stage name Janie Morgan , which Florence then shortened to Jane Morgan .
At that time, the French singer, violinist and band leader Bernard Hilda wanted to open a nightclub in Paris . He got in contact with her to win her as a singer for his club. Jane Morgan dropped out of college and spent the next four and a half years in Europe, mostly at Hilda's Club des Champs Elysées . In France she also made her first recordings with Hilda's orchestra and became known in France. Through her regular appearances in other countries, she quickly learned French, Spanish and Italian.
Success in New York
She received an offer to work at the St. Regis Hotel in New York and left Europe for home. In 1954 David Kapp founded his record company Kapp Records . The first two artists he signed were pianist Roger Williams and Jane Morgan. Williams had his first hit a little later (with Autumn Leaves ); with Jane it took a little longer. In 1956 she was able to see her name in the charts for the first time ; she and Williams recorded Two Different Worlds , which came in at number 41 on the Billboard hit parade.
In the summer of 1957, Billy Wilder's film Ariane was released in theaters. In the film music, the French song Fascination from 1932 was used, which in turn was based on a Valse tzigane ("Gypsy waltz") from 1904. Kapp wanted to record an instrumental version with the band The Troubadours . Jane was there during the recording and heard the song that she knew from her time in France. Kapp knew that there was now an English text for the melody, and he suggested that she sing this text to record the troubadours . The single was released with Jane's vocals on one side and the instrumental version on the other. Other record companies also released their own versions (by Dinah Shore , Dick Jacobs and David Carroll, among others ). All of the singles from the named artists hit the charts - but Jane Morgan's version won the battle for the top spot and received a gold record for one million copies sold.
Number one in the UK
With the hit came better engagements and appearances on television shows. Jane Morgan became known as "the American girl from France". In 1958 she recorded another French song, Gilbert Bécaud's Le jour où la pluie viendra , which became The Day the Rains Came in English (the lyrics were written by Carl Sigman ). Jane sang the English version on the A and the French on the B side of the single. You just missed the US top twenty. In the UK, the song hit the charts in early December, rose to the top within six weeks and brought Jane Morgan her only number one hit in January 1959 . In Germany, Dalida also had a number one hit later in the same year with her German- sung version Am Tag When der Regen came .
After the career
Jane Morgan was never able to repeat the successes of Fascination and The Day the Rains Came , even if she appeared a few times in the lower regions of various hit lists in the 1960s. She married her manager Jerry Weintraub , who was also responsible for the careers of artists such as Frank Sinatra , Elvis Presley , John Denver and Carpenters for many years and who later became a film producer. Since then she has been called Jane Weintraub in her private life.
She served on the President's Committee for the Arts and Humanities under the presidency of George Bush , an old friend of her husband 's . Together, Jane and Jerry Weintraub sponsor various charitable projects. They have four children and live alternately in Malibu , Beverly Hills , Palm Desert (all in California ) or Kennebunkport , Maine .
In May 2011 Morgan was honored with a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame / Music category (6914 Hollywood Boulevard ) on the Hollywood Walk of Fame .
Trivia
Under the name Jane Weintraub , she appears in the credits of Ocean's 12 as an assistant to her husband, who produced the film.
Discography
Singles
- Selection of singles that did not make it into the pop charts, but were listed on the American adult contemporary lists:
- 1965: Side by Side (AC # 25)
- 1966: Elusive Butterfly (AC # 9)
- 1967: Somebody Someplace (AC # 24)
- 1967: I Promise You (AC # 27)
- 1968: A Child (AC # 39)
literature
- Donald Clarke (Ed.): The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music. P. 825, London 1989/1990, ISBN 0-14-051147-4 .
- David Roberts (Ed.): Guinness World Records - British Hit Singles. 14th edition, London 2001, ISBN 0-85112-156-X .
- Tim Rice / Jo Rice / Paul Gambaccini : The Guinness Book of Number One Hits. 2nd edition, Enfield 1988, ISBN 0-85112-893-9 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Charts UK Charts US
- ↑ According to IMDb
- ↑ a b Penguin Encyclopedia, p. 825 (see below)
- ↑ This paragraph: according to Jerry Weintraub's biography on the Oceans Eleven - About the Movie website
- ↑ according to IMDb, s. u.
Web links
- Biography at Oldies.Com
- Jane Weintraub in the Internet Movie Database (English) (as Jane Weintraub )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Morgan, Jane |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Currier, Florence Catherine (maiden name); Weintraub, Jane (married name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 3, 1924 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Newton , Massachusetts |