Jaye P. Morgan
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| Jaye P. Morgan | |
|---|---|
 Morgan in 1968. |
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| Born | Mary Margret Morgan December 3, 1931 Montezuma County, Colorado |
| Occupation | singer actress |
Mary Margaret Morgan (born December 3, 1931), known professionally as Jaye P. Morgan, is a retired popular music American singer, actress and game show panelist.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Morgan was born in Mancos in Montezuma County in far southwestern Colorado, but her family moved to California by the time she was in high school. In the late 1940s, at Verdugo Hills High School in Tujunga, Los Angeles, California, she served as class treasurer (and got the nickname "Jaye P." after the banker J. Pierpont Morgan) and sang at school assemblies, accompanied by her brother on guitar.
[edit] 1950s
In 1950, a year after graduation from high school, Morgan made a recording of "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries" which made it to the Top 10 in the U.S. Billboard record chart . Soon after, she received an RCA Victor recording contract, and she had five hits in one year, including "That's All I Want from You," her biggest hit, which reached #3 on the chart. Other notable hits included "The Longest Walk" and "Pepper Hot Baby". In 1954, she married Michael Baiano.[1]
From 1954 to 1955, Morgan was a vocalist on the ABC television series show Stop the Music. In November 1955, the British music magazine, NME, reported that Morgan was the top female vocalist in the U.S. Cash Box poll.[2]
In 1956, she had her own The Jaye P. Morgan Show and made guest appearances on a number of other variety shows. She was a charter member of the Robert Q. Lewis "gang" on Lewis's weekday program on CBS, and was featured on a special episode of The Jackie Gleason Show in which Lewis's entire company substituted for the vacationing Gleason. In 1958, Morgan appeared on ABC's The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom. On October 6, 1960, she guest starred on NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.
[edit] 1960s and 1970s
After a period in the 1960s when she did little in the entertainment field, confining herself to a small number of nightclub appearances and a guest starring role on "My Three Sons" as a fading singer, Morgan returned to the public eye in the 1970s, mainly as an actress. She played herself on a 1973 episode ("The Songwriter") of the sitcom, The Odd Couple.
Morgan also guest starred on The Muppet Show (episode 2.18) in which she and Dr. Teeth sang "That Old Black Magic."
[edit] Game show panelist
In the 1970s, Morgan was a panelist on the game/variety shows The Gong Show and Rhyme and Reason and Match Game and in the 1980 "behind-the-scenes" movie version of The Gong Show. She also appeared on the Playboy Channel game show Everything Goes. She also appeared with her longtime Gong partner Jamie Farr on Hollywood Squares Game Show Week II in 2004.
She also appeared in the 2002 George Clooney-directed film Confessions of a Dangerous Mind a version on the life of Chuck Barris, author of TV game shows such as the Gong Show and The Dating Game.
[edit] Singles
| Year | Single | Chart positions | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. | U.S. AC |
|||||
| 1953 | "Just a Gigolo" | 22 | ||||
| "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries" | 26 | |||||
| 1954 | "That's All I Want From You" | 3 | ||||
| 1955 | "Danger! Heartbreak Ahead" | 12 | ||||
| "Softly Softly" | flip | |||||
| "Chee Chee-oo Chee"(with Perry Como) | 12 | |||||
| "Two Lost Souls"(with Perry Como) | 18 | |||||
| "The Longest Walk" | 6 | |||||
| "Swanee" | flip | |||||
| "If You Don't Want My Love" | 12 | |||||
| "Pepper Hot Baby" | 14 | |||||
| "Not One Goodbye" | 48 | |||||
| 1956 | "Get Up! Get Up!" | 83 | ||||
| "Sweet Lips" | 85 | |||||
| "Lost In the Shuffle" | 69 | |||||
| "Play For Keeps" | 79 | |||||
| "Johnny Casanova" | 81 | |||||
| "Just Love Me" | 97 | |||||
| "Mutual Admiration Society"(with Eddy Arnold) | 47 | |||||
| 1959 | "Are You Lonesome Tonight" | 65 | ||||
| "Miss You" | 78 | |||||
| 1960 | "I Walk the Line" | 66 | ||||
| 1962 | "A Heartache Named Johnny" | |||||
| 1970 | "Love of a Gentle Man" | 37 | ||||
| "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life" | 40 | |||||
| 1971 | "A Song For You" | |||||
[edit] References
- ^ TV Is Banking on Jaye P. Morgan
- ^ Tobler, John (1992). NME Rock 'N' Roll Years (1st ed.). London: Reed International Books Ltd. p. 20. CN 5585.
[edit] External links
- The official website of Jaye P. Morgan
- Jaye P. Morgan on the Internet Movie Database
- Biography on the MSN site
- Filmography on the MSN site
- Allmusic
